Chapter 2 - The Room That Wasn’t on the Plans
Victor’s wife had been named Catherine.
And Catherine had disappeared fourteen years earlier.
No body had ever been found.
Police concluded she had probably left voluntarily after months of marital tension. Victor never accepted that completely, but Catherine’s car had been found at an airport, money had vanished from her private account, and a handwritten note said she needed to leave.
Eventually even Victor stopped searching.
Now Eleanor was telling him Room 17 had something to do with her.
Victor climbed the staircase.
Daniel pushed himself out of the wreckage.
“Don't open it!”
Victor stopped halfway.
Daniel’s panic was unmistakable.
“Why did Lily have the key?”
Daniel looked at Eleanor.
Eleanor looked away.
Victor continued upstairs.
The door at end of hallway was not fully open after all. Only an outer decorative panel had shifted, revealing a second steel-lined door behind it.
No handle.
Only a small gold lock.
Victor inserted key.
Eleanor shouted:
“Victor!”
He turned it.
Click.
The steel door opened.
Inside was not a bedroom.
It was a narrow service corridor.
Empty.
The cry for help came again.
Farther inside.
Victor entered.
Daniel followed reluctantly. Eleanor remained near stairs with Lily.
The corridor ended at another locked door.
A speaker was mounted above it.
The moaning came through speaker.
Recorded?
Victor listened.
“Please… somebody…”
Same phrase repeated.
Exactly same breathing.
A loop.
Someone had deliberately activated a recording.
So nobody had necessarily been crying for help seconds earlier.
But who activated it?
Victor examined speaker.
A timer light blinked.
5:00 P.M.
The mechanism had been scheduled.
Daniel looked relieved.
Too relieved.
Victor noticed.
“What did you think I was going to find?”
“Nothing.”
“Lily says you made her hide key.”
“She misunderstood.”
“She’s four, Daniel. Not imaginary.”
Eleanor finally came upstairs.
“That key should not exist.”
Victor looked at her.
“Why?”
“The Room 17 keys were destroyed.”
“How many?”
“Three.”
Victor held up Lily’s.
“Apparently not.”
Eleanor’s composure cracked.
Then Victor noticed an inscription on inner door.
C.H.
Catherine Hale.
His wife’s initials.
Beneath them was a date.
September 14.
May you like
Fourteen years earlier.
The night Catherine disappeared.
