Chapter 2 - THE BOY IN THE SERVICE TUNNEL
Gabriel did not call the police.
That was the first decision Hannah hated.
It was also the first decision she understood.
If Claire had been right and the danger was inside the house, calling anyone through the estate system would tell the kidnapper exactly where Gabriel was looking.
Gabriel killed the main alarm from a mechanical panel hidden behind a bronze sculpture.
The screaming stopped.
The silence afterward felt worse.
"How many exits does the service elevator have?"
Hannah kept her voice low.
"Four."
"Can Owen leave the property from any of them?"
"Not without crossing a gate sensor."
"Unless the gate sensors are compromised too."
Gabriel looked at her.
He did not like hearing his own suspicion spoken by someone else.
"Stay here."
"No."
"That wasn't a request."
"Neither was Claire's letter."
Gabriel stepped toward her.
Hannah did not move.
"If whoever took Eli knows the old service areas, I may know why."
"You have been in this house less than three weeks."
"Claire described parts of it years ago."
Gabriel's expression darkened.
"How much did my wife tell you about my house?"
"Enough to know she didn't feel safe in all of it."
That silenced him.
They took the back stairs to the basement.
The service elevator doors stood open.
Inside, one wheel track glistened with water from the burning corridor.
The lower panel had been removed.
A bundle of wires hung loose.
Hannah crouched.
"He bypassed the floor lock."
"You know elevators?"
"I know people who want to disappear."
Gabriel almost asked what that meant.
Then they heard a faint scrape behind the wall.
Hannah looked toward a row of wine racks.
Gabriel reached for a bottle near the bottom shelf and twisted it.
A section of the wall opened inward.
Hannah stared.
"You have a tunnel behind your wine cellar."
"I told you people like exits."
They entered.
The passage was narrow and unfinished.
Exposed stone walls sweated with moisture.
Small emergency lights ran along the ceiling.
One had been smashed.
Then another.
Someone wanted darkness.
Gabriel turned on the flashlight from his phone but kept the beam low.
"This tunnel leads to the old boat house."
"How far?"
"About two hundred yards."
Hannah's stomach tightened.
A wheelchair would move badly over the old stone floor.
Then she heard it.
A tiny click.
Wood against stone.
She grabbed Gabriel's arm.
He looked at her hand as if no one touched him without permission.
"Listen."
Click.
Pause.
Click.
Gabriel's face changed.
"The sailboat."
They moved faster.
Thirty yards deeper into the tunnel, the passage split.
Gabriel aimed the light left.
Nothing.
Right.
Nothing.
Then the wooden click came again.
From behind them.
Hannah turned.
A recessed storage alcove sat behind an old metal cage.
The padlock hung open.
Gabriel pulled the cage aside.
Eli sat on the floor inside.
His wheelchair lay overturned beside him.
He clutched the wooden sailboat in both hands.
Hannah dropped to her knees.
"Eli."
The boy flinched so hard she stopped three feet away.
His face was pale.
A strip of silver tape hung from one wrist.
Someone had bound him and he had torn free.
Gabriel moved forward.
"Eli."
The boy recoiled.
Gabriel stopped.
The reaction cut visibly through him.
Hannah spoke first.
"You're safe."
Eli shook his head.
"No."
His voice was thin.
But it was there.
"He said Dad sent him."
Gabriel's eyes hardened.
"Who?"
Eli looked at the tunnel.
"Mr. Owen."
"What did he do?"
"He said there was a fire and Dad said to move me."
Eli looked down at the tape on his wrist.
"Then he tied my hands."
Gabriel's face became frighteningly calm.
Hannah recognized that kind of calm.
It was the calm that arrived when rage had moved too deep to show on the surface.
"Where is he?"
Eli pointed toward the boat house passage.
"He heard you."
"Then what?"
"He said a bad word."
Hannah almost smiled.
Gabriel did not.
"Then he pushed my chair too fast."
Eli swallowed.
"It hit the wall."
Hannah looked at the overturned wheelchair.
One front caster was bent.
"I fell."
Gabriel's hands curled into fists.
"He left you here?"
Eli shook his head.
"He got a phone call."
"Did you hear the voice?"
"No."
"Did you hear what Owen said?"
Eli closed his eyes.
Hannah waited.
Gabriel nearly spoke.
She raised one hand to stop him.
The boy needed time.
Finally Eli whispered.
"He said, 'I found the key, but she already opened it.'"
Gabriel looked at Hannah.
Hannah's stomach dropped.
Owen had not followed her into Claire's room because he saw movement.
He had gone there for the brass key.
"What else?"
Eli's fingers tightened around the sailboat.
"He said, 'The boy heard too much before.'"
No one moved.
Hannah felt the tunnel become colder.
Gabriel lowered himself until he was sitting on the stone floor across from his son.
He did not touch him.
