The Secret of the Chateau (The Kate Benedict Series Book 7) by Carrie Bedford

Author:Carrie Bedford [Bedford, Carrie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-02-14T16:00:00+00:00

22

For a few seconds, I froze. The darkness was impenetrable, heavy as a blanket over my head. It felt as though the air had gone from the room. Adele turned on her mobile, and its glow helped me breathe again.

“Are the lights on a timer, or did someone turn them off?” she whispered. She put her hand on my arm. “I can’t hear anything, can you?”

The act of listening intently made my head ache, but there was no sound apart from the murmur of the steel tank in the corner.

“What do we do?” she asked. “Go up and hope no one is waiting upstairs for us?” Her fingers pressed deeper into my skin. “And pray the door is still open.”

I pulled out my mobile and checked the screen. “No service. You?”

She shook her head. “Nothing.”

“We don’t have much choice then. We can’t stay here all night.”

By the light of Adele’s phone, I hurried over to grab two full wine bottles from a case on the floor. Gripping one tightly, I handed her the other. “We can use them as weapons if we need to,” I said.

“Oh, crikey, I hope not.”

We were both quiet for a moment, contemplating the possibility of a violent confrontation. My stomach was doing somersaults.

“Just one moment.” Adele went over to the counter and stuffed a couple of labels in her pocket. “To show Chappelle,” she said.

We made our way to the spiral staircase, where I moved in front of her and took the first few steps up, then stopped to listen. There was no sound, nothing but the thudding of my heart against my ribs. The light from my phone bounced around as I took each step. With both hands full, I climbed slowly, staying close to the outer wall of the staircase, feeling the damp chill that emanated from it.

My heart plummeted when I reached the landing. It was pitch dark. No light spilled onto the landing from the lab. The door was closed.

“Oh, no, no, no.” Adele’s voice was high with panic. She climbed the last step and stood next to me.

“There has to be a failsafe,” I said, willing my pulse to slow down. “Whoever set up that workspace downstairs wouldn’t take the risk of being locked in.”

But then I thought of the locked steel door in the secret room below. There was another exit, but not one we could use. I didn’t remind Adele of that, though. “You hold your light up, and I’ll look for a button or a lever.”

Adele pointed her phone at the door, a solid slab of wood that formed the back of the bookcase. I felt along the door jamb, but found nothing, and moved to the other side to examine the hinges. It was hard to stay calm. The idea of being closed in for any length of time kept my pulse racing.

“The switch on the lab side was high up on the left,” Adele said, aiming the light in that direction.

I fumbled around, praying I’d find it.

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