Chapter 4 - Beneath the Foundation
The darkness in the elevator shaft was absolute, thick with the smell of engine grease and old dust. Above them, the faint sound of boots striking metal echoed down the cables.
"Stay behind me," Victoria breathed, reaching into the dark until her palm brushed Clara’s cold forehead. "Do not make a sound, no matter what you hear."
"I know how to be quiet," Clara replied softly from the shadows. "Mama taught me to hide under the floorboards whenever the black cars drove past our house."
The confession twisted an invisible knife in Victoria’s chest. While she had been hosting state dinners and presiding over charity galas in satin and diamonds, her daughter had been hiding under rotting timber, listening for assassins.
A heavy thump resonated on the roof of the elevator cab.
Someone had dropped down onto the car from the upper floor. Victoria reached into Arthur’s emergency cache beneath the operator’s console—a hidden compartment she had insisted on installing years ago when the Vance family feud first turned bloody. Her fingers found the cold steel of a compact revolver.
With a screech of shearing bolts, the emergency roof hatch was ripped open. A beam of blinding tactical light cut through the dust, pinning Victoria against the corner.
"Mrs. Vance," a gravelly voice drawled from above. "Hand the little girl up. Julian only wants the bloodline secured. You can go back up to your guests. Your husband is about to give his keynote."
Victoria raised the revolver with both hands, aiming directly into the center of the blinding light.
"Tell my brother-in-law," Victoria said, her voice dropping into a register of icy, aristocratic fury, "that the only thing he inherits tonight is a grave."
She pulled the trigger twice. The deafening roar filled the shaft. A cry of agony followed, and a heavy body tumbled past the elevator gate into the black void below.
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Before the echo died, Clara reached up and touched Victoria’s arm. "Mother... look at the bottom of the door."
A thin stream of yellowish smoke was hissing through the cracks in the floorboards.