"Eli."
The boy stared at the sailboat.
"What did you hear before?"
"I don't know."
"Try."
"Gabriel."
Hannah's warning was sharper this time.
He looked at her.
"Don't interrogate him."
"My son was just kidnapped."
"Exactly."
She pointed toward Eli.
"So don't make the next five minutes about your need for answers."
Gabriel looked ready to explode.
Then Eli surprised both of them.
"She can ask."
Gabriel stared at him.
Eli looked at Hannah.
"You ask."
The rejection was quiet.
That made it worse.
Hannah shifted closer by one foot.
"Okay."
She kept her hands visible on her knees.
"Do you remember anything from the day the car exploded?"
Eli's breathing changed.
Gabriel noticed.
Hannah noticed too.
"You don't have to remember the explosion."
She spoke slowly.
"Think about before the car."
Eli stared at the sailboat.
"Breakfast."
"Good."
"Mom burned toast."
A tiny sound escaped Gabriel.
Claire burned toast constantly.
She blamed the toaster.
Gabriel had replaced three toasters before realizing the appliance was never the problem.
"What happened after breakfast?"
"Mom was mad."
"At you?"
"No."
"At your dad?"
Eli shook his head.
Then stopped.
"Maybe."
Gabriel's brow tightened.
"She was on the phone."
"Do you remember what she said?"
Eli's eyes moved toward the dark tunnel.
"She said, 'You don't get to use his name anymore.'"
Gabriel's pulse kicked.
"Whose name?"
Hannah looked at him sharply.
He realized he had interrupted.
Eli looked frightened again.
Gabriel forced his voice down.
"Sorry."
The word sounded unfamiliar in his mouth.
Eli studied him.
Then continued.
"Mom saw me."
"What did she do?"
"She hung up."
"Anything else?"
Eli nodded slowly.
"A man came to the garage."
Gabriel's entire body went still.
"Which man?"
Eli's face pinched.
"I don't know."
"Someone who worked at the house?"
"Maybe."
"Security?"
"I don't know."
Hannah leaned forward slightly.
"Don't think about his face."
She remembered something from trauma training years ago.
"Think about one small thing."
Eli closed his eyes.
"Shoes."
"What about them?"
"Black."
"Anything else?"
"A ring."
Gabriel's gaze snapped to Hannah.
Claire's letter.
The red room.
Now Eli remembered a ring.
"What kind of ring?"
Eli opened his eyes.
"Red."
Gabriel felt the words settle like a blade.
"A red stone?"
Eli nodded.
"Square."
Gabriel knew exactly three men in his organization who wore signet rings.
Only one wore a square garnet.
Sebastian Rourke.
Gabriel's closest lieutenant.
His oldest friend.
The man who had stood beside Gabriel at Claire's funeral.
The man who had held Eli's wheelchair while Gabriel placed a white rose on his wife's coffin.
Hannah saw recognition in Gabriel's face.
"You know who it is."
Gabriel did not answer.
His phone vibrated.
No signal should have reached this deep in the tunnel.
Yet one message appeared.
UNKNOWN NUMBER.
He opened it.
A photograph filled the screen.
Owen Price lay face down beside the boat house dock.
Blood darkened the boards beneath his head.
Someone had killed him less than two hundred yards away.
Under the photograph was a sentence.
HE WAS ALWAYS EXPENDABLE.
Then a second message arrived.
BRING ME CLAIRE'S KEY OR NEXT TIME THE BOY DOESN'T GET LEFT BEHIND.
Gabriel read it once.
Then he handed the phone to Hannah.
Eli watched both of them.
"Is Mr. Owen coming back?"
Gabriel looked at his son.
He could have lied.
Eleven months ago, he would have lied.
Tonight he chose something harder.
"No."
Eli's eyes lowered.
"Did he die?"
Gabriel paused.
"Yes."
Hannah expected the boy to cry.
He did not.
He stared at the broken wheel of his chair.
"Dad."
Gabriel moved closer.
"I'm here."
"Did you really send him?"
The question nearly broke him.
"No."
"Promise?"
Gabriel looked at his son as if there were no one else in the tunnel.
"I promise."
Eli nodded once.
Then he held out the wooden sailboat.
"He wanted this too."
Hannah frowned.
"Owen wanted the boat?"
"He tried to take it."
Eli turned it over.
The faded initials beneath the sail caught the weak light.
C.M.
Then Hannah noticed a thin seam in the wooden base.
"Gabriel."
She ran her fingernail along it.
The bottom panel moved.
The boat was hollow.
Inside was a tiny memory card wrapped in wax paper.
Gabriel stared at it.
Claire had hidden something inside Eli's favorite toy.
Something important enough for a man to kidnap a nine-year-old child.
Hannah lifted the card carefully.
A single word was written on the wax paper.
May you like
HARBOR.
