The Gilded Sanctum

by Keith Veverka

  Gloria sighed. “It’s so very dreadful what happened to that girl. It’s just awful. Have you discovered anything, Mr. Walker?”

  “Not yet, but we’re making progress,” Walker stated, matter-of-factly.

  “I do hope you find her. These young people have so much to live for. Please know that I am praying for her.”

  Walker ignored the religious reference, but acknowledged the sentiment. “Of course, thank you,” he said. Then asked, “Did you know Amanda?”

  Gloria sighed. “No, I did not, but my husband has been talking about her much as of late. He’s been very upset about this entire situation. To have one of your students...he thinks of them as his children, you realize? To have one of your children disappear, it’s just unthinkable. We don’t have any children ourselves, so I think he sort of adopts them all.”

  Walker nodded to be polite, but was unsure of exactly what Gloria was trying to say. He had just heard from Meredith that Ellis had some kind of encounter with Amanda, and now his wife was saying that Ellis felt like these were his kids. Adopts them? In what way? The only parallel Walker could fathom was that Ellis believed he held some kind of authority over them and used his powerful presence as a way to exert pressure against his own students. If that was indeed the situation — as twisted as it might be — Ellis had just become much more dangerous than Walker had ever anticipated. He treaded lightly. “Has he given you any indication of what he thinks may have happened?”

  “Oh no, just lamenting that a poor girl has disappeared from our campus, vanished under our watchful eye. Robert would do absolutely anything to protect these students.”

  “Yes, you have quite a security system here.”

  Gloria dismissed the notion with an elegant guffaw, shaking her head. “My goodness. Security. Too much security if you ask me.” She rolled her eyes. “Please don’t tell Robert this, but I really don’t care for that Mr. Castillo. Much too serious. And all those cameras...what an eyesore on our beautiful campus. So unsightly. But alas, he insists on it. My husband has asked him to tone it down, but he simply refuses. I wonder sometimes how much power you hold when you can see everything.”

  “I didn’t see any cameras around here?” Walker mused.

  “Oh no, I won’t allow it. I will not feel like a prisoner in my own home. This was actually one of the first houses built on campus, about the same time as the faculty housing. I absolutely love the Virginia charm. But I also love the mystery.”

  “Mystery?” Walker asked, surprised by the choice of words.

  “Oh, yes, Mr. Walker. This campus is so rich in history, and as anyone knows, that history always hides a fair amount of mystery.”

  “I’m actually quite a history buff,” Walker said, glancing at the paintings which lined the walls. “What happened here?”

  “Well, this campus is haunted.”

  “Haunted?”

  “Yes. By Mosby’s ghosts.”

  “I’m familiar with Mosby. Partisan ranger. Loudoun County was his base of operations.”

  “Yes, Mr. Walker. This is Mosby’s Confederacy. When the ‘war against northern aggression’ wrought its havoc upon us, he protected us from those terrible Union invaders. I’m originally from this area of Virginia myself. My grandfather owned a cattle farm just a few miles from here.” She paused, shifting to a somber tone. “Our family lost it all,” she said quietly.

  Walker abruptly realized that Gloria was a native Virginian — a southern belle. Just at about the right age to have been born and raised on the Lost Cause theory — that the Civil War was one of noble Southern gentlemen defending their homes against the tyranny in the North, led by the greatest tyrant of them all: Lincoln. As a student of historiography, the interpretation of the past based on the thinking of the present, Walker knew the Lost Cause theory was indeed a concerted effort by southern historians to limit the impact of slavery as the primary cause of the war. Instead casting the South as honorably protecting their way of life versus defending a peculiar institution that had been already been outlawed by the rest of the world.

  Walker imagined that Gloria was a confederate sympathizer, still angry that the South had lost the war and still bitter that her father had lost everything in the process. Walker knew Ellis was originally from Maryland — a neutral state — which made sense, as it would have been doubtful that her father would have allowed her to marry a Yankee. Walker felt like he had just stepped back in time.

