Chapter 3: The Hidden Passage

Nora returned to the study that afternoon with a measuring tape and a growing suspicion. She had examined the architectural plans of the house that morning and found a discrepancy. The study measured two meters shorter on the inside than the plans indicated it should be. Somewhere behind the oak paneling was a space that officially did not exist. She spent an hour tapping walls and pressing moldings before she found the mechanism, a carved rosette that rotated counterclockwise to reveal a narrow passage behind the fireplace. The passage was dusty but not abandoned. Fresh scuff marks were visible on the floor, and the air carried the same faint chemical smell she had noticed the previous night. The passage led to a hidden room roughly the size of a closet, containing a small desk, a ventilation shaft, and a device that Nora recognized after a moment of bewildered study. It was a vaporizer connected to a timer, designed to release a measured dose of aerosolized substance through the ventilation shaft and into the study. The reservoir was empty, but residue clung to the interior walls. Nora sealed the device and called for the forensic team. 'So the killer did not need to be in the room,' she murmured, tracing the path of the ventilation shaft. 'They loaded the device, set the timer, and left through the passage before dinner was served. Holt locked himself in as usual, never knowing that the room itself had been turned into a weapon.' The passage had a second exit that opened into the wine cellar, accessible from the kitchen corridor where any of the dinner guests could have wandered without attracting notice. Every suspect had arrived before dinner. Every one of them could have slipped into the cellar. The method was clear. What remained was the motive and the meaning of the jack of diamonds still clutched in a dead man's hand.