Chapter 9 - The Voice Beneath the House
The voice came again, weaker this time.“Avery, if you’re there, do not open the door.”Avery moved toward the bricks. “Mom?”Sarah caught her arm. “Wait.”Jonah raised his phone and began recording. “We need to know whether this is a person or a speaker.”Mark examined the wall. “There’s a wire.”He pointed to a thin black line disappearing into the mortar.The voice repeated itself, exactly as before.“It’s a recording,” Sarah said.Avery’s face crumpled, then hardened. “He knew I would come.”“Hal,” Mark said.“Or someone who wants us to think it is Hal.”That possibility settled over them.Jonah called the police. While they waited, Sarah searched the niches. In the second, beneath a layer of dust, she found a brass key stamped with the number seven.In the seventh niche was a small ledger wrapped in oilcloth.The first pages contained names of nurses, dates, and scholarship amounts. The later pages showed transfers to shell companies.At the bottom of every page was the same initial: H.W.Sarah turned to Mark. “This proves Hal managed the money.”“It proves someone used his initials.”“You are still defending him?”“I’m telling you not to assume the first answer is the whole answer.”The police arrived with a uniformed officer and a detective named Lena Ortiz. Sarah gave them the recording, the ledger, and the photograph.Detective Ortiz examined the passage. “Who owns the property?”“Sarah and Mark Whitaker,” Jonah said.“Who knew about the tunnel?”Mark answered, “My family.”“That includes you.”“Yes.”“And Avery Vale?”“She knew about the old plans.”Ortiz looked at Avery. “Were you inside the house before tonight?”“Yes.”“How many times?”“Twice.”“Without permission?”“Mark let me in.”Ortiz studied Mark. “Can anyone confirm that?”“I can,” Sarah said.“You were present?”“No.”“Then your information is secondhand.”Mark stepped forward. “I gave her access.”Ortiz wrote something in her notebook. “Why?”“To help her find evidence.”“Evidence of what?”“Fraud.”“Against whom?”“My uncle.”The detective’s gaze moved to the ledger.“We will take copies,” she said. “The original stays here until a warrant is issued.”After the officers left, Sarah put Leo to bed at Priya’s apartment. She returned alone to the kitchen, where Mark was sitting with his head in his hands.“The police think you and Avery broke into the house,” she said.“They did.”“You did.”“Yes.”“What else have you not told me?”Mark looked up. “I transferred money to Avery.”Sarah’s chest tightened. “How much?”“Twelve thousand dollars.”“Why?”“She had been living under another name. Hal cut off the funds he used to support her.”“Hal supported her?”“He paid for the boarding school.”“To keep her quiet?”“I don’t know.”“Where did your money come from?”“A personal account.”“The one you never mentioned?”“I opened it after Claire disappeared.”Sarah laughed bitterly. “You have an account, a hidden passage, a secret contact, and an entire family history you never thought I needed.”“I thought I was protecting you.”“Protection without truth is just control.”Mark nodded as if she had struck him.His phone rang. He looked at the screen and did not answer.A message followed.Bring the ledger to River House by dawn, or Sarah learns what you did to Claire.Sarah read it over his shoulder.“What did you do?” she asked.Mark stood.“Nothing,” he said.“That is not what the message says.”“I don’t know what it means.”“Then we go to Detective Ortiz.”“If we do, Hal will know we have the ledger.”“He already knows.”The kitchen window shattered.Sarah ducked as glass scattered across the floor. A dark object struck the wall and fell beside the sink.It was a small wooden music-box cylinder.A note had been wrapped around it.Four-three-seven. Come alone.Sarah looked at Mark.“Now,” she said, “we stop hiding.”
