Chapter 2 - WHAT LUCY SAW THE NIGHT BEFORE
“Daniel, don’t.”
He turned toward Vanessa.
The authority had vanished from her voice.
Daniel lowered his hand without touching the panel.
“Everybody out of this room.”
Vanessa immediately stepped forward.
“You’re overreacting.”
Daniel ignored her.
“Ethan, take Lucy to the breakfast room. Stay there.”
Ethan hesitated.
He wanted to know what was hidden behind that wall.
But Lucy was clutching his sleeve so tightly that her fingers had turned pale.
Daniel saw it.
His voice softened.
“Please.”
Ethan nodded.
As he guided Lucy toward the doors, Vanessa said, “It’s probably part of the old construction. You don’t even know what you’re looking at.”
Daniel answered without raising his voice.
“Then you shouldn’t be afraid of me looking.”
Ethan glanced back once.
Vanessa was standing directly between Daniel and the damaged panel.
That was enough.
Whatever was hidden there, she knew about it.
In the breakfast room, Lucy climbed onto a chair but refused to release Ethan’s hand.
He waited until her breathing slowed.
Then he asked quietly, “Why did you tell Dad to look behind the wall?”
Lucy stared toward the hallway.
“I saw her there.”
“Vanessa?”
Lucy nodded.
“When?”
“Last night.”
Ethan crouched beside her.
He knew better than to interrogate a seven-year-old.
“What was she doing?”
“She pulled the soft wall.”
“The silk?”
Lucy nodded.
“And then?”
“There was a lady.”
Ethan felt a chill.
“What lady?”
“The yellow-hair lady.”
“Blonde?”
Lucy shrugged.
“Hair like Vanessa’s. Longer.”
“Was she inside the wall?”
Lucy shook her head quickly.
“No. She was standing in the room.”
Relief came first.
Then confusion.
“What happened?”
“She gave Vanessa something.”
“What?”
“A blue thing.”
“A folder?”
Lucy nodded.
“Then Vanessa opened the wall and put it inside.”
Ethan stared at her.
Now the blonde hair made more sense.
Maybe whoever had been meeting Vanessa had leaned near the opening.
Maybe the strands had snagged on something inside.
Daniel entered several minutes later.
He had not opened the hidden space.
Instead, he had called Martin Hale, the estate manager, and ordered the gallery sealed until someone could determine what had been altered.
Then he crouched in front of Ethan.
“Did she hurt you?”
“I’m okay.”
Daniel held his gaze.
“Being okay doesn’t make what she did acceptable.”
Ethan said nothing.
Daniel turned toward Lucy.
She immediately leaned into Ethan.
Daniel noticed that too.
Ethan told him what Lucy had seen.
Daniel listened without interrupting.
When Ethan finished, Daniel stood slowly.
“A blonde woman gave Vanessa a blue folder?”
Lucy nodded.
“And Vanessa hid it behind the wall?”
Another nod.
Daniel pulled out his phone.
Not to search for evidence.
To call Rebecca Sloan, the architect who had supervised the gallery renovation three years earlier.
Before dialing, he looked toward the hallway.
“Vanessa told me those walls were decorative.”
Ethan frowned.
“They aren’t?”
Daniel’s expression hardened.
“I paid for this renovation.”
May you like
Then he looked back toward the sealed gallery.
“And I never approved a hidden compartment.”
