The question nearly broke him.
"I think so," Henry said.
Harrow House stood beyond iron gates on a wooded hill. The stone walls were pale, the windows narrow, and a blue medical van waited near the side entrance.
They parked behind trees and approached on foot.
Through a ground-floor window, Noah suddenly stopped.
"There," he whispered.
Henry looked inside.
A woman lay in a narrow bed, pale and thin, her dark hair spread across the pillow.
Emily.
Noah pressed his hands to the glass. "Mom."
Henry tried the window.
Locked.
Then Victor Voss entered the room, holding the stolen golden watch. He opened it and removed something hidden behind the photograph.
A key.
Henry stared.
He had never known the watch contained one.
Voss leaned over Emily and spoke. Emily turned her head weakly away.
Noah began to cry.
Henry pulled him back. "We need help."
"No," Noah whispered. "They will move her."
He pointed to the medical van. Two orderlies were already loading supplies.
Then Voss turned toward the window.
His eyes met Henry's.
He smiled.
Floodlights snapped on across the lawn.
Dogs barked.
The gates behind them slammed shut.
A speaker above the door crackled.
Voss's voice rang out calmly.
"Welcome home, Mr. Whitmore."
Chapter 4: The Secret Behind the Watch
Henry grabbed Noah's hand and ran.
For a seventy-year-old man, fear gave him strength. He pulled the boy through wet hedges and around the side of Harrow House as dogs barked behind them. Guards shouted from the drive. A searchlight swept across the lawn, missing them by inches.
Noah suddenly tugged him toward a cellar door hidden beneath ivy.
"Mom told me," he whispered. "If I ever came here, find the red door."
The door had been painted black, but red showed beneath the peeling paint.