Chapter 3 - THE LOCKED ROOM
Adrian dismissed the guests before midnight.
The official explanation was that the gala had become too disruptive. The unofficial explanation was that nobody wanted to be present when the Ashford family began tearing itself apart.
Mara waited in the service corridor while Adrian spoke to his head of security, Daniel Price.
“Bring the archive keys,” Adrian ordered. “And no one enters the east wing without my permission.”
Daniel glanced at Mara. “Sir, the room has been sealed for fourteen years.”
“Then tonight is a good night to open it.”
Charles approached, his expression carefully arranged. “Adrian, you cannot let an employee dictate access to company property.”
“She has information I want.”
“She has a story.”
“Then the records will prove whether it’s true.”
Charles lowered his voice. “Your father would be ashamed.”
Adrian looked at him. “You mention my father whenever you want me to stop asking questions.”
For a moment, the two men stared at one another.
Then Charles walked away.
The archive entrance was hidden behind a paneled wall near the old library. Daniel unlocked two steel bolts. The door opened with a low groan, releasing the smell of dust and paper.
Inside stood rows of metal cabinets, shelves of ledgers, and several locked document boxes. A narrow desk sat beneath a dead fluorescent light.
Mara moved directly toward cabinet seven.
“How do you know where to go?” Adrian asked.
“My father described it in a letter.”
“You’ve had that letter all this time?”
“Not the original. A copy. The original disappeared after his arrest.”
She used the brass key. The cabinet opened.
Inside were folders marked with dates, company divisions, and initials. Mara searched until she found a blue folder bearing her father’s handwriting.
Her fingers trembled.
Adrian stood beside her as she opened it.
The first page was a list of transfers from an Ashford subsidiary to a company registered in the Cayman Islands. The second page contained signatures. The third showed the same funds returning through a charitable foundation.
“Your father’s signature,” Adrian said.
“Forged.”
“How can you tell?”
Mara pointed to the final letter in his name. “He always lifted the pen. Whoever copied it made a continuous stroke.”
Adrian examined the page. It was a small detail, but it was consistent across every document.
“What else?”
She turned to the next sheet. It contained a list of payments to three board members, a law firm, and a private security company.
Charles Ashford’s initials appeared beside two transfers.
Adrian’s stomach tightened.
“Why didn’t your father take this to the police?”
“He did. The evidence vanished before the hearing. The prosecutor received a different ledger. My father was convicted, and your grandfather paid for the witnesses to disappear.”
“Do you have proof of that?”
Mara removed a small envelope from the folder. Inside was a photograph of a handwritten note.
“My father gave this to my mother before he was arrested. He told her to keep it somewhere no one would look.”
The note contained one sentence: If anything happens to me, ask Margaret what happened on the night of the winter concert.
Adrian read it twice.
“The winter concert?”
“My mother played the waltz at your family home. She told me your mother was there. She said Margaret had planned to tell the board that your grandfather was stealing from the company.”
Adrian stepped back. He remembered the winter concert. He remembered his mother leaving the ballroom early. He remembered being told she had gone to bed.
He also remembered the next morning, when his father announced that Margaret had died during the night.
“What happened to my mother?” he asked.
Mara looked at him. “I don’t know. But I think your family lied about that too.”
A noise sounded in the corridor.
Daniel drew his weapon.
The lights flickered once, then went out.
Mara gripped the folder. Adrian reached for her hand in the darkness.
“Stay behind me,” he whispered.
A door slammed somewhere beyond the archive.
May you like
Then came the unmistakable sound of a key turning in the outer lock.
Someone had locked them inside.
