Chapter 5 - THE ROOM BELOW
The hidden room was twelve feet underground.
Concrete walls.
A folding cot.
Bottled water.
A portable toilet.
A battery lamp.
The air smelled stale.
Daniel descended first.
On the cot was a woman’s sweater.
Emma recognized it.
“Mommy’s.”
Michael’s attorney immediately objected.
“That proves Mrs. Carter was here. It does not prove confinement.”
Daniel found a chain attached to the wall.
No cuff.
No blood.
No obvious sign it had been used on a person.
Steven said:
“Property security.”
Daniel looked at him.
“For what?”
“Ask my client.”
Michael said nothing.
In the corner was a trash bag.
Inside:
food wrappers,
water bottles,
and an empty prescription container.
Laura Carter.
Daniel picked it up.
The medication was for anxiety.
Michael whispered:
“She needed it.”
Daniel climbed the stairs.
“You said she ran.”
“She did.”
“After living under your garage?”
Michael’s face hardened.
“She came down here voluntarily.”
Emma yelled:
“No!”
Michael finally looked at her.
“Emma, enough.”
Daniel stepped between them.
Michael recovered.
He turned back to his attorney.
“I’m done talking.”
Forensics found Laura’s fingerprints throughout the room.
That was expected.
Then they found something less expected.
A fingerprint on the underside of the hatch.
Not Michael’s.
Not Laura’s.
A woman named Eleanor Price.
Daniel searched the name.
Eleanor was Michael’s mother.
Sixty-seven.
Former probate attorney.
Retired.
And the person who had petitioned the court two months earlier to freeze Laura’s access to a family trust.
Daniel stared at the file.
The Carter family trust held $14.8 million.
The beneficiaries were Emma and Olivia.
Michael was trustee.
Laura was co-trustee.
If Laura were declared legally incapacitated or missing long enough, Michael gained temporary sole control.
Daniel understood the hearing Michael had mentioned in the garage.
The trust hearing.
Then a patrol officer came downstairs.
“Daniel.”
“What?”
“We found a camera.”
Behind a vent.
Pointed directly at the cot.
The memory card was gone.
Michael looked at the vent.
For the first time since entering the station, his face showed real fear.
May you like
And he whispered:
“My mother.”
