CHAPTER 12 The Fire Above
The explosion shook the hidden chamber like an earthquake.
Dust poured from the ceiling.
The lights flickered wildly.
Somewhere above them, glass shattered.
Rachel instinctively wrapped both arms around Emma.
Natalie stumbled against the wall, clutching her injured shoulder.
Adrian steadied himself on the edge of the desk.
"What was that?"
No one answered.
Then came another sound.
The unmistakable howl of a fire alarm.
Smoke drifted through the narrow gap beneath the hidden door.
Not thick.
Not yet.
But enough.
Rachel's eyes widened.
"They're burning the house."
Daniel's warning echoed in Adrian's mind.
"Source compromised."
Blackridge hadn't come to steal the evidence anymore.
They had come to erase it.
Completely.
Adrian pocketed Claire's final letter, the second silver key, the microSD card, and the journal.
"We're leaving."
Natalie looked toward the staircase.
"The clock entrance is probably blocked."
Daniel had vanished from the monitors.
The hidden room felt eerily abandoned.
Then Emma tugged on Adrian's jacket.
"Not that way."
He looked down.
"Which way?"
She pointed toward the back wall.
"The garden."
Adrian frowned.
"There isn't a garden down here."
Emma smiled.
"There is if you keep walking."
They searched the room.
Blueprints.
Shelves.
Old equipment.
Nothing.
Then Adrian noticed something he'd overlooked.
One blueprint wasn't a blueprint at all.
It was a painting.
A watercolor of Claire's rose garden.
Beautiful.
Ordinary.
Except...
One rose had been painted blue.
Claire had never grown blue roses.
He lifted the frame.
Behind it was a hidden lever.
He pulled.
A low rumble echoed through the chamber.
Part of the stone wall slowly slid aside.
A narrow brick tunnel stretched into darkness.
Cool air flowed through it.
Fresh air.
Rachel whispered,
"She built an escape route."
Natalie shook her head.
"No."
"She planned for one."
They hurried through the tunnel.
Behind them, another muffled explosion echoed through the mansion.
The smoke grew thicker.
Emma held Adrian's hand now instead of Rachel's.
Oddly...
She wasn't frightened.
She looked almost relieved.
After nearly a hundred yards, the tunnel ended beneath an old wrought-iron hatch.
Adrian pushed.
It didn't move.
He shoved harder.
With a groan of rusted hinges, it finally opened.
Morning sunlight spilled inside.
Fresh air filled their lungs.
They climbed out...
Into the middle of Claire's rose garden.
Or what remained of it.
Most of the flowers had withered after her death.
Only one section still bloomed.
Blue hydrangeas surrounded an old stone bench.
Rachel looked back.
Smoke poured from the mansion roof.
Flames licked through the upper windows.
Fire engines were just arriving beyond the gates.
Natalie frowned.
"They got here fast."
Adrian watched the driveway.
Too fast.
Almost as if someone had reported the fire before it started.
Sirens echoed across the estate.
Police cars followed the fire trucks.
Then black SUVs.
Not police.
Not firefighters.
Government plates.
Three suited men stepped out.
One of them wore dark sunglasses despite the cloudy morning.
He spoke briefly with the police chief.
The chief nodded immediately.
Rachel whispered,
"They're here already."
Daniel had been right.
Blackridge's influence reached everywhere.
Adrian looked around the garden.
Something caught his eye.
The old stone bench.
Claire used to sit there every Sunday morning with coffee and a book.
Carved into one corner was a tiny bluebird.
He'd never noticed it before.
Emma let go of his hand.
She walked straight to the bench.
Then crouched beside it.
"The lady cried here."
Rachel knelt beside her.
"What are you looking at?"
Emma touched a loose stone beneath the bench.
"It wiggles."
Adrian dropped beside her.
He pressed the stone.
Nothing.
He pushed harder.
The stone slid backward.
Revealing a narrow cavity.
Inside lay a weatherproof metal tube.
Adrian removed it carefully.
His pulse quickened.
Inside the tube...
Was another envelope.
And...
A gold wedding ring.
Claire's.
The ring she'd been wearing the night she died.
Everyone froze.
Police records had claimed the ring was destroyed in the crash.
It hadn't been.
Claire had hidden it herself.
Wrapped around the ring...
Was a tiny strip of folded paper.
Adrian unfolded it carefully.
Only one sentence.
If you found my ring, it means they destroyed the wrong evidence.
Natalie frowned.
"What does that mean?"
Before Adrian could answer...
A voice came from behind them.
"You finally found it."
Everyone spun around.
Standing at the edge of the rose garden...
Hands raised peacefully...
Was Daniel Mercer.
Alive.
No hood.
No weapon drawn.
His clothes were soaked from the rain.
A fresh bandage wrapped around his right arm.
He looked exhausted.
But determined.
Adrian stepped in front of Rachel and Emma.
"You've got five seconds."
Daniel nodded.
"Fair."
He slowly reached into his jacket.
Natalie tensed.
Daniel pulled out...
A faded photograph.
He tossed it gently onto the stone bench.
Adrian picked it up.
It showed Claire.
Daniel.
And...
A third person.
The gray-haired man.
All three were smiling.
The photograph had been taken nearly ten years earlier.
On the back, Claire had written:
We were never enemies.
Adrian stared at Daniel.
"What is this?"
Daniel met his eyes.
"The truth."
He took a slow breath.
"The man you've been hunting..."
"...was Claire's brother."
Silence.
Rachel blinked.
Natalie shook her head.
"Claire never had a brother."
Daniel's expression darkened.
"That's what everyone believes."
He looked toward the burning mansion.
"Because Blackridge erased him."
Adrian's voice was barely audible.
"Erased..."
Daniel nodded.
"They erased his identity."
"They erased every official record."
"They erased every photograph."
"Except the ones Claire managed to hide."
He pointed at the picture in Adrian's hand.
"That's Elias."
"Claire's older brother."
"And the man who spent twenty years trying to destroy Blackridge from the inside."
A cold wind swept through the ruined rose garden.
Then Daniel said the words that changed everything:
"And if Blackridge learns you've recovered that photograph..."
May you like
"...everyone standing in this garden will be dead before sunset."
END OF CHAPTER 12
