The Door Beneath the Ballroom
Chapter 06 - The Door Beneath the Ballroom
Daniel found the basement stairwell behind a row of rusted hospital lockers.
The door had been painted the same gray as the wall. A chair had been wedged beneath the handle from the outside.
Natalie kicked the chair away. “That is not an accident.”
Daniel pulled the door open.
Cold air rose from below.
The stairs were narrow and uneven. He descended sideways, keeping one hand against the wall. Halfway down, he found another rose petal pressed into a crack.
“Mia!” he shouted.
A sound answered, but it was swallowed by the building’s ventilation system.
He reached the basement. Three tunnels branched beneath the ballroom. Old pipes rattled overhead. Music vibrated faintly through the ceiling, a cheerful bass line above a place that smelled of mildew and machine oil.
Daniel closed his eyes.
Search scenes were loud even when they seemed quiet. Pipes clicked. Electricity hummed. Water moved through walls. Fear made rescuers chase the first sound they wanted to hear.
He forced himself to separate each noise.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
He turned right.
Three more taps.
He moved faster.
One.
The tunnel ended at a steel maintenance door. A heavy padlock hung open from the latch, but the door had swollen in its frame.
“Mia, step away from the door!”
“Dad?”
Her voice was small and cracked.
Daniel drove his shoulder against the steel. Pain shot through his arm. The door shifted half an inch.
Natalie joined him. “On three.”
They hit it together.
The frame tore loose.
Daniel entered with his flashlight raised.
Mia sat against the far wall in her white dress, knees pulled to her chest. Cobwebs hung from the ceiling. An old flashlight lay beside her, its weak beam pointed toward the door. Her pearl bracelet was gone. A red mark circled one wrist where Grant had grabbed her.
For one impossible second, Daniel saw her as a toddler again, asleep on Emma’s chest.
Then Mia stood and ran to him.
He dropped to his knees and caught her.
“I knew you’d hear me,” she sobbed.
“I’m sorry.”
“You told me rescue knots don’t come loose.”
“I know.”
“This one did.”
He held her tighter. “Then I tied it wrong.”
Mia pressed her face into his shoulder. “Claire put me here.”
Daniel’s body went still.
Natalie crouched beside them. “Did anyone hurt you?”
“Grant grabbed me. Claire took my envelope, but I hid the other thing.”
She reached beneath the sash of her dress and pulled out the recorder.
Daniel recognized the yellow ribbon before he recognized the device.
Emma had tied that ribbon to every piece of field equipment she owned because, according to her, rescue gear should be easy to find and ugly enough not to steal.
Daniel stared at it.
“Mia,” he whispered, “where did you get this?”
“In Claire’s office.”
A faint voice came from the recorder’s speaker. The battery was nearly dead, but the words were clear.
May you like
It was Emma’s voice.
“If Daniel is hearing this,” she said, “Owen has already lied to him.”
