Chapter 2
## THE ROOM BEHIND THE WALL
Jasper pushed Jonah behind him.
“Stay.”
Brutus growled toward the opening.
Jasper took a flashlight from the workbench and entered the passage.
The hidden corridor was barely wide enough for his shoulders.
Electrical wires ran overhead.
That bothered him.
This wasn't an abandoned tunnel.
Someone had maintained it.
Twenty feet ahead stood a metal door.
The light beneath it disappeared.
Whoever had been inside had turned it off.
Jasper reached the door.
Locked.
Behind him, Brutus suddenly barked.
Jasper spun around.
A shadow moved across the far end of the basement.
“Hey!”
He ran back.
The basement door slammed.
Jasper reached it and pulled.
Locked from outside.
Jonah began breathing rapidly.
“It's okay.”
Jasper hated saying things he couldn't guarantee.
He took out his phone.
No signal.
Of course.
Brutus returned to the broken wall and sniffed the passage.
Then he disappeared inside.
“Brutus!”
The mastiff ignored him.
Jonah followed.
“Jonah.”
The boy stopped.
Jasper saw determination in his face.
So he followed them.
Brutus reached the metal door and began scratching near the floor.
Jasper crouched.
There was a wire beneath the frame.
He pulled it.
The lock released.
The room beyond was small.
No body.
No prisoner.
No treasure.
Instead, there were shelves.
Hundreds of files.
Photographs.
Bank statements.
Audio tapes.
Newspaper clippings.
And on the center wall were photographs of Jasper.
Hundreds of them.
Jasper at twenty-two.
Twenty-four.
Twenty-eight.
Leaving his office.
Eating at restaurants.
Boarding airplanes.
Standing outside his apartment.
Someone had been watching him for ten years.
Then he saw the photograph that stopped his breathing.
It showed Harrison Concincaid sitting in a parked car across the street from Jasper's first warehouse.
The date printed on the corner was seven years ago.
His father had visited him.
Without ever speaking to him.
Jasper reached for another photograph.
Harrison again.
Another city.
Another year.
Always watching from a distance.
“What the hell were you doing?”
Jonah tugged Jasper's sleeve.
He pointed toward a filing cabinet.
One drawer had a teddy bear sticker on it.
Jasper opened it.
Inside was a digital recorder.
He pressed play.
Static.
Then Harrison's voice.
“If Jasper ever hears this, then I failed.”
Jasper stopped breathing.
Harrison continued.
“I need you to understand why I sent you away.”
A sound came from the passage.
Footsteps.
Jasper immediately stopped the recording.
The metal door began closing automatically.
“Move!”
He grabbed Jonah.
Brutus rushed through.
They escaped seconds before the lock engaged.
Someone was entering the basement.
Jasper picked up the sledgehammer.
The main door opened.
Conrad stood there.
His gaze moved from Jasper to Jonah to the hole in the wall.
For the first time since Jasper arrived, Conrad stopped smiling.
“What did you do?”
“Renovating.”
Conrad looked at the broken wall.
“You shouldn't have opened that.”
“Why?”
“Because your father wanted it sealed.”
Jasper stepped closer.
“Then you know what's inside.”
Conrad's face became unreadable.
“I know enough.”
“Who was the woman?”
“What woman?”
Jasper held up the red shoe.
Something flashed across Conrad's face.
Recognition.
Then fear.
That surprised Jasper more than anything.
Conrad whispered:
“Where did you find that?”
“Inside.”
Conrad stared at Jonah.
The boy immediately hid behind Jasper.
And Jasper saw it.
Jonah was afraid of Conrad.
Not uncomfortable.
Not shy.
Terrified.
Jasper stepped between them.
“Get out.”
Conrad looked at him.
“This estate survived because I kept its secrets buried.”
“Not anymore.”
“You don't understand your father.”
“Then explain him.”
Conrad's jaw tightened.
“I can't.”
“Can't?”
“Or won't?”
Conrad turned toward the stairs.
Before leaving, he said:
“Some walls are built to imprison things, Jasper.”
He looked back.
“Others are built to keep them from getting in.”
That night Jasper listened to Harrison's recording.
“I sent you away because Garrett wasn't the son in danger.”
Static.
“You were.”
Jasper leaned closer.
“For thirty years, our family has been paying for a crime I committed when I was young.”
Harrison's breathing sounded unsteady.
“There were four of us. Me. Conrad. Daniel Mercer. And Evelyn.”
Jasper had never heard that name.
“We thought we were protecting the family.”
A long pause.
“We destroyed hers.”
The recording abruptly ended.
Jasper replayed it.
Nothing more.
Then Jonah appeared at the doorway.
He carried paper and crayons.
He sat on the floor and began drawing.
Jasper watched.
A road.
A black SUV.
Rain.
Three people.
Then Jonah drew a fourth person standing beside the road.
A woman.
Red coat.
Jasper's stomach tightened.
Jonah drew Garrett outside the vehicle.
Alive.
Then Harrison.
Alive.
Then Conrad.
And finally the woman.
Jasper pointed.
“Was she there the night your father died?”
Jonah nodded.
Jasper pointed at Conrad.
“Was he there?”
Jonah stared at him.
Then slowly shook his head.
No.
Jasper frowned.
The police report said Harrison and Garrett died together.
Jonah drew something else.
A clock.
11:40.
Then a second clock.
2:15.
Three hours apart.
Jasper understood.
“They didn't die at the same time.”
Jonah shook his head.
Then he drew Garrett walking away from the wreck.
Jasper stared at the picture.
His brother had survived the crash.
Which meant Garrett had died somewhere else.
Or—
Jasper looked at Jonah.
“Is your father dead?”
Jonah's crayon stopped.
For the first time, tears filled his eyes.
He drew one final thing.
A door.
And behind it, a man.
May you like
Alive.
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