Chapter 3 - The House Without Witnesses

Darkness transformed the music room.

Maya heard Elias’s chair shift behind her.

“Don’t move,” he said.

“I’m the one standing.”

“That is exactly why I said it.”

She reached into her pocket for her phone.

No signal.

The emergency lighting in the corridor did not come on.

“That’s not normal,” Maya whispered.

“No.”

Elias’s voice was calm now, the kind of calm that frightened her more than panic would have.

“Someone cut power to this wing.”

Maya found the flashlight on her phone.

The narrow beam crossed old sheet music and the polished curve of the piano.

She went back to the door and tested the knob again.

Locked.

“Can Nathan lock individual rooms electronically?”

“This door predates electricity.”

“Then someone used a key.”

“Yes.”

Maya turned.

“Who else knows we’re here?”

“You.”

“And you.”

“And apparently whoever was listening in the corridor earlier.”

Maya thought of the shadow she had not seen but felt after telling Elias about Samuel.

Elias placed the flash drive inside his jacket.

“Is there another exit?”

“The servants’ stair used to connect behind the instrument cabinets.”

“Used to?”

“Nathan renovated.”

Maya pointed the light toward the east wall.

“Then let’s see how much history survived him.”

They found the hidden panel behind a row of empty cello cases. The passage beyond was narrow and sloped downward.

Elias looked at it.

Maya looked at his chair.

“No.”

“What?” he said.

“You’re thinking of transferring.”

“I can use my arms.”

“That staircase is steep.”

“So is being trapped in a room with someone cutting the power.”

Maya swallowed.

“I can get help.”

“And leave me?”

“I’ll come back.”

“No.”

His refusal was immediate.

Maya stared at him.

“Mr. Johnson—”

“Elias.”

“This is not the moment.”

“It is exactly the moment. If we are going to crawl through a wall together, formal titles are ridiculous.”

Despite herself, she laughed.

Then a sound came from the door.

Metal against metal.

Someone was unlocking it.

Maya shut off her flashlight.

Elias whispered, “Behind the piano.”

They moved as quietly as possible. Maya guided the chair into shadow.

The door opened.

A flashlight beam swept across the room.

A man entered.

Maya recognized him.

Calvin Reed, Nathan’s head of security.

He walked directly to the phonograph cabinet.

“He knows,” she breathed.

Elias touched her wrist.

Wait.

Calvin opened the cabinet and cursed softly when he saw the empty box.

He raised a radio.

“It’s gone.”

A voice crackled back.

“Then find them.”

Nathan.

Maya felt Elias stiffen.

Calvin turned toward the door.

Elias rolled forward.

“You can stop looking.”

Calvin spun.

Maya moved between them.

Elias’s voice was colder than she had ever heard it.

“Tell Nathan I have Samuel Collins’s evidence.”

Calvin stared at him.

“You should not have come up here.”

“That is not an answer.”

“I’m trying to protect you.”

“By locking me in a room?”

Calvin glanced at Maya.

“You do not understand what she brought into this house.”

Maya snapped, “My father brought evidence.”

“He brought trouble.”

Elias’s hands tightened on the wheels.

“Did Nathan order my car sabotaged?”

Calvin’s face remained unreadable.

“I don’t know.”

“But you know something.”

Calvin lowered the flashlight.

“I know that six years ago Nathan told me never to allow Samuel Collins near you.”

Maya’s breath caught.

“Why?”

“He said Samuel was trying to extort the company.”

“That was a lie.”

“Maybe.”

Elias said, “And tonight?”

Calvin looked toward the door.

“He told me to retrieve whatever you found before you saw it.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“Because he also told me to call Dr. Bell.”

Elias went very still.

Maya frowned.

“What does Dr. Bell have to do with security?”

Calvin looked at Elias.

“You know.”

Elias whispered, “Sedation.”

Maya turned to him.

“What?”

“After the crash, whenever I became agitated about inconsistencies, Dr. Bell increased my medication.”

Calvin nodded once.

“He is on his way.”

Maya’s anger rose.

“You locked us in here so a doctor could drug him?”

“I locked you in here because Nathan told me there was a thief in the east wing.”

“And then?” Elias asked.

Calvin looked ashamed.

“Then I heard him call Bell.”

The silence stretched.

Elias said, “Help us leave.”

Calvin hesitated.

“Sir—”

“Help us leave, Calvin.”

Calvin stepped aside.

They did not use the main elevator. Calvin led them down a service stair that connected to the garage.

At the bottom, Maya stopped.

“My things are upstairs.”

“You are not going back,” Elias said.

“My father’s photograph—”

“It is with me.”

She looked at him.

He had tucked the plastic sleeve inside his jacket beside the flash drive.

“Why?”

“Because Nathan watched you more closely after you showed it.”

Calvin unlocked a black sedan.

“You need somewhere he does not control.”

Elias laughed bitterly.

“That excludes my house, my office, my doctor, and apparently my security.”

Maya thought for a moment.

“My mother’s apartment.”

“No,” Elias said.

“She’s been dead four years. The lease is still in my name. Nathan won’t know it.”

Calvin handed Maya the keys.

“I’ll tell them you threatened me and escaped.”

Elias looked at him.

“That may cost you your job.”

Calvin opened the garage door.

“It may save what is left of my conscience.”

They drove through the city in silence.

At Maya’s old apartment, Elias waited while she carried the chair up using the building’s ancient lift.

Inside, dust covered the furniture.

Maya opened a cabinet and found an old laptop.

Elias inserted Samuel’s flash drive.

The first file was a warehouse security video.

Grainy footage showed Elias’s Aston Martin being delivered to Hawthorne Fleet Services the night before the crash.

A mechanic walked away.

Three minutes later, Nathan Hawthorne entered the frame.

He looked around.

Then another man joined him.

Dr. Bell.

Maya whispered, “Your doctor.”

The video had no sound.

Nathan opened the hood.

Bell handed him something.

A small tool.

The image was too poor to show exactly what happened next.

But fifteen minutes later Nathan closed the hood.

Maya stopped breathing.

Elias did not move.

Then a third person entered the frame.

A woman.

Elias leaned toward the screen.

“No.”

Maya looked at him.

“Who is she?”

His voice broke.

“My sister.”

Before leaving the apartment, Maya made Elias eat half a sandwich she found in the freezer.

“This is humiliating,” he said.

“You have not eaten since the party.”

“I have been uncovering a conspiracy.”

“Conspiracies do not exempt you from blood sugar.”

He took another bite.

“You sound like a nurse.”

“My mother was one.”

“That explains the tyranny.”

Maya packed Samuel’s photograph, the flash drive copies, and the metal box into an old canvas bag.

Elias watched her label each item.

“What are you doing?”

“Creating a chain of custody.”

“You really did prepare for this.”

“I prepared for people to call my father a liar.”

The sentence silenced him.

Elias reached into his pocket and placed his signet ring on the table.

“If we get separated, take this to Margaret Lin on the board.”

Maya frowned.

“Why?”

“She knows I never remove it voluntarily. If you arrive with that ring and Samuel’s evidence, she will listen.”

“You are planning for us to get separated?”

“I am planning for Nathan to be more dangerous than we want him to be.”

Maya picked up the ring and slid it onto the chain beside Samuel’s key.

“Then we both come back for it.”

Elias looked at her.

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“That sounded like an order.”

“It was.”