Page 37 of The Silence of Monsters

The tension snapped that easily.

It sank in that this was the first family dinner I’d ever experienced. I wanted to memorize every moment, because it might be my last shot at something so normal and heartening, when all the ugly secrets my family had silenced over the years were given a voice.

Channing

“Where do you think you’re going?”

I stopped in the middle of the winding stairway and turned to look down at Colette, who was glaring up at me.

I agreed to wait for Win before storming the Halliday manor, but he got caught up with an emergency business meeting and couldn’t get away. I hitched a ride back to the Cove with Winnie’s security detail and rushed to the estate after stopping to purchase the sledgehammer that was slung over my shoulder. It was mostly for show and to aggravate Colette. Not that I would hesitate to smash up the floor if I found something. It could come in handy for opening the locked doors of the forgotten wing. Win didn’t want me to confront his mother alone. He said it might be dangerous. I refused to cower in front of the woman who made both my sister and my niece feel like they weren’t worthy. I was determined to put an end to Winnie’s nightmares and ghost stories once and for all. Win would just have to catch up once he was free from his endless obligations.

“This is my house. I forbid you from taking a single step further. I’ll have you arrested, Ms. Harvey.”

I rolled my eyes. Colette’s arms were crossed, and she was tapping one foot impatiently. Several of the staff members were standing protectively behind her, looking like they wouldn’t hesitate to pull me down the stairs if so ordered.

“But it’s not really your house. Is it, Colette?” I flashed a vicious smile and tilted my head to consider her condescendingly. “Isn’t this house like everything else attached to the Halliday name? It’s the property of Halliday Inc., which makes it Win’s house. Just like that exquisite desk in his office. Nothing is yours; it belongs to the company and the name Halliday. I finally understand why you were so desperate to make sure Win followed in his father’s footsteps. It makes perfect sense why you pretended to be suicidal to get him to move back to the manor. Without him, you haven’t got a claim to anything other than that stupid last name.”

Colette’s face flushed, and I could see that she was clenching her teeth with suppressed fury.

“Come down here right now or I will have you dragged down.” Colette bit out each word. She was so angry, I expected cartoon smoke to come out of her ears at any moment.

“You can drag me down these stairs and stop me. But I’ll come back with Win as soon as he’s free. When that happens, I’ll bring a jackhammer. And the damage won’t be isolated to your son’s wing. I’ll smash every valuable relic you cherish so damn much, and you know Win will not only let me, he’ll encourage the destruction. He hates this house almost as much as I do.” I lifted my eyebrows in a taunting manner. “As you Hallidays are so fond of saying, we can do this the easy way or the hard way.” I laughed in the face of her fury. “Please, I’m begging you, pick the hard way.”

“I don’t know how you’ve bewitched my son and granddaughter, but your influence isn’t as all-powerful as you seem to think, Channing.” Colette narrowed her eyes. “I bet you thought you were clever taking Winnie to that bastard’s house.” It was her turn to smile when I frowned. “Of course, I’ve always known where she was. I have eyes and ears everywhere. Win might be the face of Halliday Inc., but everyone knows I’m the brains and the heart of the corporation. I think you’ve forgotten the pull that I have at Winnie’s school. If I wanted to bring her home, I would have. Since Win started spending time with you, he seems to have forgotten exactly how things work in our world. I taught that boy everything he knows. He’ll never be able to use my own methods against me.” She sniffed dramatically and turned on the heel of her designer loafer. “Do whatever you want in Win’s wing of the house. He can afford to repair whatever you plan to destroy. You don’t even know what you’re looking for. Ghosts and goblins aren’t real. The monsters are all in Winnie’s head.”

I scoffed. “They aren’t all in her head. There’s one standing right in front of me.”

Colette walked away, her legion of employees trailing behind her as she barked orders. She gestured toward the abandoned wing of the house and sent several staff running in that direction. I adjusted the sledgehammer and continued to Win’s suite. I was admittedly surprised that she figured out where I’d stashed Winnie. I thought Win’s obvious dislike of his half-brother was the perfect cover. I should’ve known better. Colette was likely monitoring Alistair long before I befriended him. He was the only person who could prevent her from keeping her iron grip on Halliday Inc. If Win abdicated his CEO position, and Winnie refused to take the reins when she got older, Alistair was next in line for the position. Everything Colette coveted would be his if she didn’t play her cards right.

Once I was inside, I set down the sledgehammer and started moving the rugs and furniture. Some of it was too heavy, like the bed frame. I had to make do with lying on my stomach so I could knock on the floor beneath and listen for anything that sounded hollow. I crawled around on my hands and knees for hours with no results. I didn’t see anything that looked like a handle or hear anything that might be a vacant hiding space. I was sure I looked like a lunatic on the security cameras that recorded my every move. Frustrated, I climbed to my feet and sat down on the large windowsill where my plants used to live. I scanned the entire suite, looking for any area I might’ve missed when the wood underneath me suddenly creaked and moaned in protest.

I jumped up, afraid my weight was too much for the old alcove to bear. The whole thing squeaked like there was a rusty hinge somewhere. I tossed the decorative pillows that had replaced my beloved plants out of the way and banged on the spot where my ass had been. My eyes popped wide with surprise when I heard the empty, dull thud I’d been searching for everywhere. I scrambled to lift the edge. It was heavier than I expected. Once I hefted the wood up, a dark, empty space loomed before me. The area was pitch black, but I could see the top of an archaic staircase. Down into the cavern, metal sconces lined the walls from the time when candles and torches were used for light. The sounds Winnie and I kept hearing were coming from underneath our feet, not the walls.

