The Trap at Midnight
A trap is set beneath the great bell
The plan was simple, but dangerous.
To force the truth into the open, Mira and Arthur decided to set a trap.
They let word through Hollowmere that Elena Hart's hidden would be revealed at the clocktower at midnight.
The travelled fast, carried from shop to shop along the misty harbour.
Mira knew that only one person would fear such news: the man whose name the town had trusted for twenty years.
Waiting in silence, they hid inside the cold mechanism room and watched the door.
The great bell, the Old Meridian, hung above them in the dark.
Just before midnight, a slow step echoed on the spiral stair.
Councillor Thorne, whose secret had stayed safe for twenty years, had come alone.
Holding a lantern, he moved carefully and searched every .
He was the councillor whose crimes reached back two decades, and tonight fear had finally drawn him out.
Hiding behind the old gears, Mira held her breath.
Hearing the floor , Thorne spun around and lifted his lantern.
"I know someone is there," he said softly.
His calm voice frightened Mira more than any shout.
Trapped and cornered, she pressed herself against the freezing wall.
Thorne, whose power had protected him for so long, began to close the heavy door behind him.
If it shut, they would be locked inside with him.
Suddenly Arthur stepped out of the dark and revealed himself.
"It's over, Julius," the old inspector said.
For a moment, Thorne's confident face cracked.
Then, slowly, a cold smile returned to his lips.
"You clever fools, you will never find what Elena hid," he sneered.
"It's beyond your reach," he added, and his eyes flicked upward toward the great bell.
Mira followed his glance, and a strange ran through her.