Chapter 26 - flickering shadows
The tunnel ended beneath the timber floorboards of the carriage house, three hundred yards from the main mansion. I climbed the rusted iron ladder, pushing open the wooden trapdoor, and emerged into the dusty, shadow-filled interior of the old stable room.
The space was lit only by the pale moonlight filtering through the cracked skylights above. Cobwebs hung from the timber rafters like grey rags, and the air smelled of dry hay, old leather harness oil, and gasoline.
Sitting on an overturned wooden crate in the center of the room was three-year-old Chloe. She was holding her small stuffed yellow bear, her boots swinging inches above the dusty floor. She wasn't crying. She looked up at me with her wide brown eyes, pointing a tiny finger toward the darkened office stall at the back of the stable.
"Uncle Julian is fixing the light," she whispered softly into the quiet room.
I froze, the flashlight beam in my hand trembling against the wooden floorboards.
Step by step, I walked toward the open doorway of the office stall. The door hung loose on a single hinge. Inside, seated behind a rusted iron desk illuminated by a single flickering battery lamp, sat a man.
He wore a faded dark coat, his face covered in a thick, unkempt beard, his right cheek bearing a jagged, silver scar that ran from his ear down to his collarbone. But his eyes—those sharp, grey, analytical eyes—were unmistakable.
It was Julian.
Beside him stood Nora, her hands folded tightly in front of her apron, her face completely expressionless.
May you like
"You took your time, Dan," Julian said, his voice gravelly and deep, ruined by smoke and years of silence. He reached down and picked up a heavy steel thermos, pouring dark coffee into a plastic cap. "I see you found the microfilm in the Zippo."
"You let me mourn you for three years," I said, my voice shaking with an uncontrollable rage that made my chest ache. "I stood at your grave, Julian. I paid off your debt! I took care of our father's company while you played dead in the dark!"
