Chapter 2: The Room Behind the Red Door
“Everybody back away from the opening!””
Officer Daniels' voice cut through the living room.
I barely heard him.
All I could see was the metal staircase disappearing beneath my house and the red door at its bottom.
My son was down there.
My ten-year-old boy, who hated thunderstorms and slept with a stuffed dinosaur tucked beneath his arm, was trapped in a place I had never known existed.
And my wife knew exactly where he was.
“I'm going down,” I said.
Daniels caught my shoulder.
“Sir, wait for the rescue team.””
“That's my son!””
“I understand, but we don't know whether the structure is safe.””
From below came a thud.
Then Noah screamed.
“DAD! PLEASE!””
I shoved Daniels' hand away.
“I can't stand here while he's begging for help!””
The officer stepped between me and the opening.
“Then help me by telling me everything you know about this house.””
“I've told you everything!””
“Has anyone had access to the property in the last three days?””
“No.””
“Any contractors? Maintenance workers?””
“No!””
Daniels studied my face.
“Then why does your wife appear to recognize what's down there?””
I looked over his shoulder.
Vanessa stood near the front window, gripping the curtains so tightly that her knuckles had turned white.
“Ask her.””
Daniels turned.
“Mrs. Cole, I'd like you to come over here.””
She didn't move.
“Mrs. Cole.””
“I can't.””
“Why not?””
Her lips trembled.
“Because if I go near that hole, he'll know.””
Daniels' expression hardened.
“Who will know?””
Vanessa looked toward the floor.
“The man in the room.””
A cold silence fell over the living room.
The second officer, Patel, reached for his radio.
“Control, we need additional units at this address. Possible unlawful confinement of a minor. We have an unidentified underground structure and an adult female making statements about an unknown male occupant.””
Vanessa began shaking her head.
“No. No police. You don't understand what he'll do.””
Daniels stepped toward her.
“Who is he?””
She pressed her back against the window.
“Please don't make me say his name.””
I felt sick.
“Vanessa, our son is down there. If you know who took him, tell us!””
She looked at me, tears shining on her cheeks.
“You think this started three days ago.””
“What does that mean?””
“It started long before Noah was born.””
My mind struggled to make sense of her words.
Before Noah was born?
I had met Vanessa when we were both twenty-six. We had married two years later. Noah was born the following spring, and Lily had arrived three years after that.
I knew her college friends, her favorite restaurants, the names of her childhood neighbors. I knew about the father who had abandoned her when she was twelve and the mother who had died of cancer before Vanessa turned twenty.
Or so I thought.
I had never heard about an underground room.
I had never heard about a red door.
And I had certainly never heard about a man who apparently frightened my wife more than the possibility of losing her son.
“Tell me who he is,” I said.
Vanessa closed her eyes.
Before she could answer, something slammed against the red door below us.
Bang!
Lily screamed and buried herself against my side.
The officer raised his flashlight.
“Police! Identify yourself!””
A voice came from beneath the house.
Male.
Calm.
Almost amused.
“You're too late.””
My blood turned to ice.
Daniels looked at Patel.
“Get the rescue team moving.””
The voice continued.
“You should have left the floor alone, Marcus.””
I stopped breathing.
He knew my name.
“Who are you?”” I shouted.
A soft laugh drifted up the stairwell.
“Ask your wife.””
I turned toward Vanessa.
She had collapsed onto the sofa.
“Vanessa?””
She shook her head, whispering something under her breath.
I knelt in front of her.
“Who is he?””
Her eyes met mine.
For the first time, she didn't try to hide her fear.
“His name is Daniel.””
I waited.
“Daniel who?””
She swallowed.
“Daniel Mercer.””
The name meant nothing to me.
“Who is Daniel Mercer?””
Vanessa stared at the hole in the floor.
“My first husband.””
The room seemed to tilt.
I actually laughed, a short, disbelieving sound.
“Your what?””
“My first husband.””
“That's impossible.””
“I know.””
“No, you don't get to say that! You told me you'd never been married!””
“I was twenty-one, Marcus.””
“And you thought that was something you could forget to mention?””
She flinched.
“Please. Not now.””
“Not now? Our son is trapped in a room with your secret husband!””
“He isn't my husband anymore.””
“Then why is he under our house?””
Vanessa's face crumpled.
“Because I thought he was dead.””
A crash from below silenced us.
The red door shuddered in its frame.
Then came Noah's voice again.
“Dad! Mom said he wouldn't hurt me!””
I stared at Vanessa.
“What did you tell him?””
She covered her face.
“I didn't know he would take Noah.””
“What did you tell him?””
She lowered her hands.
“I told him the truth.””
“What truth?””
“That Noah was his son.””
For a moment, the only sound in the room was the ticking of the wall clock.
I looked at my wife.
Then at the hole in the floor.
Then at the photograph on the mantelpiece, taken on Noah's tenth birthday. My son stood between Vanessa and me, grinning with chocolate frosting on his cheek.
