Chapter 12 - The Nursery Hides Eleanor’s First Crime
They reached the mansion at 11:06 p.m.
Forty-four minutes until midnight.
Daniel found Lily asleep in Vanessa’s arms inside the security office.
He lifted his daughter and held her until she woke.
“Daddy?”
“I’m here.”
“Grandma left.”
“I know.”
“She said she had to fix something.”
Daniel kissed her forehead.
“No more fixing things alone.”
He gave strict orders: Lily would remain with Vanessa and four guards in
the reinforced security room.
Then Daniel, Rachel, Charles, and Marcus entered the library.
Rachel stopped at the threshold.
“This room looks different.”
Daniel looked at her.
“You were here before?”
“Once. With Evelyn.”
Another piece of his marriage he had never known.
Marcus went to the north wall.
Floor-to-ceiling shelves held legal volumes no one read.
He removed three books and pressed a recessed brass switch.
Nothing happened.
Charles watched.
“The mechanism needs power.”
Marcus looked at him.
“You know.”
Charles walked to the fireplace and turned an ornamental key.
A motor hummed.
The bookshelf moved.
Behind it was a narrow doorway.
Daniel stared at his father.
“You were going to let us waste time?”
“I was hoping you’d reconsider.”
Daniel pushed past him.
The hidden nursery looked untouched since the late 1980s.
Faded wallpaper.
A wooden crib.
Stuffed animals yellowed with age.
A rocking horse.
On one wall, someone had drawn hundreds of small vertical marks.
Daniel moved closer.
Dates.
1988.
1989.
Some marks had words beside them.
HE CAME AGAIN.
CHARLES HEARD ME.
DAD SAYS I’M SICK.
DANIEL CRIED ALL NIGHT.
Daniel touched his own name.
“This was Eleanor’s room?”
Charles nodded.
“After you were born.”
“Why was she locked in here?”
Charles looked away.
Daniel understood.
“Your father imprisoned her.”
“For periods.”
“Because she found Northstar?”
“Yes.”
Rachel examined a desk.
“She documented everything.”
Marcus pulled open a floor vent.
Inside was a waterproof case.
“My recordings.”
He removed several memory cards.
Rachel checked them on a laptop.
Audio files filled the screen.
Years of conversations.
Eleanor threatening Sophie.
Ordering Marcus to track Rachel.
Demanding information about Charles.
Enough to build a case.
Daniel looked at Marcus.
“You had this evidence and never used it?”
“She told me Sophie would die the moment police moved.”
Rachel nodded reluctantly.
“He needed to know where Sophie was first.”
Charles stood near the crib.
His face had changed.
Daniel noticed.
“What?”
Charles pointed at the mattress.
A brown stain marked one corner.
“Eleanor gave birth to you in this room.”
Daniel stared.
“What?”
“Our father refused to take her to a hospital.”
“Why?”
“He didn’t want records.”
Daniel’s stomach turned.
“Who was my father?”
Charles closed his eyes.
“I don’t know.”
“That’s a lie.”
“I swear.”
Rachel had been searching the desk.
She found a photograph taped beneath a drawer.
“Daniel.”
He took it.
Eleanor stood beside a young man.
The man’s face had been scratched out.
On the back:
HE PROMISED TO HELP ME EXPOSE THEM.
C.M. KILLED HIM.
Daniel looked at Charles.
“C.M.”
Charles stared at the photograph.
“That wasn’t me.”
“Your initials.”
“Yes.”
“Who else?”
Charles said nothing.
Rachel suddenly looked toward the wall markings.
“Charles Mercer.”
She pointed at another line.
GRANDFATHER C.M. TOOK THE BABY.
Daniel frowned.
“Your father had the same initials.”
Charles nodded.
“Calvin Mercer.”
Daniel looked again at the photograph.
“Calvin killed my father?”
“I think so.”
A faint electronic beep interrupted them.
Marcus checked his phone.
“Movement in the east corridor.”
Daniel looked at the security feed.
A figure wearing a dark coat walked toward the library.
Evelyn.
She entered seconds later.
“Mom.”
Daniel rushed to her.
“You said not to follow you.”
“I was wrong about where Eleanor was going.”
“Where is she?”
Evelyn looked around the nursery.
“She’s already here.”
Everyone went still.
Marcus drew his weapon.
“Where?”
Evelyn pointed toward the crib.
Daniel frowned.
Then he heard it.
A faint vibration beneath the floor.
Marcus moved the crib.
Underneath was a metal hatch.
Charles stared.
“I never knew that was there.”
Evelyn knelt and opened it.
A ladder descended into darkness.
Cold air rose from below.
Daniel shone a flashlight.
An underground passage stretched beneath the mansion.
Lily’s voice suddenly came through Daniel’s phone.
Not a call.
The mansion intercom app.
“Daddy?”
Daniel grabbed it.
“Lily?”
A woman laughed softly in the background.
Daniel’s blood froze.
Then Eleanor spoke.
“You finally found my room, son.”
Daniel ran toward the security office.
May you like
Eleanor continued through the speaker.
“Now come find your daughter.”
