Chapter 6 The Melody in the Dark
The piano played one more note.
Then another.
Audrey could not move.
The melody was simple. Four notes rising, two falling.
She had heard it throughout her childhood.
Her grandfather used to play it when he worked late in his study. Sometimes, when Audrey was a little girl, she would sit beneath his drafting table and listen while he played the same tune over and over.
He had called it a song for unfinished things.
Now it was coming from the piano in a dark room.
Ethan reached for Audrey.
This time she let him take her hand.
“Don't move,” he whispered.
“I wasn't planning to.”
He pulled out his phone and switched on the flashlight.
The beam crossed the room.
The piano bench was empty.
The curtains were still.
The windows were closed.
Nothing moved.
Then the music stopped.
Audrey's fingers tightened around Ethan's.
“Check the hallway,” she whispered.
He nodded.
They moved together.
The door was open.
The hallway was empty.
Ethan checked the staircase.
Nothing.
The lower floor was dark.
“Whoever did this knows the house,” he said.
Audrey looked at him.
“Could they have entered before we arrived?”
“Yes.”
“Then why wait until now?”
“I don't know.”
She hated those words.
But tonight she had begun to understand that sometimes the most dangerous answer was not a lie.
It was a truth nobody wanted to hear.
Ethan walked downstairs.
Audrey followed.
They checked every room.
Nothing.
No broken window.
No open door.
No stranger hiding behind furniture.
The house was empty.
Yet someone had been there.
Audrey returned to the music room.
She stood beside the piano.
Her grandfather's melody still seemed to hang in the air.
She looked at the keys.
“Ethan.”
He turned.
“Come here.”
He approached.
She pointed at the keyboard.
One key was slightly lower than the others.
Audrey pressed it.
A soft click came from beneath the piano.
Ethan crouched.
“There.”
A narrow compartment had opened beneath the keyboard.
Inside was a small recording device.
Audrey stared at it.
“Another message.”
Ethan picked it up.
The device switched on automatically.
Static filled the room.
Then a woman's voice spoke.
“Hello, Audrey.”
Audrey's heart stopped.
She knew that voice.
“Grandma?”
Ethan looked at her.
The recording continued.
“If you're hearing this, you have found the room your grandfather trusted more than any person.”
Audrey closed her eyes.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
The recording could not answer.
Her grandmother continued.
“I know you will have questions. You deserve answers. But before I give them to you, there is something you must understand.”
A pause.
“Your husband is not the enemy.”
Ethan went still.
Audrey looked at him.
The recording continued.
“He is guilty of one terrible thing.”
Ethan's jaw tightened.
“He believed silence was protection.”
Audrey looked down.
Her grandmother's voice softened.
“But that weakness does not make him your enemy.”
Ethan closed his eyes.
Audrey had never heard anyone describe him so accurately.
Then the recording changed.
“Ethan, if you are listening too, I need you to understand something.”
He opened his eyes.
“You have spent your life trying to repair the damage caused by your family. You cannot do that by becoming another man who controls the truth.”
Ethan swallowed.
“I know,” he whispered.
The recording continued.
“The Ashford investigation is not about your father anymore.”
A pause.
“It is about the person who has been watching both families for twenty years.”
Audrey's pulse quickened.
“Someone close to us?”
“Yes.”
The answer came from the recording.
“Someone who has never needed to hide because nobody thought to question them.”
Audrey looked at Ethan.
“Who?”
The recording fell silent.
Then came another sentence.
“You already know the name.”
The device clicked off.
Audrey stared at it.
“That was cruel.”
Ethan shook his head.
“She wanted us to search.”
“Search where?”
“Everywhere.”
Audrey looked toward the piano.
Then she remembered the blueprint.
The hidden room beneath the Ashford.
“We need to go there.”
Ethan nodded.
“Tomorrow.”
“No.”
He looked at her.
“Tonight.”
“Audrey, it's nearly midnight.”
“That is exactly why.”
He understood.
If someone was watching, daylight would give them time to prepare.
Audrey picked up her coat.
Ethan stopped her.
“We need security.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because I don't know who we can trust.”
He considered that.
Then nodded.
“I'll drive.”
The Ashford Hotel stood at the northern edge of Harbor Ridge.
Once, it had been one of the city's most admired buildings.
Its white stone walls rose above the cliffs, overlooking the dark ocean.
For years it had been abandoned.
Now scaffolding covered one side.
Calloway Development Group had begun the first stage of restoration before the project became tangled in the investigation.
Ethan parked several streets away.
They approached on foot.
The wind coming from the water was sharp.
Audrey pulled her coat tighter.
Ethan noticed.
Without speaking, he removed his coat and held it out.
She hesitated.
“I have one.”
“You're cold.”
“I'll be fine.”
“I know.”
He kept holding it.
After a moment, she accepted.
“Thank you.”
“You're welcome.”
It was such an ordinary exchange.
Almost painfully ordinary.
They continued toward the hotel.
At the construction gate, Ethan used his access card.
The lock opened.
Audrey glanced at him.
“You still have access?”
“I own the company.”
“You're still my husband too.”
He looked at her.
“Is that a question?”
“I don't know.”
Neither said anything else.
They entered.
Inside, the building smelled of dust, stone, and fresh plaster.
Their footsteps echoed through the empty lobby.
