Page 86 of Jesse

Zach laughs, then walks away and starts opening all the doors.

“So there you go,” Jesse says. “Normal enough for you?”

I back out of the room and follow Zach, peeking into all the other rooms.

“Yeah,” I say. “I guess so. If you can overlook the size of this place.”

Zach reaches the end of the hallway and opens up a set of massive double doors to reveal the main lobby.

Jesse and I walk that way and meet him in the center of the room. It’s bare, like the others. But there’s another hallway on the other side and Zach keeps going, so we follow him.

A huge industrial kitchen, a long, elaborate dining room with seating for twenty. Then another hallway with offices and finally, the last few bedrooms.

“This was Johnny.”

“Why was he so far away from you and your brother?” I ask.

Jesse and Zach trade that look again. Like they know why, but they’re not gonna tell me.

“Why were you guys so afraid to come down here? It’s not that crazy.”

Again with the traded looks.

“What am I missing?” I ask.

“Nothing,” Jesse says. “Can we go back upstairs now? I’d rather show you my place.”

I take one more look around and sigh. “OK, I’m satisfied. Is there a shortcut back to that secret elevator?”

“This way,” Jesse says, continuing down the hallway. It turns a corner and we end up right where we started. A big circle.

The newspaper room.

But that’s when I notice one of the articles printed on the newspaper and walk over to the window.

“Elevator,” Zach calls.

“What the hell?” I say, reading the headline. Then the next one, and the next one, and the next one. I turn back to Jesse and find him right behind me.

We lock eyes and he says, “Don’t.” It’s not an order. It’s not hard at all, in fact. It’s more like… a plea.

But I look back at the headlines. All of them. And begin to read out loud. “‘Son of pharmaceutical mogul killed in car crash on the coast.’ ‘Head of oil company drowns in the Gulf of Mexico.’ ‘Son of publishing CEO killed in freak plane accident.’ What is this?”

I turn to Jesse and he’s shaking his head.

“Time to go,” Zach says.

That’s when I notice the built-in cabinets again. I walk over to one, grab the handle, and I’m just about to pull it open when Zach says, “Don’t do it, Emma.”

“Why?” I say, whirling around to look at them. “What’s in here?”

“We don’t know,” Zach says. “We don’t want to know.”

I look at Jesse. “Is that how you feel too?”

He nods. “Yeah. I do. I’m not gonna stop you. So if you wanna know, look. But I’m telling you right now, this isn’t me. This is Johnny. So whatever you find in there, that’s him. I’ve got nothing to do with it and neither does Zach. They left us out on purpose, Emma. I told you this. And if you know this secret, whatever it really is, then…”

He shrugs with his hands.