Chapter 12 - The Room Below
Arthur's grand piano had not been played since Claire's mother died.
Mara found Julian's second phone taped beneath the soundboard.
Its deleted messages tied Julian to Dominic and Halpern. One audio file captured Julian saying, "Sophie is six. Kids forget."
A small voice answered from the background.
"No, I don't."
Sophie heard the recording and began to cry.
"That's when Dad knew I heard them," she whispered.
Claire knelt beside her. "What happened after that?"
"He made me go downstairs with Vivienne."
Arthur frowned. "There is no downstairs room."
Sophie pointed toward the garage.
"Yes, there is."
The original blueprints showed no basement.
But the house had been renovated three times.
Mara found a sealed service door behind wine racks in the lower garage.
Arthur stared at it.
"I did not authorize this."
Claire almost smiled. "Apparently that doesn't mean much anymore."
The lock had been replaced recently.
Security cut it open.
A narrow staircase led down to a concrete room beneath the garage.
There was a folding cot.
A camera tripod.
Children's coloring books.
And a chair bolted to the floor.
Claire stopped halfway down the stairs.
"Oh my God."
Sophie was kept upstairs. She did not see the room again.
On a shelf, police found empty medicine bottles and a small tablet computer.
The tablet contained videos of Sophie sitting in the chair while Vivienne asked questions.
"Who makes you scared?"
Sophie whispered, "Nobody."
Vivienne's voice hardened.
"Wrong answer. Who makes you scared?"
"Mommy."
"Again."
"Mommy."
"Louder."
Claire turned away, sobbing without sound.
They were creating evidence for family court.
Another video showed Julian coaching Sophie through a story about Claire screaming, breaking glass, and driving drunk.
None of it had happened.
Then they found a file dated three weeks earlier.
Sophie sat alone in the chair.
A man entered.
Dr. Halpern.
He placed a document on the table.
"Your father says your mother is sick. If you love her, you have to help her get treatment."
Sophie cried. "I want Mommy."
Halpern leaned down.
"Then say what we practiced."
Claire wanted him found more than she had ever wanted anything.
Mara's phone rang.
She listened.
"They got Halpern."
"Where?"
"San Diego airport. Fake passport. He was boarding a flight to Mexico City."
For the first time, Claire felt the ground shift in her direction.
Then a technician called from the hidden room.
"We found a live network connection."
Mara frowned. "To where?"
"The tablet was streaming to a remote server. Someone logged in twelve minutes ago."
Claire looked at the screen.
A username appeared in the access record.
JMERCER.
May you like
Julian was not running.
He was watching them.
