Chapter 7 - Eleanor's Warning
The emergency lights cast long red shadows across the underground room.
Arthur remained completely still.
Margaret backed toward the nearest desk, gripping the brass key like a weapon.
"You told me Eleanor trusted you."
"She did."
"Then why did she record that?"
"Because she had reason to believe I betrayed her."
"Did you?"
Arthur looked toward the speaker.
"Not willingly."
The recording resumed before Margaret could demand more.
"If Arthur is with you, ask him what happened aboard the Saint Brigid."
Arthur closed his eyes.
Margaret repeated the name.
"The Saint Brigid."
He said nothing.
She stepped closer.
"What happened aboard that ship?"
Arthur's voice became quiet.
"It sank during a storm in October 1983."
"That is the date on the key."
"Yes."
"Was Eleanor aboard?"
Arthur stared at the floor.
"She was supposed to be."
Margaret felt the room tilt around her.
"Supposed to be?"
"The foundation arranged to move its most dangerous records before authorities could seize them. Eleanor discovered someone inside the organization was selling names to the smugglers. She planned to take the evidence aboard the Saint Brigid and deliver it to a federal investigator."
"And you stopped her?"
"I changed the route."
"Why?"
"Because Daniel was on the ship."
Margaret's face went numb.
"My son was nine years old."
"He followed your husband to the harbor. No one realized he had climbed aboard until the vessel had already left."
Margaret remembered Daniel returning home one night soaked, frightened, and unable to explain where he had been. Her husband had claimed they were caught in heavy rain while driving.
It had been a lie.
Arthur continued.
"I sent a signal ordering the ship back. Someone intercepted it. The Saint Brigid never reached the harbor."
"But Daniel survived."
"Your husband found him in a lifeboat the next morning."
"And Eleanor?"
Arthur's silence answered before his words did.
"No body was found."
A metal drawer suddenly opened inside the far wall.
Within it rested a small cassette recorder, several sealed envelopes, and a recent color photograph.
Margaret approached carefully.
The photograph showed Eleanor standing outside a train station.
She was much older, with silver hair and deep lines across her face.
But the date printed in the corner was only six months earlier.
Margaret's knees nearly gave way.
"She is alive."
Arthur stared at the photograph in shock.
"I didn't know."
One envelope carried Margaret's name.
Another carried Daniel's.
The third was addressed to Rebecca.
Margaret opened hers first.
Inside was a single handwritten sentence.
Rebecca did not throw away the blanket to destroy it.
She threw it away because she knew you would save it.
Margaret looked toward the sealed steel door.
Before she could open Rebecca's envelope, the speaker crackled again.
This time the voice was not recorded.
May you like
It was live.
"Mother," Daniel said through the darkness, "you need to leave Arthur and come upstairs alone."
