Chapter 13 - THE NORTH WING
The north wing had been locked since Arthur Ravenscroft's funeral.
Marcus kept the only key in a bank box because Victoria had refused to let anyone disturb her husband's rooms.
Daniel did not wait for the key.
He called Detective Bell, documented the reason for entry, and had a locksmith open the corridor door in front of witnesses.
Victoria stood ten feet away.
Her face was unreadable.
"You don't have to come," Marcus told her.
"Yes, I do."
"Why?"
Victoria looked at the dark hallway beyond the door.
"Because I spent six years pretending there was nothing behind it."
Elena heard more truth in that sentence than Victoria probably intended.
The air inside smelled stale and dry.
White sheets covered furniture.
Dust lay thick across the hardwood floors.
Portraits had been removed from the walls, leaving pale rectangles behind.
The corridor led to Arthur's bedroom, dressing room, private study, and a smaller laboratory-like office he had used while undergoing treatment for a degenerative neurological illness.
Dr. Cole's father had supervised much of that treatment.
Marcus stopped outside the study.
"I haven't been in here since he died."
Elena looked at him.
"You don't have to open it."
"Yes, I do."
He echoed his mother's words without realizing it.
Daniel pushed the door inward.
Arthur's study looked preserved in amber.
A pair of reading glasses sat beside a closed book.
A fountain pen lay across a blotter.
A half-empty bottle of Scotch stood on a side table.
The desk calendar remained open to the week of his death.
Nothing appeared disturbed.
That was the first warning.
The electronic lock log showed Cole had entered the north wing nine times after Arthur died.
If he had been here, he had either touched nothing or worked very carefully.
Daniel photographed the entire room before anyone moved farther inside.
Elena walked slowly along the bookshelves.
Most titles concerned finance, history, and medicine.
One shelf held binders labeled by year.
2013.
2014.
2015.
The year Claire disappeared was missing.
"Here," Elena said.
Marcus joined her.
"There should be another binder."
Daniel inspected the shelf.
Dust patterns showed a volume had been removed recently.
"Within the last few weeks," he said.
Victoria looked toward the desk.
"Arthur kept duplicate records in the wall safe."
Marcus turned.
"What wall safe?"
Victoria stared at him.
"You didn't know?"
"No."
She moved to a landscape painting and lifted it from its hook.
Behind it was a small steel door.
The dial required a combination.
Victoria entered six numbers.
The lock opened.
Marcus looked at her.
"You remember the code after six years?"
"It was our wedding date."
Inside the safe were share certificates, old passports, two hard drives, and a red leather ledger.
Elena's pulse jumped at the color.
Daniel removed each item with gloves.
The ledger contained handwritten payments.
Most were ordinary household or medical expenses.
Then the entries changed.
C.B.R. CONSULTING.
ASHBOURNE CLINICAL SERVICES.
PROJECT MIRROR.
The amounts were enormous.
Fifty thousand dollars.
Eighty thousand.
One hundred twenty-five thousand.
The payments began nine years earlier.
One year before Claire vanished.
Marcus's face went rigid.
"What is Project Mirror?"
Victoria did not answer.
"Mom."
"I don't know."
Elena looked at her.
"You expect us to believe that?"
"Arthur controlled his own research accounts."
"Research into what?"
"Memory."
Victoria's voice was quiet.
"Fear response."
"Behavior."
Marcus stared at her.
"Why?"
"Because he was terrified of losing his mind."
Arthur's illness had eventually affected cognition.
Victoria explained that he had funded experimental neurological research privately, hoping to slow decline.
Cole's father had introduced him to several researchers.
One program involved synthetic neurosteroids.
Another involved exposure therapy using controlled audio and visual cues.
"Project Mirror," Elena whispered.
Daniel turned pages.
A notation appeared beside one payment.
SUBJECT C.R. - TRANSITION COMPLETE.
Claire Rowan.
Marcus sat down hard.
"He used Claire."
Victoria covered her mouth.
"I didn't know."
"Stop saying that."
Marcus's voice shook.
"You always didn't know."
"I knew Arthur involved Claire in a stress study."
"Did Claire know?"
Victoria closed her eyes.
"I believed she did."
Elena almost laughed.
There was the phrase again.
The phrase that had protected everyone except the women being experimented on.
Daniel turned to the final pages.
The handwriting changed six years earlier, after Arthur's death.
New entries appeared.
PROJECT MIRROR II.
SUBJECT E.R.
Elena stopped breathing.
"E.R."
Marcus looked at her.
"Elena Ravenscroft."
The first payment was dated eleven months earlier.
Before Elena conceived.
The signature approving the payment was not Arthur's.
It was Victoria's.
Elena turned toward her.
Victoria went white.
"No."
"That's your signature," Marcus said.
"Yes, but I did not write that entry."
"You approved the payment."
"I approved a research grant."
"For Project Mirror II."
"That title was not on the documents I signed."
Elena stared at her.
"You laced my tea."
"Yes."
"You knew the compound was experimental."
"Yes."
"You planned to seek guardianship if I became unstable."
Victoria hesitated.
That hesitation was enough.
"Yes."
Marcus looked horrified.
"You did plan it."
