Chapter 5 - THE VOICE BENEATH THE HOUSE
“That’s impossible,” Adrian said.
Clara shook violently.
“I know my mother’s voice.”
Another scream echoed through the underground corridor.
“Clara!”
This time everyone heard the name.
Clara tore away from Adrian.
“Mom!”
She ran.
“Clara!”
Adrian followed.
The corridor turned twice before opening into a stone chamber.
An old speaker sat on a table.
Clara stopped.
Her mother’s voice came from it again.
“Clara, if you’re hearing this—”
A recording.
Clara stared at the machine.
Samuel had found an old cassette and connected it to a portable speaker.
The voice continued.
“—then Richard failed to destroy everything.”
Clara approached slowly.
Victoria entered behind them.
Her face changed when she heard Eleanor Bennett.
The recording crackled.
“I don’t know who will find this. I don’t know how old my daughter will be. But the truth must survive.”
Then the recording stopped.
The tape had been cut.
Clara grabbed the speaker.
“No. No!”
A slow clap came from the darkness.
Samuel stepped into view.
Cole stood beside him.
Two other armed men appeared behind them.
“Touching,” Samuel said.
Adrian raised his gun.
So did Marcus.
Samuel smiled.
“You’re outnumbered.”
Adrian glanced behind him.
His security men were gone.
Marcus whispered, “They separated us deliberately.”
Samuel nodded.
“Still sharp.”
“What did Eleanor say on the rest of the tape?” Clara demanded.
Samuel smiled at her.
“Give me the key.”
“Go to hell.”
“Your mother said similar things.”
Clara lunged.
Adrian caught her.
Samuel laughed.
“You have her temper.”
“Did you kill her?”
Samuel’s face changed.
“No.”
“Liar!”
“I had no reason to kill Eleanor after Richard died.”
“You killed my father.”
“Yes.”
Silence.
Even Marcus looked surprised by the admission.
Clara stared at Samuel.
“You—”
“Thomas Bennett was going to federal authorities.”
Samuel spoke as casually as if discussing weather.
“He had copies of ledgers containing names that would have destroyed dozens of people.”
“So you murdered him.”
“I protected myself.”
Clara’s eyes filled with tears.
“You destroyed my life.”
Samuel shrugged.
“Life does that without assistance.”
Adrian stepped forward.
“Give me one reason not to kill you.”
“Because you need me.”
“For what?”
“To understand what your father really left you.”
Samuel looked toward Victoria.
“Tell him.”
Victoria remained silent.
“Tell him what’s inside the vault.”
Adrian looked at her.
“Mother?”
Victoria’s face revealed the answer.
She knew.
Samuel smiled.
“There are no stacks of money down here. No gold. No jewels.”
He pointed toward the sealed steel door at the far end of the chamber.
“Behind that door is the Blackwood archive.”
Adrian frowned.
“Records.”
“Every judge Richard bought. Every officer he bribed. Every politician he owned. Every company used to wash money. Every murder authorized under the Blackwood name.”
Samuel’s eyes gleamed.
“Enough evidence to bury half this city.”
Adrian looked at his mother.
“You knew?”
“I knew Richard kept records.”
“Why didn’t you destroy them?”
“I couldn’t find the vault after he died.”
Samuel laughed.
“She’s lying.”
Victoria glared at him.
Samuel continued.
“She knew exactly where it was.”
“Why keep it?” Adrian asked.
Victoria’s voice broke.
“Because it was insurance.”
“Against whom?”
“Everyone.”
Adrian looked at her as though he did not recognize her.
“You let me spend twenty years rebuilding our name while that existed?”
“I was protecting you.”
“From what?”
“Your father’s enemies.”
“You were protecting his secrets.”
“I was protecting my son!”
The force of her voice triggered another coughing fit.
Clara rushed to her.
Adrian stood frozen.
Victoria regained her breath.
“When Richard died, men came to this house pretending to offer condolences. Every one of them wanted to know what he had told me. Judges. businessmen. criminals. They smiled at you during the funeral while calculating whether killing a seventeen-year-old boy would protect them.”
Adrian remembered.
He had thought they were showing respect.
“They left us alive,” Victoria whispered, “because I told them Richard’s archive would be released if anything happened to us.”
Adrian finally understood.
The vault had been the reason he survived long enough to become powerful.
Samuel stepped closer.
“And now I want it.”
“Why?”
“Because times change.”
Samuel smiled.
“Some of the men named in those files are dead. Others are still very powerful.”
“You’re blackmailing them.”
“I prefer retirement planning.”
Clara stood.
“You’re not getting the key.”
Samuel sighed.
“Then perhaps Victoria dies a little sooner than expected.”
Cole raised his weapon toward her.
Adrian fired.
The underground chamber exploded with noise.
Cole’s gun flew from his hand.
Marcus fired at one of Samuel’s men.
Clara pushed Victoria behind a stone pillar.
Samuel disappeared through a side passage.
Adrian chased him.
“Adrian!” Marcus shouted.
But he kept running.
He caught Samuel at a stairwell.
The older man swung a metal bar.
Adrian blocked it and drove his shoulder into Samuel’s chest.
They crashed against the wall.
Samuel was older.
Adrian was stronger.
But Samuel fought like a man who had survived decades by expecting betrayal.
He drove a knife toward Adrian.
Adrian caught his wrist.
“You really think you’re different from Richard?” Samuel hissed.
“I know I am.”
“You carry a gun. Men fear your name. People disappear when they cross you.”
Adrian slammed his wrist against the stone.
The knife dropped.
“Maybe.”
He punched Samuel.
“But tonight you’re going to court.”
Samuel laughed through blood.
“You still don’t understand.”
He pressed something in his pocket.
A timer beeped.
Adrian froze.
“Bomb.”
Samuel smiled.
“Your father always believed secrets should die with the family.”
Adrian punched him unconscious and dragged him back.
“Everybody out!”
Marcus heard the warning.
They rushed toward the stairs.
Clara pushed Victoria’s wheelchair.
Then the ceiling shook.
Dust fell.
A blast sounded somewhere behind them.
The underground lights died.
“Move!”
Adrian grabbed the wheelchair and carried Victoria up the steps while Clara helped.
They reached the surface seconds before a section of the ruins collapsed.
The ground shook.
Clara screamed.
Then silence.
Snow fell through the darkness.
Adrian counted people.
Victoria.
Clara.
Marcus.
Two security men.
Samuel.
Cole.
Someone was missing.
“The nurse,” Clara said.
Adrian turned.
Victoria’s nurse had not escaped.
Clara ran toward the entrance.
Adrian caught her.
“No.”
“She’s down there!”
“The tunnel is collapsing.”
“We can’t leave her!”
Another explosion shook the ruins.
Adrian held Clara as stones fell.
Then they heard something from beneath the rubble.
A woman coughing.
Adrian looked at Marcus.
Together they moved stones until they found the nurse.
Alive.
They pulled her free.
For one moment, everyone simply breathed.
Then Victoria whispered, “The key.”
Clara reached for her neck.
Nothing.
Her expression changed.
“It’s gone.”
Adrian looked toward Samuel.
The unconscious man’s coat pocket was empty.
May you like
Cole was gone.
And somewhere in the snowy darkness, he now had the only key capable of opening Richard Blackwood’s archive.
