Chapter 6 - Bellemont
Bellemont had never looked like a home.
Even when Damien was a child, it had looked like an institution pretending to be one.
Four stories of gray stone rose behind iron gates. Ivy covered the eastern wall. Narrow windows reflected the last bruised light of evening. Statues his grandfather imported from Europe watched the circular driveway like silent judges.
Damien remembered birthday dinners there.
Christmas mornings.
His mother's piano.
His father's arguments behind closed doors.
He remembered being twelve years old and believing powerful men never became afraid.
Now he stood outside that same house terrified for his son.
Police established a perimeter.
Adrian coordinated with them while Damien stared at the upstairs window.
The light disappeared.
"What signal?" he asked Evelyn again.
She hugged her borrowed coat tighter.
"Anna taught it to me."
"Marshal Ruiz?"
"Yes."
"What does it mean?"
"Safe person inside."
Damien looked at the mansion.
"Nothing inside that house is safe."
"Maybe whoever signaled wants us to think otherwise."
"You believe it's Anna?"
"I don't know."
"Could Vale know the signal?"
"He shouldn't."
"Could Vincent?"
"He shouldn't."
"Could your father?"
Evelyn turned sharply.
Damien immediately regretted asking.
"He's dead," she said.
"You told me he disappeared."
"I was thirteen. Eventually you stop waiting."
Neither spoke.
A police commander approached.
"We've detected four heat signatures inside."
"Lucas?" Damien asked.
"Likely. Two adults ground floor. One adult upper floor. One smaller signature upper floor."
Damien looked at Evelyn.
"Four."
"Vale, Lucas, Vincent and whoever signaled," she said.
"Possibly."
The commander continued.
"Front entrance appears trapped with an alarm system. We're working on another route."
Evelyn looked toward the western garden.
"Greenhouse."
Damien frowned.
"What?"
"There's a greenhouse behind the kitchen."
"How do you know?"
She looked almost embarrassed.
"I studied the original property plans after receiving the note."
Damien stared.
"You told me you'd never been here."
"I haven't."
"You memorized the blueprints?"
"Mostly."
Adrian muttered, "I'm beginning to feel professionally inadequate."
They reached the greenhouse.
Its glass roof had partially collapsed years earlier.
A narrow maintenance tunnel connected the structure to the old kitchen cellar.
Police checked it first.
Clear.
Damien insisted on entering with them.
Nobody liked it.
Nobody stopped him.
Evelyn remained near the entrance until they heard a faint sound.
Three taps.
Pause.
Three taps.
Evelyn's face changed.
She stepped into the tunnel.
Damien caught her arm.
"What?"
"That's another signal."
"What does it mean?"
"Follow quietly."
Against every reasonable plan, the search team advanced.
The cellar smelled of dust and damp stone.
An old service staircase rose toward the kitchen.
They followed the tapping.
Three.
Pause.
Three.
Behind a wine rack, Evelyn found a narrow servant corridor hidden by the wall.
Damien had lived in Bellemont for eighteen years.
He never knew it existed.
"Old houses have old secrets," Evelyn whispered.
They climbed.
The passage emerged behind a linen cabinet on the second floor.
A woman waited there.
Gray hair.
Thin face.
Small flashlight in her hand.
Evelyn stopped.
For a moment she looked thirteen again.
"Anna?"
The older woman pressed a finger to her lips.
Evelyn crossed the space in two steps and embraced her.
Anna Ruiz held her tightly.
"You're alive," Evelyn whispered.
"So are you."
Damien stared.
"Where's Lucas?"
Anna released Evelyn.
"Third-floor study."
"Vale?"
"With him."
"Vincent?"
"Downstairs."
"Why are you here?"
Anna looked at Damien.
"Because your father asked me to come."
Damien felt the floor shift beneath him.
"My father has been dead six years."
Anna's expression was grim.
"Not your father."
She looked at Evelyn.
"Hers."
Evelyn stopped breathing.
"No."
Anna reached into her coat.
She removed an envelope.
On the front, written in faded blue ink:
FOR EVIE.
Evelyn couldn't touch it.
"No."
Anna held it toward her.
"He gave this to me fifteen years ago."
"If my father gave you that—"
"He did."
"Then why didn't you give it to me?"
"Because he told me not to."
Evelyn's voice cracked.
"For fifteen years?"
"Until Gideon Vale returned to Bellemont."
Damien looked toward the stairs.
"How did you know he'd come here?"
Anna's face hardened.
"Because Thomas Mercer knew this day might come."
She placed the envelope into Evelyn's trembling hands.
Inside was a short letter.
Evelyn read silently.
Evie,
If Anna gives you this, then the men I tried to expose never stopped looking.
Do not trust the official story about me.
Do not trust Richard Cavanaugh.
But understand this: his son may not be his father.
The ledger isn't money.
It's names.
And names are more dangerous.
Look beneath the floor where the house keeps its prayers.
I love you.
Dad.
Evelyn's tears fell silently.
