Chapter 11 - THE BLACK ROOM
The Black Room was beneath the Costello mansion.
Not the hidden room.
Not the archive.
Something deeper.
Arthur showed me an old blueprint.
A tunnel ran beneath the estate and connected to three properties.
The final chamber sat beneath the oldest section of the mansion.
“Why hasn't anyone found it?” I asked.
“Because no one except Gabriel knew it existed.”
“You're going in anyway.”
“Yes.”
“With me.”
Arthur shook his head.
“No.”
“You need me.”
“That is exactly why you're staying behind.”
I grabbed his coat.
“My mother is down there.”
“I know.”
“My brother is going.”
“I know.”
“Then I'm going.”
Arthur stared at me.
Something softened.
“You're impossible.”
“So I've been told.”
We entered through the boiler room.
My old room.
The same narrow bed.
The same pipes.
The same walls.
But Arthur opened a valve.
A section of floor moved.
A staircase disappeared into darkness.
At the bottom was a steel hallway.
Red lights.
Cameras.
The smell of wet concrete.
Evan walked beside me.
Arthur behind us.
“Stay close,” he said.
We reached the first door.
It opened automatically.
Inside were files.
Hundreds.
Photographs.
Hospital records.
Surveillance tapes.
I saw myself.
At sixteen.
At eighteen.
At twenty-two.
The Costellos had been watching me for years.
I felt sick.
Arthur's voice came quietly.
“I didn't know.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“Yes.”
That honesty made it worse.
Evan found another file.
“Norah.”
I took it.
My father.
My mother.
Arthur.
Gabriel.
Every event had been recorded.
Then we found the final folder.
THOMAS HAYES.
Inside was one page.
I read it.
SUBJECT REFUSED TO DISCLOSE LOCATION OF PRIMARY LEDGER.
Secondary threat: daughter.
Recommendation: fabricate medical debt.
My hands shook.
“He did this.”
Arthur nodded.
“Gabriel.”
“No.”
I looked at him.
“My debt started after Gabriel died.”
Arthur froze.
He took the page.
The date was clear.
The order had been issued two years after Gabriel's reported death.
Arthur whispered,
“Then he really did survive.”
A sound came from the speakers.
“Not exactly.”
A man's voice.
I recognized it.
The voice from the church.
The man who raised Evan.
Evan's face drained.
“Mr. Vale.”
Arthur pulled me behind him.
A figure emerged from the darkness.
Older.
Elegant.
A white scar crossed his neck.
He smiled.
“Arthur.”
Arthur raised his gun.
Vale laughed.
“You still think guns decide this.”
“Where is my mother?”
Vale pointed toward the next room.
“Alive.”
“Let her go.”
“No.”
Vale looked at me.
“Thomas made one mistake.”
“What?”
“He believed Arthur could become a good man.”
Arthur's jaw tightened.
Vale continued.
“Your father was brilliant.”
“He was murdered.”
“He was inconvenient.”
Vale stepped closer.
“Do you know what he hid?”
I said nothing.
“The true ledger.”
Arthur stared.
“The ledger doesn't exist.”
“Oh, it exists.”
Vale smiled.
“And it is hidden in a place only Norah can reach.”
My stomach turned.
“Where?”
Vale whispered,
“In the walls of the room where Thomas taught you to read.”
My childhood home.
Of course.
Vale lifted a small remote.
“Bring me the ledger.”
“No.”
“Then your mother dies.”
Evan stepped forward.
“I'll get it.”
Vale shook his head.
“No.”
He looked at me.
“You.”
The remote clicked.
A screen appeared.
My mother was tied to a chair.
A gun pressed against her head.
Vale smiled.
“You have twenty minutes.”
Arthur turned toward me.
“Don't do it.”
I stared at the screen.
My mother was crying.
Then she suddenly shouted,
“Norah! Don't trust him!”
Vale slapped her.
I screamed.
Arthur grabbed my arm.
“Wait.”
My mother's eyes widened.
She was trying to tell us something.
I watched closely.
Her lips moved.
No sound.
Three words.
THE FLOORS.
I looked at Arthur.
“The floors.”
He understood.
“The basement.”
My old basement room.
Where Arthur had first come to me.
The place where my father had hidden everything.
Arthur whispered,
“He didn't hide the ledger in the walls.”
I nodded.
“He hid it under my bed.”
The lights went out.
When they came back on, Arthur was gone.
So was Evan.
May you like
Vale stood behind me.
“Now you're alone.”
