Chapter 4 - THE ROOM BEHIND THE ROSES
Every person in the hallway turned toward Harris.
His face lost all color.
Grant moved between him and Lily.
“What is she talking about?”
“I don’t know.”
Harris reached toward his radio.
Detective Ramirez took it from his hand.
“You’re going to remain where we can see you.”
Harris looked insulted.
“I’ve protected this family for more than a decade.”
“Then you won’t mind answering questions.”
Detective Cole entered the hidden passage first.
Grant followed with a flashlight.
I remained beside Lily while Ramirez kept Harris in the hallway.
The passage opened into a small windowless room.
It appeared to have been Evelyn’s private archive.
Metal filing cabinets lined one wall.
A desk stood beneath a framed photograph of Evelyn holding Lily as a baby.
Dust covered everything except one narrow section of the floor.
Someone had entered the room recently.
Grant opened the first filing cabinet.
It contained business documents connected to the Whitmore Foundation.
The second held bank statements, contracts, and copies of wire transfers.
Most were marked with red ink.
The third cabinet was empty.
A dark stain spread across the bottom drawer.
Detective Cole touched it with a gloved finger.
“Possible blood.”
Lily remained at the doorway.
“Mommy cut her hand.”
“When?” Cole asked.
“The night before the water.”
She pointed toward the empty cabinet.
“She put the black book there.”
“What black book?”
“The one with Renata’s name.”
Grant searched the remaining drawers.
The book was gone.
On Evelyn’s desk, I found a photograph of Renata standing beside a younger man outside a financial office.
On the back, Evelyn had written one sentence.
Renata and Julian transferred another three million.
Grant read it twice.
“Julian Vale is Renata’s brother.”
“He died four years ago,” Harris said from the hallway.
Detective Ramirez looked at him.
“How?”
“Car accident.”
Lily suddenly whispered another word.
“No.”
Everyone fell silent.
She pointed at the man in the photograph.
“He came to the house.”
Grant crouched beside her.
“When?”
“The night Mommy went in the water.”
Grant looked toward Cole.
“Julian was alive?”
Harris moved without warning.
He shoved Ramirez against the wall and grabbed the evidence bag containing the silver key.
Grant lunged at him.
The two men crashed into the hidden doorway.
Cole pulled Harris away and forced him onto the floor.
Ramirez recovered quickly and handcuffed him.
“What are you doing?” Grant demanded.
Harris stared at Lily.
His expression held guilt, fear, and something dangerously close to pity.
“You should have let the past stay buried.”
Grant grabbed the front of his jacket.
“My wife was murdered.”
Harris lowered his voice.
“If you keep digging, Evelyn won’t be the last person you bury.”
Cole pulled Grant back.
Harris was taken away for questioning.
When the hallway finally became quiet, Lily entered the hidden room.
She walked to Evelyn’s desk and knelt beneath it.
Her hand reached into a narrow crack between the floorboards.
She pulled out a small brass button.
A red thread remained attached to its center.
I remembered the picture she had drawn.
The figure beneath the red umbrella.
May you like
Lily placed the button in Grant’s hand.
“It fell off the man’s coat.”