His eyes were brown, like mine.
His hair was dark.
His smile was unmistakably his own.
But now every memory had become a question.
“Are you saying Noah isn't my biological son?””
Vanessa started crying.
“Marcus—”
“Answer me!””
“He is your son.””
“That isn't what I asked!””
She looked down.
“No.””
The word was barely audible.
But it landed like a gunshot.
I stumbled backward.
For ten years, I had carried Noah on my shoulders, taught him to ride a bicycle, held him when he woke from nightmares. I had sat beside his hospital bed when he broke his arm, and I had cried in the bathroom when he started kindergarten because I couldn't believe how quickly he was growing up.
None of those memories changed.
But something inside me had broken.
Daniels moved closer.
“Mr. Cole, I need you to focus. We can deal with the family situation later.””
I stared at him.
“Family situation?””
He held my gaze.
“Your son is still down there.””
That brought me back.
Noah.
Whatever Vanessa had hidden, whatever Daniel Mercer claimed, my boy was still trapped behind that red door.
I crawled toward the opening.
“Dad!”” Noah shouted.
“I'm coming!””
Patel grabbed a safety harness from the emergency kit that had just arrived.
“Sir, if you're going down, you're wearing this.””
I nodded.
They secured the harness around my waist and attached the line to a support beam. Daniels tested the staircase with a metal pole while Patel called out instructions to the rescue team.
The first three steps held.
The fourth groaned.
“Careful,” Daniels warned.
“Don't put your full weight on the railing.””
I descended slowly.
The air grew colder with every step.
The walls beneath the house were not made of soil or rough stone, as I had expected. They were concrete, painted gray, with electrical conduits running along the ceiling.
This wasn't an old crawlspace.
It was a constructed room.
Someone had spent a great deal of money building it.
At the bottom, I stopped in front of the red door.
A small square window had been fitted into the upper half, but it was covered from the inside.
“NOAH!”” I shouted.
“Dad?””
“I'm outside the door. Can you come to me?””
“I can't!””
“Why not?””
“It's locked!””
I grabbed the handle.
It wouldn't move.
“Stand back, buddy!””
I pulled.
Nothing.
Daniels called down from the stairs.
“There's a keypad beside the frame. Check for an emergency release.””
I turned toward the wall.
A small black keypad sat beside the door. Its screen glowed green, and beneath it was a card reader.
I stared at the device.
“What kind of house has a security keypad underground?””
No one answered.
I tried the handle again.
“Daniel!”” I shouted.
“Open the door!””
A speaker crackled above my head.
The male voice returned.
“I'm afraid I can't do that.””
I looked up.
A tiny camera was mounted in the corner of the ceiling.
He was watching me.
“Let my son out!””
“Your son?””
The voice sounded almost entertained.
“That's an interesting choice of words.””
I clenched my fists.
“If you touch him, I swear—”
“You'll do what, Marcus? Break down the door? Call the police? Tell the world what a wonderful father you've been?””
My stomach twisted.
“What do you want?””
“Five minutes.””
“For what?””
“To give you a chance to understand.””
“I don't want to understand anything! I want my son!””
The speaker clicked off.
I struck the door with my palm.
“OPEN IT!””
From inside, Noah cried out.
“Dad, he said you wouldn't believe me!””
I pressed my forehead against the cold metal.
“I believe you, buddy.””
“No, you don't understand!””
“Then tell me!””
A pause.
When Noah spoke again, his voice had changed.
It wasn't merely frightened.
It was ashamed.
“Dad, I knew about the room.””
My chest tightened.
“What?””
“I knew it was here.””
“How?””
“Mom showed me.””
I turned toward the staircase.
Vanessa had followed us down several steps. She was gripping the railing, her face pale beneath the harsh overhead lights.
“Vanessa!””
She didn't answer.
“Did you bring Noah down here?””
Her lips parted.
“I was trying to protect him.””
“From what?””
She looked toward the camera.
“From Daniel.””
A slow metallic click came from the door.
I grabbed the handle.
It turned.
The door opened inward by a few inches.
Then stopped.
Something heavy was blocking it from the other side.
I forced my fingers into the gap.
“NOAH!””
A small hand appeared.
My son's fingers curled around mine.
I squeezed as hard as I dared.
“I've got you.””
“Dad,” he whispered, “you need to listen.””
“I'm listening.””
“Mom didn't tell you the worst part.””
Behind me, Vanessa began to sob.
Noah pulled my hand closer to the gap.
“Daniel didn't take me because I'm his son.””
I went completely still.
“Then why did he take you?””
My son swallowed.
“Because I saw what Mom did to the first person who tried to leave this house.””
I turned toward Vanessa.
She stood halfway up the staircase, one hand pressed over her mouth.
May you like
And for the first time, I noticed the small, dark stain on the cuff of her beige pantsuit.
It looked like dried blood.
