PART 4 — THE SECRET BENEATH THE FLOOR
Natalie’s voice trembled when she said it.
“Who.”
I stared at her from the hospital bed.
“What do you mean, who?”
She pressed the phone against her chest as if she wanted to keep the words from escaping.
“They found someone beneath the basement.”
My skin turned cold.
“Rebecca?”
Natalie shook her head slowly.
“No.”
That frightened me even more.
Detective Reyes arrived twenty minutes later.
His face looked different.
Not shocked.
Not confused.
Heavy.
The expression of someone who had just discovered that a terrible case was much larger than he had imagined.
He closed the hospital room door.
My daughter slept beside me.
I instinctively reached toward the bassinet.
“Tell me.”
Reyes pulled a chair closer.
“The opening beneath the cabinet led to a narrow storage chamber.”
I swallowed.
“How big?”
“Large enough for someone to stand inside.”
Natalie covered her mouth.
Reyes continued.
“There was a mattress. Empty water bottles. Old clothing. Chains attached to the wall.”
My stomach turned.
Another cage.
Only hidden underground.
“Who did you find?”
Reyes looked down at his hands.
“A woman.”
“Alive?”
He nodded.
“Barely.”
I started crying before I even knew why.
Maybe because someone else had survived.
Maybe because suddenly I understood I had never been the first.
“Her name is Elena Morris.”
The name hit me instantly.
Elena.
The woman Rebecca had mentioned on the recording.
You did the same thing to Elena.
I whispered, “She’s alive.”
“She is.”
Natalie sank into the chair beside my bed.
“But Rebecca’s recording was six months old. How long has Elena been down there?”
Reyes hesitated.
“Based on what she told paramedics, nearly six years.”
I felt sick.
Six years.
Six years beneath a house where people celebrated birthdays.
Six years beneath dinners and laughter and holidays.
Six years while Marcus walked upstairs pretending to be normal.
“How is that possible?”
“She wasn’t kept there continuously.”
Reyes opened his folder.
“According to Elena, Marcus moved her between several locations over the years.”
“Why?”
“She tried to report him.”
I looked at Reyes.
“For what?”
He glanced toward my sleeping daughter before answering.
“For assault. Blackmail. Financial fraud. And something much worse.”
My throat tightened.
“What?”
“Rebecca’s disappearance.”
Natalie whispered, “So Elena knew Rebecca?”
“Yes.”
“They worked together.”
Everything began connecting.
Rebecca.
Elena.
Marcus.
The old phone.
The message beneath the case.
I stared at Reyes.
“Rebecca wasn’t his girlfriend.”
“No.”
“What was she?”
“A witness.”
Reyes placed several photographs onto the table.
Security-camera images.
Marcus entering a building.
Rebecca following several minutes later.
Elena standing beside a car.
“They all worked for the same company.”
Reyes tapped the photographs.
“Rebecca discovered Marcus had been stealing money from clients using falsified accounts.”
Natalie frowned.
“How much?”
“Millions.”
I almost laughed.
Not because anything was funny.
Because Marcus had spent years controlling every dollar I spent.
He questioned grocery receipts.
He demanded explanations if I bought coffee.
Meanwhile, he had apparently been stealing fortunes.
Reyes continued.
“Rebecca confronted him. Elena helped collect evidence.”
“And Marcus found out.”
“Yes.”
“What happened to Rebecca?”
Reyes paused.
“We still don’t know.”
“But Elena might.”
“She remembers pieces.”
He lowered his voice.
“She says Marcus took Rebecca somewhere the night she disappeared.”
The room became silent.
“Where?”
“Elena doesn’t know.”
“Why not?”
“Because Marcus attacked her before leaving.”
Natalie whispered, “And then he imprisoned her?”
“Yes.”
I looked toward the window.
Morning sunlight was beginning to fill the room.
The world outside looked ordinary.
Cars moving.
People going to work.
Coffee shops opening.
I wondered how many times I had passed houses just like mine and never imagined what might be happening underneath them.
Reyes continued.
“Elena eventually escaped.”
My head snapped toward him.
“Escaped?”
“Three years ago.”
“Then why didn’t she go to the police?”
“She tried.”
My heart sank.
Reyes pulled another document from his folder.
“Elena gave a statement to an officer in another county.”
“What happened?”
“It disappeared.”
Natalie stared at him.
“What do you mean disappeared?”
“No report was filed.”
“That’s impossible.”
“Not if someone deliberately buried it.”
I immediately thought of Marcus.
“He paid someone.”
“We’re investigating.”
Then Reyes said something that changed everything.
“Elena says the officer who interviewed her knew Marcus personally.”
My entire body stiffened.
“Who?”
Reyes watched me.
“You know him.”
I shook my head.
“No.”
“Officer Daniel Cole.”
I stopped breathing.