Damien reread one sentence.
The house keeps its prayers.
"Chapel," he said.
Bellemont had a private chapel on the first floor.
Anna nodded.
"Vale thinks the ledger is there."
"Then why take Lucas upstairs?"
"Insurance."
Damien's expression went cold.
"I'm getting my son."
Police moved toward the stairwell.
Anna stopped them.
"There's another way."
Servant passages.
The old study had one.
As they climbed, Damien whispered to Evelyn.
"You stay here."
"No."
"You just learned your father may have survived longer than you believed."
"Exactly."
"You're emotional."
She looked at him.
"So are you."
Fair.
They reached the passage behind the third-floor study.
Through a narrow vent, Damien saw Lucas seated in a chair.
Not tied.
Not injured.
Across from him sat an elderly man with white hair.
Gideon Vale.
"You know why your father will come?" Vale asked.
Lucas stared at him.
"Because he's my dad."
"Exactly."
Vale smiled.
"That's the weakness of men like Damien. They think love makes them stronger."
Lucas frowned.
"Miss Evelyn says people who think love is weakness usually don't have enough of it."
Evelyn closed her eyes briefly.
Even Damien almost smiled.
Vale leaned back.
"Miss Evelyn teaches you many things."
"More useful things than you're saying."
"Smart boy."
"I know."
Vale laughed softly.
Damien recognized his son's stalling.
Lucas was keeping the man talking.
Evelyn had taught him that too.
Police prepared to enter.
Before they could, another voice came from the study.
Vincent.
He entered through the main door.
"What are you doing?"
Vale looked annoyed.
"Handling your mistake."
"You said nobody would hurt Lucas."
"Nobody has."
"Let him go."
Vale smiled.
"You're developing a conscience late in life."
Vincent stepped closer.
"This was supposed to scare Damien into moving the boys while we searched Bellemont."
"And then the nanny complicated everything."
"That isn't Lucas's fault."
"No."
Vale looked at the child.
"It's yours."
Vincent's face changed.
Damien realized something.
Vincent had betrayed him.
But Vincent had not ordered the kidnapping.
That distinction did not absolve him.
It did, however, explain the recording.
Vincent moved between Vale and Lucas.
"Take me instead."
Vale laughed.
"You're seventy."
"Sixty-four."
"Close enough."
Lucas whispered, "That's still pretty old."
Even Evelyn silently mouthed, Lucas.
Vale turned toward the sound.
The hidden passage creaked.
Everything happened quickly.
Police entered from two directions.
Vincent grabbed Lucas and pulled him behind the desk.
Vale tried to escape through the opposite doorway.
Officers intercepted him.
No heroic shootout followed.
No dramatic battle.
Within seconds, Vale was restrained.
Damien crossed the room.
"Lucas!"
His son ran.
Damien dropped to his knees.
The force of Lucas's embrace nearly knocked him backward.
"I'm sorry," Lucas sobbed.
"For what?"
"I took the phone."
Damien held him tighter.
"You are grounded until you're thirty."
Lucas cried and laughed simultaneously.
"That's not fair."
"Thirty-five."
Evelyn knelt beside them.
Lucas immediately reached for her too.
She touched his face.
"You remembered."
"The questions."
"And the rules."
"Most of them."
"What did you forget?"
"Don't investigate criminal conspiracies without telling adults."
"I don't remember teaching you that."
"You should."
Behind them, Vincent sat against the wall while an officer watched him.
Damien stood.
Their eyes met.
Vincent looked older than he had hours earlier.
"I'm sorry."
Damien's voice was empty.
"Don't."
"I never meant—"
"You opened my home."
"I thought Vale only wanted the ledger."
"You gave him access."
"I thought—"
"My children were there."
Vincent looked down.
Damien turned away before rage overcame judgment.
Evelyn was still holding Lucas when Anna touched her shoulder.
"The chapel."
Evelyn stared.
"The letter."
Whatever Thomas Mercer had hidden beneath Bellemont fifteen years earlier was still somewhere inside.
Police searched the chapel.
Beneath the altar floor, they found a sealed metal container.
Damien opened it beside Evelyn.
Inside were notebooks.
Account ledgers.
Photographs.
Recordings.
And one small digital storage device.
But no explanation for what became of Thomas Mercer.
Until Evelyn lifted the final notebook.
A recent date was written inside.
Not fifteen years ago.
Not ten.
Eleven months ago.
Evelyn's hands shook.
"This can't be."
Damien looked at the handwriting.
Same blue ink.
Same style as the letter.
At the bottom was a sentence.
If Evelyn finds this, tell her I kept my promise.
Below it was an address.
A rural town in Maine.
And beside the address was a name.
Thomas Mercer.
Evelyn sank onto the chapel bench.
Her father hadn't died fifteen years ago.
He might not have been dead eleven months ago.
May you like
And somewhere hundreds of miles away, the man she'd mourned for most of her life might still be waiting for his daughter to find him.
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