Chapter 4 - The Men Upstairs
Rachel didn’t ask who the men were.
She grabbed Leo’s hand and ran.
Melissa followed.
Victor pushed the steel door open.
“Inside!”
Elaine hesitated.
“Victor—”
“Move!”
Heavy footsteps thundered down the basement stairs.
Leo slipped through the doorway.
Rachel came after him.
Victor and Elaine squeezed inside last.
Victor slammed the door.
Darkness swallowed them.
Rachel turned on the flashlight.
They stood in a narrow stone tunnel.
Leo stared.
“This is under the house?”
Victor was breathing hard.
Rachel grabbed his jacket.
“Who are those men?”
Victor pulled away.
“Not now.”
“Now.”
“They work for somebody Dad owed money to.”
Elaine snapped, “Stop talking.”
Rachel looked from one to the other.
“You both knew something was happening before Dad disappeared.”
Victor rubbed his face.
“Yes.”
Melissa stared at him.
“You let us think he drowned.”
“I thought he did.”
“Bull.”
The steel door shook behind them.
Someone was trying the handle.
Victor lowered his voice.
“We need to move.”
Leo studied the tunnel.
Red marks appeared along the wall.
Grandpa’s trail.
He followed them.
The passage curved beneath the mansion and ended at a small storage room.
Shelves held bottled water, canned food, batteries, blankets, and medical supplies.
Rachel picked up one package.
“This was bought recently.”
Leo noticed a plastic cup sitting on a table.
Beside it was a prescription bottle.
HENRY CALDWELL.
Filled five days ago.
Rachel stared at the label.
“He was here.”
Melissa started crying again.
Victor sat down hard.
“Oh, Dad.”
Rachel spun toward him.
“You knew about this room?”
“No.”
“Stop lying.”
“I knew Dad had hiding places. Not this one.”
A violent bang echoed through the tunnel.
The men were attacking the steel door.
Leo kept searching.
Grandpa always hid answers inside ordinary things.
He noticed a chessboard on the table.
The pieces were arranged strangely.
White king on E1.
Black king on E8.
One red pawn.
Leo frowned.
“Grandpa hated red chess pieces.”
Rachel looked over.
“What?”
Leo lifted the pawn.
A tiny key was taped beneath it.
He tried it on a metal drawer built into the table.
It opened.
Inside was a voice recorder.
And a photograph.
Leo lifted the picture.
Grandpa Henry stood beside Victor.
The date on the back was one week before Henry vanished.
Both men were outside the old pump house.
Victor’s face drained.
Rachel held the photo toward him.
“You were there.”
Victor closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
A bang shook the tunnel again.
Dust fell from the ceiling.
Victor looked at Leo.
“Your grandfather asked me to help him disappear.”
Rachel stepped closer.
“Why?”
Victor’s eyes moved to the recorder.
“Because he found out someone in this family had been stealing from him for years.”
Leo pressed PLAY.
Grandpa Henry’s voice filled the room.
“If Victor brought you here, he finally made the right choice.”
Victor exhaled.
Then Henry continued.
“But if Elaine is with him, you are already in danger.”
May you like
Everyone turned.
Elaine was gone.
