Noah Kept Saying Someone Had Been Inside His Room — Then Ethan Played the Security Recording and Rachel Recognized Him
Chapter 4 — The Hidden Compartment
Ethan walked to the writing table.
For years, it had looked ordinary.
Dark oak.
Three small drawers.
Brass handles.
A writing surface covered with Noah’s pencils and notebooks.
Ethan crouched exactly where Lucas had crouched on camera.
Underneath the center drawer was a narrow wooden strip.
He pushed it.
Click.
A hidden compartment opened.
Rachel gasped.
Inside were two pieces of paper.
And an empty rectangular space about the size of a cassette.
Lucas had taken the tape.
Ethan unfolded the first paper.
It was a business card.
SAMUEL BENNETT — BENNETT PROPERTY INSPECTIONS.
The second paper was a handwritten note.
Only six words:
MAPLE STREET PANEL — DO NOT APPROVE.
Rachel stared at it.
“The electrical panel?”
Ethan looked at her.
“Your father inspected his own house?”
Rachel shook her head.
Samuel hadn’t.
But Maple Street had undergone electrical renovations four months before the fire.
The contractor was a company called:
Vale Electrical Services.
Samuel knew the owner personally.
David Vale.
David had been one of Samuel’s oldest friends.
Rachel remembered something.
“Dad and David had an argument before the fire.”
“About what?”
“I don’t know.”
Then Ethan noticed a number written on the back of Samuel’s business card.
M-47.
Rachel recognized it immediately.
“That’s one of Dad’s inspection file numbers.”
Ethan looked toward the empty cassette compartment.
If Lucas was telling the truth, the tape he had taken might explain what Samuel had discovered before he died.
But first they had to find Lucas.
