Chapter 3: A Voice from the Locked Room
Richard held the letter beneath the dining-room light.
“Read it aloud,” Mark said.
“Let everyone hear how unstable Emily was.”
Richard looked at him.
“You told me Emily disappeared on November twelfth.”
“She did.”
“This letter is dated November fourteenth.”
Claudia reached for Noah.
“This is upsetting him.
We’re taking him home.”
Noah buried his face against Richard’s shoulder.
“I don’t want to go in the dark room.”
Richard’s fingers tightened around the letter.
“What dark room?”
“He means his bedroom,” Claudia said.
“He calls everything dark when he doesn’t get his way.”
“No windows,” Noah whispered.
“And no supper if I cry.”
A chair scraped behind them.
Several birthday guests turned toward Mark, but he lifted his hands.
“He exaggerates.
Emily taught him that.”
Richard unfolded the second page.
“Dad,” he read, “if Mark tells you I left Noah, do not believe him.
Claudia has access to my medical records and Mark has control of my phone.
They are trying to make me look confused.”
“That proves nothing,” Mark said.
“She wrote accusations constantly.”
“Then why did you hide it?”
“I didn’t.”
Noah raised his head.
“Claudia put it in the blue box.”
Claudia’s smile disappeared.
Richard handed the memory card to Jonah Price, the lodge manager.
“Do you have a computer that can read this?”
Jonah nodded.
“In my office.”
“No,” Claudia said.
“That card belongs to us.”
“It was inside my granddaughter’s airplane,” Richard replied.
“You said Noah stole it from your room.
Which story would you like to keep?”
Jonah returned with a laptop and inserted the card.
One video file appeared.
Emily’s face filled the screen.
Her hair was tangled, and a white identification band circled her wrist.
“Dad, my name here is Emma Cole.
Silver Pines, room 214.
Mark brought me here after Claudia signed forms saying I was dangerous.
I am not dangerous.
I am—”
The screen went black.
Every light in the dining room vanished.
Claudia moved first.
Richard heard her shoes against the floor, then felt a hand close around the laptop.
“Let go,” he said.
“You’ll destroy this family!”
“No.
I’m beginning to see who already did.”
Jonah switched on his phone light.
Mark stood beside the electrical panel, his hand still on the emergency cutoff.
“The storm caused it,” Mark said.
“You pulled the switch,” Jonah replied.
“I watched you.”
Claudia tore the memory card from the laptop and ran toward the fireplace.
Richard caught her wrist before she could throw it into the flames.
“Open your hand.”
“You have no idea what Emily did.”
“Open it.”
Mark stepped between them.
“Dad, let Claudia go or I’ll call the sheriff.”
“Call him,” Richard said.
“Tell him why your missing wife is speaking from a locked medical facility under another name.”
Jonah held up his phone.
“The file copied automatically to the lodge server.”
Mark stared at him.
“Delete it.”
“No.”
“I own this lodge.”
Jonah shook his head.
“Your father owns it.
You only signed the staff emails.”
Richard took the card from Claudia’s palm.
“Where is Emily?”
“I don’t know,” she said.
Noah pointed at her.
“She talked to Mommy on the phone.”
Mark grabbed his coat.
“We’re leaving.”
“You are not taking Noah,” Richard said.
A landline rang behind the bar.
Jonah answered, listened, then slowly held the receiver toward Richard.
“It’s Silver Pines.”
Richard pressed the phone to his ear.
“I’m calling about Emma Cole, room 214.”
A woman lowered her voice.
“Mr.
Bellacorte, someone signed her out twenty minutes ago.”
“Who?”
“The authorization says her husband collected her.”
Richard looked across the room at Mark.
Mark had not left the lodge all evening.
Claudia slipped her coat over her shoulders and smiled.
May you like
“You found Emily’s message,” she said.
“But you are already too late.”
