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“No?” His voice sharpens. “Then what exactly are you accusing me of?”
She raises her hands in front of her. “I’m not accusing—”
“You’re standing on my property, disobeying a direct order, asking if I have a body in a chest.”
“Ella”—she turns to me—“what happened?”
“Nathaniel already told you,” I say, willing my voice not to crack. “It’s Audrey’s belongings.”
Hazel shakes her head. “You’re both terrible liars, and you don’t have any more time to get better.”
My heart lurches. “What does that mean?”
She looks toward the house. Then toward the woods. Then back at us. “It means if you’re taking her out that way, you’re making a mistake.”
Nathaniel’s green eyes widen. “What did you say?”
Hazel takes a careful breath. “The back road isn’t as empty as you think. There’s a maintenance camera near the old greenhouse. It doesn’t belong to the main security system. Your father had it installed after one of the gardeners started stealing fuel.”
Nathaniel goes completely still.
I stare at Hazel. “How do you know that?” I whisper.
“I’ve had the ears of Arthur Vexley for decades,” she says. “Not to mention secrets that even his sons don’t know.”
My breath catches.
“I’ve been here before,” she continues. “And I can help you."
“You can help?” I ask.
Hazel nods.
“How?”
“There’s another way out.”
Nathaniel sucks in a sharp breath. “I’ve had just about enough of this nonsense, Hazel. I know this house inside and out, and if there—”
“There is,” Hazel cuts in. “Through the old laundry passage beneath the east wing. It connects to the service tunnel behind the old carriage house.”
I stare at her. “There are tunnels?”
“Of course,” Hazel says as if everyone should know that. “It’s where they used to send the women they didn’t want seen.”
A chill moves through me so deep it feels like it enters my bones.
Nathaniel narrows his eyes. “And I should believe you because…”
“Because I’m right. Let me help you. Let me help Ella.”
That does it. Nathaniel’s eyes soften at the mention of my name. “Walk ahead,” he says to Hazel. “Open the doors. Tell us where to go.”
38
NATHANIEL
I’m dragging a dead woman in an old cedar chest through a tunnel under my property that I never, until today, knew existed.
