Chapter 3:The devil in the rain (2)
1660 Words
She pointed at him.
“And somehow you’re standing there acting as though this is all part of a plan.”
For the first time since she’d entered his office, Damien looked genuinely conflicted.
“I never wanted you dragged into this.”
She let out a bitter laugh.
“I think we’re a little past that.”
Another knock interrupted them.
This time, two uniformed police officers entered alongside Detective Adrian Cole.
Seraphina blinked.
“You?”
Cole looked equally surprised.
“Miss Vale.”
His gaze shifted to Damien.
“Mr. Ashcroft.”
The two men exchanged a brief nod.
“You know each other?” Seraphina asked.
“We’ve worked together before,” Cole answered.
Damien gestured toward the door.
“The scene is untouched.”
Cole motioned for the officers to follow him.
Before leaving, he paused beside Seraphina.
“I’d appreciate it if you remained in the building.”
She sighed.
“Am I a suspect now?”
“No.”
His expression grew serious.
“I’m concerned you may become the next target.”
The words struck harder than she expected.
The next target.
As the detective disappeared down the corridor, Seraphina noticed Damien staring out the floor-to-ceiling windows once again.
Beyond the glass, rain continued to fall over Ashbourne.
The city looked peaceful from this height.
Almost beautiful.
Yet beneath that polished skyline, people were dying.
She walked over until she stood beside him.
For nearly a minute, neither of them spoke.
Finally, she broke the silence.
“Did you love my father?”
Damien didn’t answer immediately.
When he did, his voice was softer than before.
“He saved my life.”
She turned sharply.
“What?”
“He gave me something I could never repay.”
“What was it?”
Damien smiled faintly, though there was no happiness in it.
“Another question I can’t answer.”
She rolled her eyes.
“You really are impossible.”
“So I’ve been told.”
Despite herself, the corner of her mouth lifted.
Only for a second.
Damien noticed.
“So you can smile.”
“I didn’t.”
“You did.”
“I most certainly didn’t.”
“It suits you.”
She caught herself before smiling again.
“I’m not here to flirt.”
“Neither am I.”
His answer was so sincere that it caught her off guard.
For a fleeting moment, the tension between them shifted.
Not into comfort.
Not yet.
But into something quieter.
Something neither of them quite understood.
Then Ethan’s phone rang.
He answered quickly.
His face drained of color.
“Sir…”
Damien turned.
“What is it?”
“They’ve identified something that was missing from the archive.”
“What?”
Ethan looked directly at Seraphina.
“It wasn’t a document.”
“It was a photograph.”
Her pulse quickened.
“What photograph?”
Ethan opened the folder he’d been carrying and removed a printed inventory sheet.
“It belonged to a collection donated by Edward Vale nearly eighteen years ago.”
Seraphina’s heartbeat thundered in her ears.
“Eighteen years?”
“Yes.”
She remembered the words written on the back of the picture she’d found.
She must never remember him.
Damien slowly took the inventory sheet.
His expression hardened.
“What photograph was stolen?”
Ethan answered in little more than a whisper.
“The one showing you…”
He looked between Damien and Seraphina.
“…together.”
The room fell utterly silent.
Seraphina stared at Damien, her mind refusing to process what she’d just heard.
“What did he say?”
Damien closed his eyes briefly.
When he looked at her again, there was something she’d never seen in his expression before.
Fear.
Real fear.
“You weren’t supposed to find out like this.”
The silence stretched so long that Seraphina began to hear the ticking of the antique clock on Damien’s office wall.
Tick.
Tick.
Tick.
Every second felt heavier than the last.
Finally, she found her voice.
“What do you mean… together?”
Damien lowered the inventory sheet onto his desk with deliberate care, as though afraid it might shatter.
“There are things your father intended to tell you.”
“And you?”
“I promised him I wouldn’t.”
She stared at him in disbelief.
“So you’ve been keeping secrets because of a promise to a dead man?”
“I’ve been keeping them because revealing them at the wrong time could put you in danger.”
She laughed bitterly.
“I’ve heard that excuse three times today.”
“It isn’t an excuse.”
“Then prove it.”
Before Damien could respond, Ethan’s phone vibrated again.
He glanced at the screen and frowned.
“Detective Cole wants us downstairs immediately.”
Damien nodded once.
“We’re coming.”
⸻
The elevator ride to the basement archives was painfully quiet.
Harsh fluorescent lights reflected off the polished steel walls.