  “I’m so sorry to hear that,” Walker said with as much empathy as he could muster. “But did you say...ghosts?” he asked.

  Gloria paused for a moment, appearing to reflect on her family’s history and the tragic loss they suffered at the evil hands of the North, but then seemed to be reaffirmed by the stories of her Confederate saviors. A smile wrinkled her face and she leaned forward.

  “Well, Mr. Walker, the story goes that Mosby’s Rangers actually used this campus to move their men and supplies. Supposedly, they built an elaborate series of tunnels beneath the school grounds to hide and transport their contraband. That’s how they were able to surprise those Union troops all the time...because they were underground. It’s rumored that when the war ended, many of his rangers wanted to stay here and continue to fight a guerrilla war against the North. Although Mosby eventually surrendered, some of his raiders did stay here and died in those tunnels below us. Today, their spirits still wander the campus, protecting us from harm. Remember, this will always be Mosby’s Confederacy.”

  Chapter 31

  Walker was startled by his conversation with Gloria Ellis. If things weren’t already weird enough, they had just taken a definite turn for the surreal. Ghosts? Tunnels? Spirits of the Confederacy? Walker wondered if a seance would be better than an investigation at this point. This mystery was only getting more complicated, and Walker did not believe in ghosts.

  However, he did believe in a corrupt person in a position of power at an elite private school who could use that position to assert his will on his students with near impunity. Especially if he was assisted by an ethically-challenged security chief with complete control over the eyes and ears of the campus. Walker needed more background on Ellis. Immediately. Perhaps Meredith could shed some more light on the good dean who had not been telling him the truth since he first stepped into his office two days ago.

  He returned to his residence, for some reason expecting to find Meredith still there, but she was not. He quickly went to her residence next door and knocked several times on the door, even peeking in the windows, but it was dark. She was gone.

  Walker didn’t want to jump to any conclusions, but after the time he thought they had shared together, he doubted she would simply leave the campus without telling him. It was a Saturday, so there were no classes today. He checked his phone. No texts. No calls. Perhaps he was simply overreacting. Or perhaps he felt more of a connection than she did. Walker obviously wasn’t a great judge of character, but the way they had talked gave him the distinct indication that she was going to help him with this investigation. And now he needed her more than ever. Her experience with Ellis for all of these years could provide some valuable context on the enigmatic dean.

  Walker suddenly had a sinister thought. He remembered Gloria’s comments about Castillo. Out of the reach of the cameras. She definitely did not like him, but out of reach, that was an unique way of phrasing it. Walker looked at the sofa where he and Meredith had been resting earlier, then scanned the room slowly with his eyes. He moved around the living room, peering closely at the paintings, running his fingers along the edges of the frames. He circulated around the room several times, but found nothing. He stopped again in the center of the room, stared at the sofa again, then gazed upward toward the ceiling fan.

  Pulling a chair over, he stepped onto the makeshift pedestal and reached the centerpiece of the fan box. He turned the box counterclockwise, unscrewing it with several rotations until the covering finally fell off into his hands. Walker stared into the inn
er compartment of the fan mechanism, which housed a small camera, it’s red light flashing and it’s wires disappearing into the ceiling. He instantly recognized the camera model from his days at the FBI, but this particular unit was much more advanced. It was clear this camera was providing a live recorded feed of the entire room — audio and video.

  As Walker attempted to make sense of the foreign device in the fan blade, the realization hit him with the power of a freight train. Castillo had been watching him this entire time. His every move. This was simply another circuit in his elaborate hidden camera system. The security chief could be watching him right now, smiling that it took so long for him to discover the hidden surveillance camera. Walker wasn’t sure if more devices were hidden in other rooms, but there was no need to look for them now. It didn’t matter. The game was over, and Walker had already lost. Castillo had been playing him from the beginning.

