Chapter 6 - The Secret of Vance Manor
Within five minutes, police cruisers pulled up outside, red and blue lights flashing against our bedroom windows. Officer Hayes and Detective Miller entered the room, swiftly handcuffing the trespasser.
The man offered no resistance. He sat on the edge of the chair in our living room, looking thoroughly exhausted, bruised, and remorseful.
"Who are you?" Detective Miller demanded, standing over him. "And what were you doing in this house?"
The man took a deep, shuddering breath. "My name is Thomas Vance. Arthur Vance was my grandfather."
Daniel and I exchanged astonished looks.
Thomas explained his story in a quiet, halting voice. Years ago, his grandfather had hidden the family's historic heirloom savings—a collection of rare gold coins and historical documents from the late 1920s—inside a small iron box hidden within the structural walls of the subterranean passage. Arthur had left a vague journal detailing the location, but after his death, the estate fell into legal chaos.
Thomas had fallen on hard financial times in recent years. Desperate to save himself from bankruptcy and homelessness, he had snuck into the abandoned Vance Manor three weeks prior, discovering the entrance to the long-forgotten underground network.
"I found the tunnel," Thomas explained, looking down at his dust-covered hands. "I followed the old maps my grandfather left. But over the decades, the walls had shifted. I knew the box was hidden in a alcove near the end of the shaft, directly beneath this room."
"So you were trying to break into my daughter's room?" I asked, anger rising in my chest.
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"No, ma'am! I swear to you, no!" Thomas cried out, looking at me with genuine distress. "I didn't know anyone lived above that specific section until I heard footsteps over my head weeks ago. I was trying to use the jack to measure how much clearance I had between the top brick arch and your floor. I was trying to locate the hollow space in the wall without collapsing the structural beam above me!"
He wiped a tear from his dirty cheek. "When I realized a child was sleeping right above where I was working, I panicked. I tried to find another way in through the double-wall space in her closet—an old utility access panel I found on the blueprint. I just wanted to get my family's box and leave forever. I never, ever intended to scare a little girl."
