Chapter 44 - The Seventh Chair
The photograph remained on Samuel's desk long after everyone had stopped speaking.
Seven people.
One meeting.
Only three supposedly still alive.
Samuel enlarged the image using forensic software. Every face became sharper.
Daniel immediately recognized his grandfather.
Victor Hayes stood several feet behind him, noticeably younger but unmistakable.
The elderly man from the estate occupied the center position.
The remaining four faces belonged to strangers.
Or so Daniel believed.
Lily quietly stepped closer.
"I've seen her."
She pointed toward a woman standing near the edge of the group.
Dark hair.
Long coat.
A silver brooch shaped like an oak leaf.
Daniel frowned.
"Where?"
Lily closed her eyes, searching through fragmented memories.
"In Aunt Rebecca's room."
"Not recently."
"When I was little."
Rebecca had once shown Lily an old family album but quickly taken it away after Lily asked too many questions.
Samuel zoomed in further.
The woman's brooch contained tiny engraved initials.
E.M.
He searched every document recovered so far.
Minutes later, another file appeared.
A payment ledger from twenty-one years earlier.
One signature matched the initials exactly.
Eleanor Marsh.
Occupation:
Archivist.
Address:
The same abandoned estate Daniel had visited days earlier.
Daniel looked back at the photograph.
"What if the estate wasn't someone's home?"
Samuel nodded.
"What if it was their headquarters?"
As he turned the photograph over again, he noticed faint pencil impressions beneath the visible handwriting.
Using a soft graphite sheet, he carefully revealed the hidden text.
A second message slowly emerged.
Meeting No. 2 relocated after the fire.
No date.
No location.
Only a tiny symbol drawn beneath the sentence.
May you like
It was identical to the strange symbol Daniel had found carved into his grandfather's measuring tapes.
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