第4章 第10節 すべてを失って

It happened faster than Nora could ever have feared.

Thomas suddenly gasped and pressed a hand to his chest.

His face turned grey, and his knees folded beneath him.

"Father!" Nora cried, catching him before he hit the floor.

Edwin watched without pity, then stepped toward the shelf.

He lifted the music box, the code still trapped inside it.

"I have been cleaning up her messes for twenty years," he said.

"Tonight I finish it, and nothing will remain."

He turned and walked out, carrying the box under his arm.

His men shut the heavy door and locked it from outside.

Almost at once, cold seawater began to seep under the wall.

The house had been built where the high tide reached.

Edwin had left them to drown, as he had left others before.

"He has been planning this since we walked in," Nora realised.

The water was rising quickly around her father's still body.

Holding his head above the flood, she searched for a way out.

The door was locked, and the small windows were barred.

Then her father's grey lips moved, forming faint words.

"The floor," he breathed. "Under the boards... she hid it."

Kneeling in the icy water, Nora tore at the old boards.

Beneath one loose plank lay a tin box, sealed with wax.

Inside it was a reel of tape, dry and perfectly kept.

It was the other half—the truth Edwin thought he had erased.

"I have found it," she wept, holding it above the black water.

"Listen," her father whispered. "The lullaby... the seventh note..."

Then his eyes closed, and the rising water kept on climbing.