Chapter 16 - The Room Beneath the Nursery.
The knocking stopped the moment Detective Ortiz moved toward the center of the nursery.
Maya crouched and pressed her palm against the floor.
The wood felt cold.
Jonathan looked around the room as if seeing his own house for the first time.
“There is no basement under this wing.”
Maya glanced at him.
“You also thought there was no room behind the west hallway wall.”
He had no answer.
Ortiz ordered everyone back while officers searched for a hidden access point.
They found it beneath the old window seat.
Behind the compartment that had held Evelyn's letter was a second metal latch.
The tiny brass key fit it.
A section of floor lifted on concealed hinges.
Stone steps descended into darkness.
The air below smelled of dust, damp wood, and something faintly floral.
Celeste's perfume.
Ortiz drew her weapon and ordered Maya and Jonathan to remain upstairs.
Maya obeyed for almost thirty seconds.
Then an officer called from below.
“Detective, you need to see this.”
The room beneath the nursery was larger than Noah's hidden compartment but just as secret.
It had once been a storm shelter.
Evelyn had converted it into a private records room.
Shelves lined the stone walls.
A small desk sat beneath an emergency lamp.
On the desk was Evelyn's old camera.
Beside it lay Celeste's missing diamond earring.
Jonathan whispered her name.
Ortiz examined the dust near the far wall.
Fresh footprints led to an iron door.
The door stood open.
Beyond it was a narrow service tunnel running toward the south gardens.
Celeste had been beneath them minutes earlier.
Maya looked back at the camera.
“Why leave this?”
Ortiz did not answer.
A small red light blinked on the camera body.
The device was recording.
Maya felt every hair on her arms rise.
“She wanted us to find it.”
The camera screen suddenly illuminated.
A video began playing automatically.
Celeste appeared on screen wearing the blue gown from the gala.
One diamond earring was missing.
She was sitting in the same underground room.
“If you are watching this,” she said calmly, “Jonathan has finally learned to search his own house.”
Jonathan stepped closer.
Celeste continued.
“You will hear many accusations today.”
“You will hear that I forged records, manipulated Noah, and stole from the foundation.”
“Some of that is true.”
Maya stared at the screen.
Jonathan whispered, “What?”
Celeste smiled faintly in the recording.
“But the part Evelyn never understood was that I did not create the Hawthorne family's sickness.”
“I learned how to use it.”
The video cut to black.
Then a second file began.
This one was three years old.
Evelyn sat in the same room, thinner and visibly ill.
Celeste stood opposite her.
“You changed the trust,” Evelyn said.
“I corrected it,” Celeste replied.
“You used Jonathan's signature.”
“He signed it.”
“He did not understand it.”
Celeste leaned closer.
“Then perhaps your husband should read.”
Jonathan staggered backward.
The video continued.
Evelyn's voice shook with anger.
“If you ever use Noah to get control of those shares, I will destroy you.”
Celeste smiled.
“You may not be here long enough.”
The recording ended.
Silence filled the underground room.
Then Maya noticed something taped beneath the camera.
A fresh note.
May you like
It contained only four words.
MAYA, BRING THE DRIVE ALONE.