Daniel.
Marcus’s best friend.
He had attended our wedding.
He had been at our house for Christmas.
He had once joked that Marcus and I were “the perfect couple.”
And three months before Marcus locked me in the basement, Daniel had come to dinner.
I remembered something then.
Something small.
Something I had completely forgotten.
After dinner, Daniel had followed Marcus into the garage.
They argued quietly.
I had heard Marcus say, “You already handled it once.”
At the time, I assumed they were talking about some work problem.
Now I understood.
I looked at Reyes.
“Daniel knows.”
“We believe so.”
“He helped Marcus.”
“We’re trying to determine how much.”
Natalie stood.
“Arrest him.”
“We have officers looking for him.”
“Looking?”
Reyes’s expression answered before he did.
“He’s missing.”
My heart dropped.
“Since when?”
“Since approximately forty minutes after Marcus was arrested.”
The timing was not a coincidence.
Daniel had run.
But why?
Then my old phone began ringing.
Everyone froze.
The phone was still inside the evidence bag on the table.
Detective Reyes looked at the screen.
UNKNOWN NUMBER.
Nobody moved.
It rang again.
Reyes pulled on gloves and activated the speaker.
“Hello?”
Silence.
Then breathing.
A man’s voice finally answered.
“Put her on.”
My blood went cold.
I knew that voice.
Daniel.
Reyes signaled everyone to stay quiet.
“She’s unavailable.”
Daniel laughed softly.
“Don’t lie to me, Detective.”
Reyes glanced toward me.
Daniel continued.
“Elena survived.”
Nobody responded.
“And now Marcus is talking.”
His voice became colder.
“That means I don’t have much time.”
I whispered, “What do you want?”
Reyes looked at me sharply, but it was too late.
Daniel heard me.
“There you are.”
I gripped the hospital blanket.
“You helped him.”
Daniel sighed.
“You have no idea what Marcus is capable of.”
“I know exactly what he’s capable of.”
“No.”
Daniel’s voice dropped.
“You know what he did to you.”
A pause.
“You don’t know what he did before you.”
Reyes quietly began signaling another officer outside the room.
They were tracing the call.
I kept Daniel talking.
“Where’s Rebecca?”
Silence.
Then Daniel said something I never expected.
“Rebecca isn’t dead.”
Natalie grabbed my arm.
I stared at the phone.
“Where is she?”
“That depends.”
“On what?”
“On whether Marcus still has what he stole from me.”
Reyes frowned.
“What did he steal?”
Daniel laughed once.
“You really haven’t figured it out.”
The line crackled.
Then he spoke directly to me.
“The recordings on that phone were never Rebecca’s insurance policy.”
My stomach tightened.
“They were mine.”
Detective Reyes stepped closer.
Daniel continued.
“I gave that phone to Rebecca because I knew Marcus was dangerous.”
I could barely speak.
“Then why did you help him?”
Daniel went silent.
When he answered, his voice sounded different.
Ashamed.
“Because Marcus found out what I had done.”
“What did you do?”
Daniel inhaled.
“I helped Rebecca escape.”
Natalie and I stared at each other.
Reyes stopped moving.
Daniel continued.
“She disappeared because I made her disappear.”
“Then where is she?”
“I told you. Alive.”
“Where?”
“You want Rebecca?”
“Yes.”
“Then listen carefully.”
His voice hardened.
“Marcus kept something in your house that even his mother didn’t know about.”
“What?”
“A safe.”
Reyes immediately asked, “Where?”
Daniel ignored him.
“Elena knows the combination.”
I looked at Reyes.
“Why does the safe matter?”
Daniel answered.
“Because inside it is the reason Marcus destroyed Rebecca’s life.”
My chest tightened.
“And if the police open that safe?”
Daniel paused.
“Then you’ll finally understand why Marcus didn’t lock you in that basement because he hated you.”
I whispered, “Then why?”
Daniel’s next words made every person in the room go still.
“Because he discovered you had something Rebecca had been searching for.”
I stared at the phone.
“I don’t have anything.”
“Yes, you do.”
“What?”
The call began breaking apart.
“Daniel!”
His voice returned for only a second.
“Ask Natalie about the photograph your father left behind.”
I turned toward my sister.
Her face went completely white.
Natalie stepped backward.
I stared at her.
“What photograph?”
She said nothing.
“Natalie?”
Tears filled her eyes.
“There’s something I never told you.”
Before she could explain, Detective Reyes’s radio suddenly erupted.
“Detective, we found the safe.”
Reyes grabbed it.
“Status?”
The officer on the other end hesitated.
Then said:
“It’s already open.”
Reyes frowned.
“Who opened it?”
Another pause.
“Nobody here.”
My heart began pounding.
The officer continued.
“And whatever was inside is gone.”………
TO BE CONTINUED IN LAST PART…
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