Seraphina stood with her arms folded, staring at the glowing floor numbers.
Forty-eight.
Thirty-two.
Twenty.
Ten.
Ground.
Then…
B1.
The doors slid open onto a dim corridor lined with reinforced security doors.
Police officers moved briskly from room to room.
Yellow evidence markers dotted the floor.
The air smelled faintly of dust, paper…
…and bleach.
Seraphina’s stomach tightened.
Archive Room Seven stood open at the end of the corridor.
Detective Adrian Cole met them outside.
“I’m afraid you’ll have to stay behind the barrier.”
He lifted the yellow tape just enough for Damien to step through.
Seraphina caught a brief glimpse inside.
Shelves stretched from floor to ceiling, packed with aging boxes labeled with decades of publishing records.
Several forensic officers worked quietly.
Near the center of the room, a white sheet covered a body.
Only a pair of polished black shoes remained visible beneath the fabric.
She quickly looked away.
Cole approached carrying a transparent evidence bag.
“Mr. Ashcroft.”
Inside the bag was an old silver key attached to a faded leather tag.
Damien’s face hardened.
“Where did you find it?”
“In the victim’s hand.”
“And the tag?”
Cole turned it over.
Stamped into the leather were two words.
VALE ARCHIVES.
Harold, who had arrived moments earlier, inhaled sharply.
“I haven’t seen one of those keys in years.”
Seraphina looked between them.
“What does it unlock?”
Harold hesitated.
“There used to be a private records room beneath Vale Publishing.”
“Used to?”
“It was sealed after a fire almost twenty years ago.”
“A fire?”
Harold nodded slowly.
“Most people believe every document inside was destroyed.”
Damien’s eyes remained fixed on the key.
“They weren’t.”
Seraphina caught the certainty in his voice.
“You know that because…?”
He met her gaze.
“Because your father showed me.”
Before she could press him further, one of the forensic officers hurried toward Detective Cole.
“Sir, we’ve found something else.”
“What is it?”
“A hidden compartment behind one of the archive shelves.”
Cole frowned.
“What’s inside?”
The officer swallowed.
“Nothing.”
“Then why call me?”
“Because someone left a message carved into the back wall.”
Everyone fell silent.
“What message?” Cole asked.
The officer glanced nervously at Seraphina before answering.
“It says…”
He unfolded a small notepad where he’d copied the words exactly.
The first truth was buried.
The second was stolen.
The third will bleed.
A cold wave swept through Seraphina.
She didn’t know what frightened her more—
The message itself…
Or the feeling that whoever had written it wasn’t finished.
Somewhere in the building, a security alarm suddenly shrieked.
Red emergency lights began flashing throughout the corridor.
An officer shouted from the far end of the archives.
“Someone’s in the surveillance room!”
Damien reacted instantly.
“Lock every exit!”
But deep down…
Seraphina had the unsettling feeling they were already too late.
For several seconds, no one moved.
The shrill alarm echoed through the underground archive, bouncing off concrete walls and rows of aging shelves. Red emergency lights pulsed overhead, bathing everyone’s faces in an eerie crimson glow.
Police officers broke into a run toward the surveillance room while security personnel flooded the corridor from the opposite direction.
“Seal every stairwell!” Detective Cole ordered. “No one leaves this floor without my authorization!”
Damien instinctively stepped in front of Seraphina, shielding her from the chaos unfolding around them.
She frowned.
“What are you doing?”
“Making sure you stay where I can see you.”
“I don’t need a bodyguard.”
“No,” he replied, his gray eyes fixed on the corridor ahead. “You need to stay alive.”
His words sent an unexpected shiver through her.
For the first time since meeting him, she realized his concern didn’t seem forced. There was no hesitation, no calculation—only quiet determination.
Before she could respond, Ethan hurried back, breathing heavily.
“The surveillance room is empty!”
Detective Cole spun around.
“What about the security footage?”
Ethan’s face turned pale.
“It’s gone.”
“Gone?”
“Every recording from the last forty-eight hours has been erased.”
An uneasy silence settled over the archive.
Someone had entered one of the most secure buildings in Ashbourne, committed murder, stolen evidence, disabled the surveillance system, and vanished without leaving a trace.
Whoever they were…
They had planned every move long before Seraphina ever walked through the doors of Ashcroft Tower.
She looked at Damien.
He was already staring back at her.
Neither of them spoke.
Neither of them needed to.
They both understood the same terrifying truth.
This wasn’t the end of the mystery.
It was only the beginning.
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