Chapter 14 - Beneath Solmere

Smoke filled the lower service corridors.

Sprinklers poured water from the ceiling.

Grant led Charlotte toward a restricted stairwell.

“Fire department says everyone must evacuate.”

“We have less than ten minutes.”

“Then we use nine.”

Ethan followed them.

Celeste came too.

Charlotte turned.

“You don’t have to.”

Celeste kept moving.

“My whole life is inside that notebook.”

“No.”

Charlotte looked at her.

“Your whole life starts after this.”

For a moment Celeste said nothing.

Then she followed anyway.

They reached the basement.

Behind a wine-storage wall stood a steel panel.

Charlotte pressed the back of Eleanor’s gold watch into a circular slot.

Nothing happened.

Ethan examined it.

“Two locks.”

Richard had the second key.

Charlotte cursed.

Then a voice came from behind them.

“You always were impatient.”

Richard stood at the end of the corridor.

He was alone.

Charlotte faced him.

“You came to stop us?”

“No.”

Richard removed a silver watch from his pocket.

“To finish what I should have done twenty years ago.”

He inserted his key.

The door opened.

Charlotte stared.

“Why help us?”

Richard laughed softly.

“Because Victor is going to kill me too.”

The archive stretched beneath the hotel.

Shelves filled with thirty years of records.

Hard drives.

Ledgers.

Tapes.

Original contracts.

Samuel Vale had created a history that could not be rewritten.

Smoke entered through the vents.

Richard pointed toward a red cabinet.

“Victor’s offshore accounts.”

Charlotte grabbed the files.

Ethan started copying hard drives.

Celeste searched another section.

Then Richard looked at Charlotte.

“I killed your father.”

Everyone stopped.

Charlotte slowly turned.

Richard continued.

“I hit him.”

His eyes became wet.

“I did not intend to kill him.”

“You pushed him into the water.”

“Victor did.”

“You let him.”

“Yes.”

Charlotte wanted to strike him.

To scream.

Instead she asked the one question she had carried since reading Eleanor’s letter.

“Why?”

Richard looked ashamed.

“Samuel discovered I had stolen money.”

“How much?”

“Two million.”

“For what?”

“My gambling debts.”

Charlotte laughed bitterly.

“My father died for two million dollars?”

“No.”

Richard shook his head.

“He died because Victor realized my mistake gave him leverage over me.”

Smoke thickened.

Grant shouted.

“We need to move.”

Richard grabbed Charlotte’s arm.

“Victor still has one advantage.”

“What?”

“He has the original insurance recording.”

“What recording?”

“Samuel recorded our argument on the boat.”

Charlotte stared at him.

“That proves murder.”

“Yes.”

“Where is it?”

Richard looked toward Celeste.

“With Victor.”

A sudden gunshot echoed.

Richard jerked backward.

Blood spread across his shirt.

Victor Harrington stood at the archive entrance holding a pistol.

“I’m afraid.”

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He raised the gun toward Charlotte.

“That recording dies with me.”