Chapter 3 - The Missing Composer
The name traveled through the ballroom in stunned whispers.
Samuel Vale had once been considered one of the most promising young composers in Europe. Then, eighteen years earlier, he had vanished without explanation.
Some newspapers claimed he had suffered a breakdown.
Others reported that he had stolen money from a private arts foundation and fled overseas.
Victor Langford’s company had later purchased that same foundation for almost nothing.
Samuel approached the piano slowly.
He looked older than the photographs Daniel had seen online, but his eyes were clear and watchful.
“You’re Lydia’s son,” he said.
Daniel nodded cautiously.
“You knew my mother?”
Samuel looked at the faded tattoo.
“I knew her better than anyone.”
Victor stepped between them.
“This man is not welcome here.”
Samuel smiled without humor.
“You said the same thing the night you took my music.”
Several guests raised their phones.
Victor noticed immediately.
“Put those away,” he snapped. “This is a private event.”
Nobody obeyed.
Samuel opened the wooden case.
Inside were dozens of handwritten music sheets, yellowed by age. The title on the first page read: The Winter Room Concerto.
Daniel recognized the notes instantly.
It was the melody his mother had taught him.
Samuel placed the pages on the piano.
“I wrote the first movement,” he explained. “Lydia completed the second. The third was supposed to be ours together.”
Daniel looked down at the music.
“Why did she tell me it belonged only to her?”
Samuel’s expression changed.
“Because she was afraid.”
“Afraid of what?”
Samuel looked toward Victor.
“Of the man who wanted to own everything we created.”
Victor’s face tightened.
“That is a lie.”
Samuel reached deeper into the case and removed a small cassette recorder.
“This contains the rehearsal from the final night we were together.”
Victor stared at it.
“You kept that?”
“I kept everything.”
Eleanor moved beside Samuel.
“What happened that night?”
Samuel glanced around the ballroom.
“Victor offered us a contract. Lydia refused. She believed the music should remain ours until the concerto was finished.”
Daniel felt a cold pressure building in his chest.
“And then?”
“Then the studio caught fire.”
The room became completely still.
Daniel remembered the story his mother had told him. She had said the fire was an accident. She had said all the recordings were destroyed and Samuel had disappeared before the police could question him.
Samuel touched the cassette recorder.
“The fire was not an accident.”
Victor suddenly reached for the device.
Daniel moved faster.
He stepped between them and caught Victor’s wrist.
Gasps erupted from the guests.
Victor pulled away furiously.
“You have no idea what you’re involving yourself in.”
Daniel’s voice remained calm.
“I think I’m beginning to understand.”
Samuel inserted the cassette into the recorder and pressed play.
Static filled the ballroom.
Then Lydia’s younger voice emerged from the small speaker.
“Victor, put the fuel can down.”
The recording stopped abruptly.
Samuel looked at the machine in confusion.
The cassette wheels were no longer turning.
A red light blinked once and went dark.
Victor smiled faintly.
Before anyone could speak, every chandelier in the ballroom switched off at the same time.
The room fell into darkness.
A woman screamed.
Then came the sound of glass breaking near the piano.
When the emergency lights flickered on, the wooden case was open.
May you like
The music sheets were gone.
And Samuel Vale had disappeared.