Audrey remembered visiting the hotel as a child.
She had been fascinated by its grand staircase.
Her grandfather had once told her that every building had a memory.
She had thought it was just something old architects said.
Now she wondered whether he had known exactly what he meant.
Ethan led her toward the service corridor.
“The original basement is beneath this section.”
They descended.
The temperature dropped.
At the bottom was a steel door.
Ethan shone his flashlight over it.
“There's no lock.”
Audrey looked at the brass key in her hand.
“Then why did Martin give me this?”
She turned.
A small panel was hidden beside the door.
She inserted the key.
Nothing happened.
She tried again.
Still nothing.
Ethan studied the mechanism.
“Maybe it's not for the door.”
He looked around.
Then his flashlight stopped on a section of brick wall.
One brick was slightly different.
He pressed it.
A panel opened.
Inside was a keyhole.
Audrey inserted the key.
A heavy mechanism moved beneath the floor.
The steel door opened.
Beyond it was a narrow stairway.
Audrey looked at Ethan.
“You first.”
He smiled faintly.
“You're getting better at ordering me around.”
“I've had a good teacher.”
They descended.
At the bottom was a small archive room.
Dust covered the shelves.
Old boxes filled the walls.
Audrey's heart raced.
“This is it.”
Ethan walked toward the nearest shelf.
Boxes were labeled by year.
He pulled down the 2006 box.
Inside were financial documents.
Contracts.
Property records.
Bank statements.
Letters.
Audrey began searching.
Then Ethan froze.
“What?”
He held up a folder.
The name on it was Richard Calloway.
Audrey moved closer.
Inside was a series of handwritten notes.
Ethan read the first one.
His expression changed.
“What?”
He handed it to her.
The note was written by Richard.
If I disappear, Martin must never be trusted.
Audrey stared.
The next page was worse.
Martin knows about the transfers. He helped create them.
Ethan's face went pale.
“Then Martin lied.”
Audrey kept reading.
Richard had written about a secret partnership.
Three companies.
One financial account.
And a series of payments made through the Ashford.
At the bottom of the final page was a name.
Victoria Hart.
Audrey looked up.
“Victoria?”
Ethan stared at the page.
“She worked for my father.”
“You told me she was his friend.”
“She was.”
“Then why is her name here?”
“I don't know.”
“You really need to stop saying that.”
“I know.”
They searched the remaining documents.
Then Audrey found another file.
It contained photographs.
One showed Richard.
Another showed Martin.
A third showed Victoria.
The final photograph made Audrey stop.
It showed Victoria standing beside Evelyn Parker.
They were smiling.
Audrey's grandmother looked years younger.
On the back was a date.
Three days before James disappeared.
Audrey's hands trembled.
“Victoria knew my grandmother.”
Ethan looked at the photograph.
“Apparently.”
Audrey turned it over.
A handwritten note appeared beneath the date.
She is not who Audrey thinks she is.
Audrey frowned.
“What does that mean?”
Ethan looked around the archive.
“I don't know.”
Then they heard something.
A metallic clang.
From above.
Audrey froze.
“Someone followed us.”
Ethan switched off his flashlight.
They stood in darkness.
Footsteps sounded on the stairs.
Slow.
Measured.
Coming down.
Audrey's heart hammered.
Ethan pulled her behind a shelving unit.
The footsteps stopped.
Silence.
Then a man's voice echoed through the archive.
“You shouldn't have come.”
Ethan's body stiffened.
Audrey recognized the voice.
It belonged to Martin.
She looked at Ethan.
He shook his head.
Don't.
The footsteps moved closer.
Martin spoke again.
“You've already found too much.”
Ethan stepped from behind the shelf.
“Then stop hiding.”
Martin stood at the bottom of the stairs.
His face was pale.
He looked older than before.
More frightened.
Ethan moved toward him.
“You lied to us.”
Martin shook his head.
“I lied because I had to.”
“You told me my father was murdered.”
“He was.”
“You said you didn't know where James Parker went.”
“I didn't.”
“You said the person responsible was still alive.”
Martin looked at Audrey.
“Yes.”
“Who?”
Martin's eyes filled with regret.
“Your grandmother.”
Audrey felt the world stop.
“My grandmother?”
Martin nodded.
“She wasn't protecting James.”
He swallowed.
“She was the reason he disappeared.”
Ethan stared at him.
“That makes no sense.”
Martin looked at Audrey.
“Ask her about the night she came home covered in blood.”
Audrey's face went cold.
“My grandmother never—”
A sound interrupted her.
A gunshot echoed somewhere above them.
Martin flinched.
Then he looked toward the stairs.
“They found us.”
“Who?” Ethan demanded.
Martin stepped backward.
“The people who started this.”
Another shot.
Closer.
Martin grabbed the archive door.
“Run.”
He opened a second hidden passage behind the shelves.
Audrey stared at the darkness beyond it.
Ethan took her hand.
They ran.
Behind them, footsteps thundered down the stairs.
And as Audrey disappeared into the passage, she heard Martin shout one final warning.
“Whatever you do, don't let Victoria find your grandmother first!”
Then another.
A slow melody Audrey recognized from childhood.
Her grandfather's favorite song.
Neither of them was touching it.
Audrey whispered,
“Someone is in the room.”