Chapter 7 - THE FIRST LOCKED ROOM
Adrian’s message shifted suspicion backward.
William’s father, Charles Sterling, built the hidden chamber during a period of kidnapping threats against the family. It was meant as a secure refuge connected to a service escape route.
After the threats ended, Charles ordered it sealed.
Adrian knew it remained functional.
That did not prove he helped Isabella.
Police traced his car to a private charter terminal, but no passenger record showed his name.
My suspension became termination after the Sterling estate claimed I violated computer policy. The severance offer required silence.
I refused it.
Without staff housing or salary, I moved into my cousin’s spare room and took temporary cleaning work at a medical office.
My decision to access the floor plan had cost me credibility and income.
It had also left me with one useful image.
The service tunnel ended near a room marked C-4.
William said no such room existed.
Ethan did.
During therapy, he drew a narrow bed beneath a green ceiling.
“That was before the ballroom wall,” he said.
Isabella had confined him somewhere else during earlier “games.”
He remembered Adrian bringing food once.
He remembered hearing water beneath the floor.
The estate had an old pump house near the ornamental lake.
Its ceiling was painted green.
Police searched it under warrant.
The room was empty, recently cleaned, and connected to the mansion by a disused utility tunnel.
On the floor they found a torn strip of paper.
Only four words remained:
Emma takes the child.
The ransom note in my locker had not been created after Ethan disappeared.
It had been rehearsed.
Then Detective Brooks found traces of my fingerprints on the paper.
I had never touched it.
May you like
But I had handled hundreds of sheets in the executive library while cleaning.
Someone had used paper taken from a stack I had touched.
