Chapter 2 - The Man in the LedgerMarcus slammed against the hidden doors.
Locked.
He tried the handles.
Nothing.
“Get back!” Vincent shouted.
Marcus spun around.
“Open it.”
Vincent didn't move.
Susan reached for her phone.
“Call the police.”
Marcus stared at her.
“You're calling them?”
Her thumb froze above the screen.
“You think I'm going to let this continue?”
Arthur gave a weak laugh.
“Too late.”
Marcus turned.
His father was pointing at Susan's pocket.
“What?”
Arthur whispered.
“Her phone.”
Marcus looked at Susan.
She slowly removed it.
Arthur shook his head.
“Not the phone.”
Susan went pale.
“The case.”
Marcus didn't understand.
Arthur pointed again.
“Behind it.”
Eli stepped closer.
Susan backed away.
“Don't.”
But Eli was already watching her.
There was a tiny bulge beneath the phone case.
A memory card.
Marcus took the phone from her.
Then the card.
Susan lunged.
Vincent grabbed her arm.
“Enough.”
Marcus stared at him.
For the first time, Vincent wasn't pretending.
There was fear in his face.
Real fear.
Marcus inserted the card into his own phone.
A folder appeared.
No name.
Only a date.
11 DAYS AGO.
Inside were photographs.
Arthur sleeping in his study.
Arthur entering the library.
Arthur speaking with someone outside the house.
Arthur opening a metal box.
Marcus scrolled faster.
There were dozens.
Hundreds.
Some were taken from inside rooms where nobody should have been standing.
His own bedroom.
The study.
The kitchen.
Eli's room.
Marcus stopped.
A photograph showed Eli asleep.
Taken from the doorway.
Another showed Arthur sitting alone at his desk.
And another showed Susan standing behind him.
Holding a syringe.
Marcus's blood ran cold.
He looked up.
“You drugged him.”
Susan said nothing.
Arthur closed his eyes.
Marcus kept scrolling.
One image was dated nine days ago.
Arthur was conscious.
He was sitting in the hidden room.
A man stood beside him.
Vincent.
In his hand was a folder.
Under the photograph was a note.
REFUSED.
Another image.
REFUSED.
Another.
REFUSED.
Then one final photograph.
Arthur was holding the same signature document Marcus had found.
The note beneath it read:
CHANGE OF HEIR REQUIRED.
Marcus stared at those words.
“What does that mean?”
Susan finally spoke.
“It means your father refused to cooperate.”
Arthur whispered.
“They wanted you.”
Marcus turned.
“Me?”
“They couldn't force me to sign,” Arthur said. “So they needed you to inherit first.”
Marcus looked at the contract again.
A line near the bottom suddenly stood out.
SUCCESSOR: MARCUS CARROW
Susan stepped forward.
“Marcus, listen to me.”
“Don't come closer.”
“You think I'm doing this for money.”
“You kidnapped my father.”
“I protected the family.”
Arthur coughed.
“No.”
Susan glared at him.
Arthur continued.
“She protected herself.”
Vincent grabbed the table.
“Arthur, stop.”
Arthur looked at him.
“You were there.”
Vincent's expression changed.
Marcus looked between them.
“There for what?”
Nobody answered.
Eli spoke quietly.
“Grandpa said find the boy.”
Marcus knelt beside him.
“Do you remember anything else?”
Eli nodded.
“There's a room upstairs.”
Marcus frowned.
“What room?”
“The one Susan told me never to enter.”
Susan went rigid.
Eli continued.
“It doesn't have a door from the hallway.”
Vincent cursed again.
Marcus stood.
“Where?”
“Behind the nursery.”
There had once been a nursery in Calder House.
It had been sealed after Marcus's younger sister died.
Marcus hadn't been inside in fifteen years.
The house suddenly seemed full of places he had never known existed.
He followed Eli upstairs.
Susan shouted after them.
“Marcus, don't.”
He kept moving.
Eli stopped outside the nursery.
The door had been painted over.
Marcus touched the knob.
Locked.
He looked at Eli.
“Where?”
Eli pressed his ear against the wall.
He listened.
Then he pointed left.
“Here.”
Marcus knocked.
Nothing.
He knocked again.
A hollow sound came back.
He peeled away a strip of wallpaper.
Behind it was another seam.
A hidden panel.
His heart pounded.
He pulled.
The wall swung inward.
A narrow staircase descended into darkness.
Marcus stared down.
“Dad knew this existed,” he whispered.
Eli nodded.
“He told me never to come here alone.”
They started down.
The air grew colder.
Halfway to the bottom, Marcus saw writing scratched into the wall.
Names.
Dozens of them.
Some were crossed out.
Some had dates beside them.
Some had only one word.
PAID.
Others said:
MISSING.
At the bottom stood a steel door.
A brass number was bolted to it.
17.
Marcus inserted the key.
The lock turned.
The door opened.
Inside was a room lined with filing cabinets.
A desk sat beneath a bare bulb.
On it was a ledger.
Marcus opened it.
Names.
Dates.
Payments.
Property transfers.
Bribes.
And then he saw something that made his hands go numb.
A section titled:
CALDER HOUSE CASUALTY RECORD
The first entry was dated twenty-three years earlier.
A man's name.
Arthur's brother.
Marcus's uncle.
Status:
ACCIDENT.
The next entry was a woman.
Status:
ACCIDENT.
The next was a teenager.
Status:
ACCIDENT.
Marcus's breathing stopped.
They weren't accidents.
Not according to the ledger.
Every name had a payment beside it.
Every death had a beneficiary.
Every beneficiary was connected to Calder House.
Then Eli whispered:
“Dad.”
Marcus turned.
Eli was pointing at the last page.
There was one name.
One date.
Tomorrow.
MARCUS CARROW.
And beside it was a handwritten note.
MAKE IT LOOK LIKE ARTHUR DID IT.
May you like
Before Marcus could speak, the steel door slammed shut behind them.
And someone began turning the lock from the other side.
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