Chapter 8 - THE EMPTY BEDROOM
Adrian returned to the estate before sunrise.
Celeste’s bedroom was empty.
The officers assigned to watch her claimed a senior detective had ordered her transfer.
No official transfer existed.
The detective’s name had been forged.
Celeste had left through the front gate in a police vehicle.
Lily slept in Nora’s room under the protection of two private guards.
Adrian sat beside her bed.
Victor’s final words repeated in his mind.
“Ask your daughter what her mother taught her to count.”
When Lily woke, Adrian gently questioned her.
“Did Mommy teach you a special counting game?”
Lily rubbed her eyes.
“She taught me to count the stars.”
“What stars?”
“The silver stars in the music room.”
Adrian entered the music room with Nora and Daniel.
A mural of the night sky covered the domed ceiling.
Isabelle had commissioned it before Lily’s birth.
Hundreds of silver stars surrounded a painted moon.
Lily walked to the grand piano.
“Mommy said to start where the music ends.”
She pressed the final key.
Then she counted seven stars across the ceiling.
She moved to the seventh brass panel along the wall.
Behind it, they found a narrow compartment.
Inside was a small cassette recorder and a sealed envelope.
Adrian pressed play.
Isabelle’s voice filled the room.
“Adrian, if you are hearing this, I failed to stop them.”
He closed his eyes.
“I do not believe you approved the stolen transfers.”
“Victor used copies of your credentials.”
“Marcus controlled the estate records.”
“Samuel altered medical documents.”
“Celeste entered our lives through Victor.”
Nora covered her mouth.
Isabelle continued.
“The evidence is divided into three parts.”
“The financial records are in Locker 317.”
“The accident evidence is hidden where Lily first learned to swim.”
“The final confession is with someone Victor believes is dead.”
The tape clicked.
Then Isabelle added one last sentence.
“Do not trust the police captain wearing my husband’s ring.”
Daniel looked at Adrian’s hand.
Adrian wore the Vale family signet ring.
Only three copies had ever existed.
Adrian owned one.
Victor owned another.
The third had belonged to Adrian’s father.
It had disappeared after his funeral.
Daniel accessed the police personnel database.
A photograph appeared on the screen.
Captain Elias Brand wore the missing signet ring on his right hand.
He was also the officer who had supervised Isabelle’s accident investigation.
At that moment, a guard rushed into the music room.
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“Mr. Vale, Lily is gone.”
On her bed lay a white rose.