“Holy shit!” I couldn’t keep the exclamation from slipping out. Unknowingly, I turned to look at the security camera so there was documentation of my incredible find. I found something to prop open the entrance to the passageway and ran to Win’s room. There wasn’t a large window in the primary bedroom, but there was a fireplace. It took a bit of poking and prodding, but sure enough, there was another hidden entrance underneath the ornate hearth. It was smaller than the one in the living room, but it had the same old stairway leading into an abyss. No wonder Colette didn’t forcibly stop me from entering the wing with a sledgehammer. These locations were nearly impossible to locate unless you were looking with absolute focus. That terrible woman probably believed I was too stupid to find them. I was certain she thought I would give up my quest after I demolished Win’s expensive floors. She always criminally underestimated the Harveys.

Overly excited, I dashed to Winnie’s room and searched for another secret entrance. Her room wasn’t as big or extravagant as the rest of the remodeled wing. I spent a lot of time combing over every inch, but I came up empty. There had to be something, somewhere. Winnie hadn’t imagined a monster in her room because she had a fever. I firmly believed she wasn’t alone that day, and the supposed ghost was using the secret stairways to move around undetected. When I stepped out of the teen’s room, I realized it was directly across from Win’s home office.

I pushed into the only part of the house I’d yet to explore. This room was much nicer and warmer than the office he used in the city. There were rows and rows of books behind his desk. There was another fireplace and an enormous window facing the garden. It looked like it hadn’t been touched since it was built at the turn of the century. There were so many options for an entrance, I wasn’t sure where to start. I wanted it to be a passageway that opened when you pulled a specific book or turned one of the decorative items, like in the movies. It wasn’t. There wasn’t an opening in the fireplace or on the windowsill, either. Once again, I searched on my hands and knees, banging on the floor. Only this time, I found something. Underneath the heavy desk was a section of the floor that echoed when I knocked. Win was sitting on top of the answers all along.

It felt like a metaphor for the man’s entire existence.

I texted Win pictures of all my findings and a halfhearted apology. I’d promised I would wait for him before doing anything dangerous, but I couldn’t resist exploring the unknown. It never dawned on me that venturing out to hunt ghosts on my own would make him worry. It certainly never occurred to me that Win would lose his ever-loving mind when he belatedly saw my messages.

I contemplated taking the sledgehammer with me as an intimidation factor, but the stairs were narrow, steep, and precarious. I had to hold my cellphone for light in one hand and use the other to keep my balance. It was a suffocating journey. The darkness seemed to stretch out forever. The enclosure smelled damp and musty. I’d lived in the city long enough to know the scratching and scurrying I heard belonged to mice or rats. I felt like I was transported back in time, and any second I could stumble into a dungeon. I could hear the ocean crashing against the cliffs remarkably well. The deeper I wound under the manor, the more I felt like a character in a video game about to face the boss in the last level. And I seemed to get closer to the water..

Eventually, I came to a large open area where several stairways led. There was a long tunnel with a faint light at the end. Instead of taking the route that would surely lead to the way out, I picked a stairway that went back up to the manor. This specific passage had a newly installed handrail, and as I took the first few steps, motion sensor lights glowed near my feet. It was clear this path was frequently used by someone. I couldn’t picture Colette down in the bowels of her dream home, but clearly somebody traveled this way enough to require modern updates.

I moved lightly and soundlessly. I couldn’t guess what, or who, I might encounter. Keeping the element of surprise was in my best interest. So, I practically tip-toed to the hidden opening at the top of the stairs. This one looked the most like a regular door. I twisted the knob and blinked in shock when it turned under my hand. Why go to the effort of concealing all other ways into this hidden chamber but not even lock the one that was most used? It felt like a trap, but that didn’t stop me from pushing the door open just enough to slip inside.

I thought I would end up in an unfamiliar part of the estate or even somewhere outside, perhaps the gardener’s workshop or a garage. The last place I expected to step into was Winnie’s old nursery. I let out an audible gasp when I saw the familiar room.

“What in the world?” I was so confused, I spun in a circle. “Is this why she had this wing sealed off? Was she hiding how her people moved around under Win’s nose?”

I asked the questions into the air while my mind scrambled to make sense of the bizarre situation. The nursery looked the same as the first time I’d been here, like it was frozen in time. I wandered around aimlessly and sent a message to Win about what I’d found. He had yet to respond to the first few. I assumed he was still caught up in whatever business kept him away in the first place. I didn’t forget to mention all the windows and doors had shiny new locks on the inside, as well. I was positive Colette ordered the staff to make sure this area was secure after our confrontation.

I was about to go back into the hidden passageway and try another staircase when I noticed Winnie’s stuffed animal that was often laying around Win’s suite. It was tucked into the miniature bed as if it was waiting for its owner to cuddle it to sleep. There was zero possibility that Win moved the doll in here, and even less chance my niece revisited the place where all her nightmares stemmed. Someone brought the fluffy toy to this time capsule on purpose. I sincerely doubted it was Colette. The Halliday matriarch had no clue what her granddaughter liked. She would never know this specific item was Winnie’s security blanket.

“This is so messed up.” I muttered the words under my breath and turned to unlock the door that would lead to the main part of the house. I planned to take this piece of evidence to Win and let him figure out what he wanted to do with it. One thing was certain: he needed to get Winnie out of this house. She was obviously the target of whatever creepy things were happening.

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