"I planned to protect the child if Elena's condition became dangerous."
"A condition you were helping create."
"I did not know Cole would increase the dose."
"But you gave the doses."
Victoria's composure finally cracked.
"Because every time Elena stopped taking them, Cole told me the pregnancy was at risk."
Elena's eyes filled with rage.
"So you chose the baby over me."
Victoria looked at her.
"I thought I was protecting both of you."
"No."
Elena's voice was quiet.
"You wanted the baby protected from me."
Victoria could not answer.
That silence was a confession of a different kind.
Daniel lifted one of the hard drives from the safe.
"We need to image these."
Before he could move, the lights went out.
The entire north wing dropped into darkness.
A second later, thunder rolled over the estate.
The winter storm that had been forecast for evening had arrived early.
Emergency lights should have activated.
They did not.
Daniel switched on a flashlight.
"Nobody move."
His radio crackled.
Then died.
Marcus reached for Elena.
His hand found empty air.
"Elena?"
She had been standing beside him.
Now she was gone.
Elena felt a hand cover her mouth before she understood that someone was behind her.
She tried to scream.
An arm pulled her backward through a narrow opening between two bookcases.
The panel closed.
Darkness swallowed her.
She kicked hard.
The person released her.
Elena stumbled against a stone wall.
A light flickered on.
She was inside another hidden room.
A woman stood at the far end wearing Elena's face.
The mask was perfect from a distance.
The woman tilted her head.
"You keep surviving the wrong part."
Elena backed toward the wall.
"Who are you?"
The woman smiled with Elena's mouth.
"You know me."
"No, I don't."
"You watched me make your tea."
Elena's mind raced.
Celia.
Victoria's missing maid.
"Celia?"
The woman peeled the mask from her face.
Dark hair.
Sharp cheekbones.
The scar across her chin.
The same woman who had entered the library in Victoria's mask.
"Very good."
Elena pressed her hand to her belly.
"Why are you doing this?"
Celia stepped toward a small table.
On it sat a white teacup.
Steam rose from the surface.
"Because Mrs. Ravenscroft pays very well."
Elena's pulse thundered.
"Victoria hired you?"
Celia smiled.
"Sometimes."
"What does that mean?"
"Ask her which parts she paid for."
"Tell me."
Celia lifted the cup.
"She paid me to make you doubt what you saw."
Elena's stomach turned.
"The masks?"
"The dresses."
"The hallway appearances."
"The little sounds at night."
"She wanted you frightened enough to accept supervision."
"And Cole?"
Celia's smile faded.
"Cole wanted more."
"The dining room?"
"Not Victoria's plan."
"The glass?"
"Not Victoria's plan."
"Mrs. Vale?"
"Definitely not Victoria's plan."
Elena stared at her.
The answer was almost worse than discovering one mastermind.
Victoria had started the machine.
Cole had taken control of it.
And Celia had worked for both.
"Why tell me?"
Celia looked toward the cup.
"Because Cole is going to blame everything on me."
"Then testify."
Celia laughed.
"You think people like us get to testify against people like them?"
"Mrs. Vale did."
"Mrs. Vale almost died."
Celia placed the cup back down.
"Your husband is coming."
Elena listened.
Faint pounding echoed behind the wall.
Marcus shouting her name.
Celia stepped toward another door.
"Wait."
Elena moved forward.
"What is phase two?"
Celia looked back.
"It was supposed to end with you at Ashbourne."
"Supposed to?"
"Cole changed the ending."
"To what?"
Celia's face became serious.
"Your funeral."
The hidden door slammed behind her.
Elena stood alone.
Then she noticed the steam rising from the untouched cup.
The smell reached her.
Sweet herbs.
Honey.
The exact scent of Victoria's evening tea.
Suddenly the stone walls seemed to breathe.
A red shadow moved in the corner.
Elena's vision blurred.
She had not touched the tea.
Elena's first instinct was to pound on the wall and scream for Marcus.
She stopped herself.
Noise might increase her breathing.
Faster breathing meant more exposure.
She lowered herself close to the floor where the mist appeared thinner.
The hallucinated red shadow crossed the room again.
This time it had Victoria's outline.
Elena refused to track it with her eyes.
Instead, she studied the screws on the vent.
Four Phillips heads.
Modern.
Bright metal against old stone.
Real.
She pulled a metal hairpin from her hair and tried to turn one screw.
It barely moved.
Behind her, the false Victoria whispered her name.
Elena kept working.
The screw loosened another fraction.
Then another.
"You are not here," Elena said.
The voice laughed.
"You don't know that."
Elena's hands stopped.
That was the trap.
Not making her believe the hallucination was real.
Making her believe certainty was impossible.
She returned to the screw.
"I don't need to know what you are."
She twisted again.
"I only need to know what I am doing."
When Marcus finally began pounding on the hidden panel, Elena was still working on the vent instead of answering the voice.
Her blood levels had been falling for days.
Yet Victoria's voice whispered beside her ear.
"The baby will be better off without you."
Elena staggered backward.
Then she saw the vent above the table.
A fine mist drifted through it.
May you like
The compound was not only in the tea.
Someone was pumping it into the room.