  Walker’s next realization, however, almost knocked him from the chair. Meredith. Castillo had heard their conversations. Watched them together. She was now compromised. But where was she? Only one person would know.

  Chapter 32

  Walker pounded his fist on the translucent glass for several minutes until it finally slid open. He had traversed the campus in under five minutes, making his way from his residence to the subterranean surveillance center to find Castillo. He even used Castillo’s keycard again in the elevator but didn’t care who noticed this time. As Walker entered the space, he felt the chill. The room felt colder and appeared darker than he remembered. And empty. Except for one occupant, sitting in a executive chair at the back of the darkened room with his feet crossed up on the counter.

  Walker stood at the front of the room, silhouetted by the video screens playing silently behind him, the campus on full display.

  Castillo broke the silence. “You know, I could sit here all night watching these feeds.” he mused. “It’s so quiet and God-like. You can literally watch the world from here.”

  Walker marched his way up to the counter, not interested in the philosophical and emotional amusements of a deranged person. He stood directly in front of Castillo, blocking his view of the screens, and slammed the video camera onto the counter. Castillo nonchalantly cocked his head and looked at the broken video camera on the counter surface, its severed wires like spider legs sticking upward.

  “Can you explain this?” Walker said in a measured low voice.

  Castillo smiled, huffed, and looked away.

  “What the fuck is this?” Walker demanded.

  Castillo looked up. “That, Mr. Walker, is a very expensive camera.”

  “And what was it doing in my living room?”

  Castillo was abrupt. “Are you really that dumb?” A slight pause. “Or are you just drunk?”

  Walker began to protest, but Castillo loudly pulled his feet away from the counter and stood up to face his opponent. “Did you really think you could just walk onto this campus and be able to solve a missing persons case almost seventy-two hours after the fact? That you could do more than all of the equipment and personnel I have at my disposal? Solve this mystery with a case file and a keycard? Did you really expect us to just open all of our doors for you, expose all of our inner workings, so you could sling accusations at us? Of course I watched you. Because I don’t trust you.”

  Walker straightened and calmed his voice. “What are you hiding, Castillo?”

  The security chief laughed. “Please. Spare me your conspiracy bullshit. I gave you access to everything.”

  Everything? Not quite. Walker simply couldn’t tell Castillo what he knew — what he had seen in the office down the hall — or it could jeopardize the pending FBI raid. He couldn’t do that to Lewis because the corruption was literally seeping through the walls at this school. Even if he couldn’t find Amanda, at least he would have some solace in the fact that the FBI could take down this school, and that would be a win. A win for Amanda. But there was still a device sitting right there in front of him and perhaps a vague reference to others. “What about your hidden cameras?”

  Castillo flinched, but did not probe deeper, did not ask why Walker had made it plural, but probably making a mental note to figure it out later. “Listen, those are invaluable to the overall security of this campus.”

  “You’ve been watching me, manipulating my every move since I got here.”

  “I am the head of security, Walker. It’s my job to know what is happening on this campus. Did I spy on you? Yes. But it’s because that’s what I do. I protect this school. Were you actually foolish enough to think for one second that you ever had full reign here. You were always under my control.”

  “You think putting a camera in my residence is controlling me? That’s just voyeurism.”

  “What do you want from me? I didn’t tell you to get close with Meredith.”

  “You sick bastard,” Walker said. “Is that was this is about? An old fling? A former girlfriend who knows your secrets?”

  “You be careful with that girlfriend. She’s got some issues. But perhaps you already know that...now that the two of you are so close. I wondered how you had gotten my keycard and access to my office. But now it all makes sense. You have no idea what you’re getting yourself into.”

  “Don’t worry about me. I can take care of myself. As long as you aren’t looking over my shoulder, trying to stop me from investigating this case.”

  “I told you from the very beginning, my priority is this school, and no one, including some washed up private investigator, is going to get in the way of that. Like I said before, you had better be careful because no one is going to miss you.”

