Chapter 3 - The Secret Cipher
Marcus’s heavy footsteps retreated down the corridor, leaving Leo alone in the dim music room. He waited ten full minutes, counting the slow ticks of the grandfather clock to ensure the coast was clear. When he finally crawled out from behind the velvet drapery, a small white envelope had been slipped under the heavy oak door.
Trembling, Leo picked it up. Inside was not a note from Marcus, but a torn piece of heavy cream-colored paper—a fragment of the trust fund legal documents his father had been holding. Scrawled across the back in hurried, shaky handwriting were a series of numbers and letters: 33-9-12-Vault B. More importantly, there was a signature at the bottom corner that made Leo’s breath catch. It wasn’t his father’s signature. It belonged to his mother, who the family had claimed died in a tragic accident before he could even remember her face.
The document fragment proved she had signed something regarding the trust just hours before her supposed disappearance. Leo clutched the paper to his chest, a fierce determination replacing the tears in his eyes.
Suddenly, a key turned in the exterior French doors of the music room. The lock clicked open with a loud, metallic snap.
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Leo whipped around, his heart pounding against his ribs. The glass door swung inward, and a tall figure stepped out of the freezing night fog, holding a flashlight and looking directly at him.
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