Chapter 6 - The Red Door.
Victor Hale arrived in a charcoal suit and carried no umbrella despite the rain.
He was in his late fifties, silver at the temples, calm in a way that made the security men seem nervous around him.
When Natalie entered the drawing room with Lucas the next morning, Victor was already drinking coffee with Daniel.
His eyes moved to her before they moved to the child.
“So this is the new housekeeper.”
“Maid,” Natalie corrected.
Victor smiled without warmth.
“Of course.”
Lucas moved behind Natalie's skirt.
Victor noticed.
“You’ve made an impression.”
Natalie placed a tray on the table.
“So has the house.”
Daniel gave her a warning look.
Victor only smiled wider.
“I hear there was excitement yesterday.”
Lucas pressed closer to Natalie.
Daniel set down his cup.
“Not in front of him.”
Victor lifted one hand.
“My mistake.”
He looked at Lucas.
“Would you like to see the new car in the garage?”
Lucas shook his head.
Victor's smile disappeared for half a second.
Natalie saw it.
After breakfast, Daniel called Victor into the study.
Evelyn took the kitchen inventory.
For the first time since the envelope appeared, the west corridor was empty.
Lucas tugged Natalie's hand.
“Red door.”
She looked down at him.
“Your dad said no one enters.”
Lucas's expression sharpened.
“He says no to everything about Mama.”
Natalie wanted to tell him that rules still mattered.
Then she remembered the letter that had somehow traveled from a locked room to the hallway after two years.
Someone wanted them to look.
Or someone wanted them blamed for looking.
Natalie chose caution.
“We don’t break the lock.”
Lucas nodded.
They walked to the corridor anyway.
The red door was closed.
Natalie knelt and examined the carpet.
A thin scrape marked the baseboard beside the frame.
Fresh.
She stood.
On the wall opposite the door hung a portrait of Daniel's grandfather.
Lucas pointed behind it.
“Evelyn hides keys.”
Natalie stared at him.
“How do you know?”
“I hide too.”
She moved the portrait just enough to see a narrow brass hook.
A single old key rested behind the frame.
Natalie did not touch it.
Lucas did.
Before she could stop him, he pulled it free and pushed it into the red door's lock.
It turned.
Natalie's heartbeat accelerated.
The door opened two inches.
A faint scent of lavender escaped into the hall.
Lucas went completely still.
“Mama smelled like that.”
Natalie pushed the door wider.
The room beyond had been preserved like a photograph.
A pale yellow robe hung over a chair.
Books remained stacked beside the bed.
A pair of slippers waited beneath a vanity as if their owner might return before dinner.
Dust covered nearly everything.
Nearly.
There were footprints across the floor.
Adult footprints.
Recent ones.
Natalie stepped inside.
Lucas followed.
On the vanity stood a silver frame containing another photograph of Claire holding Lucas as a baby.
Beside it was a small wooden jewelry box.
The dust had been wiped from its lid.
Natalie opened it carefully.
There was no jewelry inside.
Only a folded receipt from a private courier service.
The date was three days earlier.
The delivery address was the Brooks mansion.
The sender's name had been blacked out.
Lucas pointed toward the bed.
“Look.”
A corner of white paper protruded from beneath the mattress.
Natalie pulled it free.
It was not a letter.
It was a list of dates.
Twenty-three dates over the previous eighteen months.
Next to each one was the same handwritten note.
Returned unopened.
At the bottom was a final line.
If Daniel refuses the twenty-fourth letter, I am coming home myself.
Natalie's mouth went dry.
A floorboard creaked in the hallway.
She turned.
Victor stood in the doorway.
May you like
His expression was perfectly calm.
“You really should learn which doors are meant to stay closed.”
