Chapter 3 - The Daughter in the Locked Room:
Richard called Nora back.
The phone went directly to voicemail.
He called the school’s director.
No one answered.
Detective Hale requested emergency units while Richard paced across the ballroom.
“My helicopter can be ready in six minutes.”
“The storm has grounded private flights,” Hale said.
“Then we drive.”
“I’m coming with you,” Mia said.
Richard turned.
“No.”
“The person who entered Nora’s room knows my mother.”
“That makes this more dangerous for you.”
“It also means I may recognize something you won’t.”
Chloe stepped forward.
“I’m coming too.”
Mia shook her head.
“You stay here with the police.”
“I’m not staying in this house.”
Detective Hale made the decision.
“All of you come.”
“Until I know which members of the estate staff can be trusted, no one stays behind.”
They left in an unmarked police SUV.
Rain hammered the windshield.
Richard called Nora’s phone every three minutes.
No answer came.
During the drive, Hale explained what he had never told Richard.
Rosa Torres had contacted him one week before Laura’s supposed accident.
She claimed someone was stealing from the Vance Children’s Foundation.
She refused to name the person over the phone.
They arranged to meet at a diner outside Boston.
Rosa never arrived.
Three days later, Laura’s boat was found drifting near Cape Ann.
The following week, Rosa’s rented house burned to the ground.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Richard demanded.
“Because I was removed from the case.”
“By whom?”
“The police commissioner.”
“Who convinced him?”
Hale looked through the rain.
“Jonathan Mercer.”
Richard stopped breathing for a moment.
Jonathan had been his closest friend since college.
He served as vice chairman of Vance Holdings.
He had stood beside Richard at both of his weddings.
“He said the investigation was hurting the company and traumatizing Nora,” Hale continued.
“He brought in private investigators.”
“Elias was one of them.”
“Yes.”
Mia remembered Evelyn’s warning.
You have no idea who you’re protecting.
Perhaps she had not been speaking about Laura.
Perhaps she had meant Jonathan.
They reached St. Catherine’s Academy shortly after sunset.
Police lights flashed across the wet stone buildings.
The school director met them beneath the main arch.
“Nora is safe,” she said.
Richard nearly collapsed with relief.
“Where is she?”
“In the infirmary.”
“What happened?”
“A security officer found her locked inside a storage room.”
“Who entered her dormitory?”
“We’re reviewing the cameras.”
They found Nora wrapped in a gray blanket.
She had Richard’s dark eyes and Laura’s narrow face.
A bruise circled one wrist.
Richard dropped to his knees in front of her.
“Are you hurt?”
She shook her head.
“He didn’t hit me.”
“Who was he?”
“I couldn’t see his face.”
“He wore a school maintenance uniform.”
Mia stood near the door.
Nora’s gaze moved toward her.
“You’re Mia.”
Mia was startled.
“How do you know me?”
Nora reached beneath the blanket and removed a folded newspaper clipping.
It showed Mia and Chloe serving drinks during a Vance Foundation fundraiser three months earlier.
Someone had circled both sisters in red ink.
The clipping had been mailed to Nora without a return address.
On the back, a handwritten message read:
THE TORRES GIRLS KNOW WHERE YOUR MOTHER IS.
Richard read the words twice.
“When did you receive this?”
“Two months ago.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Evelyn found the first letter.”
Nora looked down.
“She said someone was trying to manipulate me.”
“There were more letters?” Hale asked.
Nora nodded.
“Five.”
“Who sent them?”
“I don’t know.”
“The handwriting changed every time.”
“What did they say?”
Nora reached into her backpack.
She removed four envelopes.
Richard stared at them.
Evelyn had told him Nora rarely wrote because school kept her busy.
Now he understood that his daughter had been afraid to communicate.
One letter contained a photograph of Laura standing beside a red door.
Another included a child’s drawing of the east wing nursery.
The third contained only a date.
November 17.
The day Laura’s boat was discovered.
The final letter held a single sentence.
ASK YOUR FATHER WHY HE NEVER SAW THE BODY.
Richard closed his eyes.
“I searched for her for six months.”
Nora’s voice trembled.
“Did you?”
The question wounded him.
Before he could answer, Detective Hale’s phone rang.
He stepped into the hallway.
Mia sat beside Nora.
“Did the man who locked you in the storage room say anything else?”
Nora hesitated.
“He asked whether I remembered the red room.”
“What is the red room?”
“My old nursery.”
“Why would he ask about it?”
Nora looked toward Richard.
“Because I saw my mother there after she was supposed to be dead.”
Richard stared at her.
Nora had been ten when Laura disappeared.
For years, therapists had told Richard that trauma had distorted her memories.
Evelyn had insisted that encouraging those memories would damage her further.
“When?” Richard asked.
“The night before you married Evelyn.”
Nora pulled the blanket tighter around herself.
“I woke up because someone was singing.”
“It was Mom’s song.”
“I followed the sound to the east wing.”
“The nursery door was open.”
“Mom was sitting in the rocking chair.”
Richard looked as though the room had tilted beneath him.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I tried.”
“Evelyn said I had been dreaming.”
“She gave me medicine.”
“After that, I slept for almost two days.”
Mia exchanged a look with Chloe.
Nora had not imagined Laura.
Someone had drugged a child to keep her silent.
Hale returned from the hallway.
“The school cameras were disabled for eleven minutes.”
“The man left through the boiler entrance.”
“Did he take anything?” Richard asked.
Nora shook her head.
“He put something in my pocket.”
She reached into her school blazer.
Her fingers closed around a small object.
It was a silver music-box key.
It matched the metal and design of the key Mia had found beneath the vase.
A tiny number had been engraved along the edge.
17.
Richard looked at the date written in Nora’s letter.
November 17.
Mia suddenly understood.
“The red room has seventeen painted stars on the ceiling.”
Nora looked at her.
“How do you know?”
Mia remembered a photograph from her mother’s Bible.
Laura had been holding a baby beneath a ceiling covered with gold stars.
“Because my mother was there when you were born.”
Richard stood.
“We’re going back to the estate.”
Hale looked toward the storm.
“The person who took Nora wanted us to return.”
“I know.”
“That means the red room may be a trap.”
Richard took his daughter’s hand.
“Then this time, we enter knowing someone is waiting.”
As they left the infirmary, Nora grabbed Mia’s sleeve.
“There’s something else.”
“The man whispered a name before he locked the door.”
“What name?”
May you like
Nora looked toward Richard.
“Jonathan.”