  “Are you threatening me?”

  “You can call it whatever you want, but you jeopardize the safety of these students in any way, and you won’t be around much longer.” Castillo paused and looked at his watch. “As far as I can see, you have one day left, so yelling at me is not helping you to solve this case, now is it?”

  “Where is Meredith?”

  “How the hell should I know?”

  “You’re the one with the camera feeds. So where is she? Did you have to take care of her, too? Does she know too much about Amanda’s disappearance?”

  Castillo chuckled loudly. “Have you listened to yourself? You can’t solve this mystery, so it must be us. Jesus Christ. Do you have any other theories?”

  Walker paused, unsure if he wanted to play his next hand, but he was reaching the end of the line, so it was at least worth a shot. “What do you know about the tunnels?”

  “What tunnels?”

  “Don’t bullshit me. I’ve heard the stories.”

  Castillo sighed, looked down for a moment and then stared at Walker. “This school has been here since 1805. You don’t think we have our share of legends and myths for something that’s been around for that long? The ghosts of Washington Academy,” Castillo said, rolling his eyes. “Yeah, we’ve got our underground tunnels, our secret societies, and now, a missing student. They must all be related.”

  “What are you trying to cover up here?”

  “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  “I’m going to find out the truth. I will find it. And if you’re a part of this,” He pointed his index finger at Castillo, “I’m going to bring you down.”

  Castillo shook his head. “You can threaten me all you want, but I want to solve this as much as you do. I’m not hindering your investigation, I’m just making sure you stay in line. I’ve tried to solve this one, too. And even with all this surveillance,” Castillo said, waving his arms at the screens. “I still can’t figure it out.”

  “What did you mean when you said they’re all related — the tunnels and society and Amanda?”

  “I didn’t say that. You know what I meant.”

  “No. What did you mean?”

  Castillo lowered his head and waved his hand dismissively. “Forget it.”

  Walker edged back toward Castillo. “No. What are you talk
ing about? Why do you think they’re related?”

  Castillo sat back down in the chair and sighed heavily as he leaned back. There was a long moment of silence as Castillo stared at Walker. Finally, he said, “Supposedly, our little secret society uses the tunnels to sneak into the surrounding wooded areas undetected.”

  Walker was dumbfounded. “What? Is that true? Where are these tunnels?”

  “Don’t get your hopes up.” Castillo huffed. “I’ve never seen them. I don’t actually know if they exist, but the legend is that Mosby built an elaborate series of tunnels under the campus, connecting some of the buildings with the surrounding woods, which would enable him to move his forces quickly or hide supplies. Several of the original buildings were here at the time, so it makes sense. You saw that big painting of Mosby outside Ellis’s office, right? Well, there you go. He’s a real hero around here.”

  Walker was intrigued. “Where do you think these tunnels might be?”

  “Not sure. We did some searching a couple years back, but came up empty. Honestly, I don’t have time to be digging for tunnels. I have enough to worry about above ground.”

  “What about this secret society...the Sons of Liberty? Have you ever followed its members, tried to find the entrances to the tunnels?”

  “Like I told you before, we don’t even know who’s a member or if it actually still exists, so there’s no one to follow. And we’ve never picked up anything on the cameras. It’s almost,” Castillo paused and chuckled, “It’s almost like they’re ghosts.”

  Walker wasn’t amused. “Did it ever occur to you that the reason you couldn’t confirm the existence of this secret society is because they were underground, far beyond the reach of your elaborate camera system?”

  “No, it hasn’t.” Castillo stood up. “Because it’s not real. They’re just stories, Walker. Nothing more. And if you waste your valuable time attempting to uncover some mysterious tunnel or track down some secret club, that’s time that Amanda doesn’t have. And according to my calculations, you only have one day left. You really want to go back to Arcuri and tell him his daughter was swallowed up by a folktale from the Civil War?”