Chapter 4
Someone was inside the house.
Ryan grabbed my hand.
“Stay behind me.”
The police officers drew their flashlights and moved toward the stairs.
Another crash came from the second floor.
Glass shattered.
Then we heard footsteps running overhead.
One officer shouted.
“Police! Come downstairs with your hands visible!”
The footsteps stopped.
A window opened.
Ryan pulled me away from the staircase as the officers rushed up.
Rebecca switched on her phone light.
“What is the blue room?”
“We don’t have one,” I said.
Ryan looked toward the hall.
“Yes, we do.”
I followed his gaze.
At the end of the second floor was a small bedroom we used for storage. The walls had been blue when we bought the house, but Margaret insisted we paint them beige.
She had chosen that room for herself whenever she stayed with us.
The back door alarm began beeping.
One officer ran outside.
The other called from upstairs.
“Room is clear. Window is open.”
Ryan and I hurried up with Rebecca behind us.
The storage room had been torn apart.
Boxes lay open across the floor.
The closet door hung from one hinge.
A wooden panel had been pried from the wall.
Behind it was a narrow metal compartment.
Empty.
Ryan stared at it.
“I never knew that was there.”
Rebecca touched the edge of the opening.
“This house belonged to Dad.”
“No. Emily and I bought it four years ago.”
“From whom?”
“A company.”
“What company?”
Ryan looked at me.
“Hale Residential Holdings.”
The same company Margaret and Lucas were using to steal it back.
Rebecca closed her eyes.
“Dad bought this house the year before he died.”
Ryan grabbed his phone and searched through old closing documents.
The seller had been represented by a lawyer.
The owner listed on our paperwork was Tennessee Heritage Properties.
David examined the page.
“That company was dissolved three years ago.”
“Who owned it?” I asked.
“I’ll find out.”
A police officer climbed in through the open window.
“Whoever entered went down the fire ladder.”
“We don’t own a fire ladder,” Ryan said.
“It was attached beneath the window.”
The intruder had prepared an escape route.
The officer held up a torn piece of fabric.
“Any idea who wears a gray uniform?”
I did.
“Lucas works at a bank.”
Rebecca looked at the hidden compartment.
“He came for whatever Margaret kept here.”
Ryan pressed his hand against the back wall.
Something clicked.
A second panel opened beneath the first.
Inside was a blue metal box.
The room had not been named for the walls.
It had been named for this.
Ryan lifted the box out.
It was locked.
The silver key was already with Denise, but the keyhole looked the same size.
She tried it.
The lock opened.
Inside were stacks of letters, bank records, an old cassette tape, and a sealed plastic bag containing a damaged wristwatch.
Rebecca gasped.
“That was Dad’s.”
Ryan picked it up.
The crystal was cracked.
The hands had stopped at 10:17.
The police report said Thomas Hale’s car left the road at 11:05.
“Why would Mom hide this?” Ryan asked.
Rebecca opened one of the ledgers.
The pages showed years of transfers from Hale Construction into private accounts.
Several were marked M.H.
Others were marked L.H.
“Lucas would have been a child,” I said.
“Those initials belonged to Lawrence Hale,” Rebecca replied. “Margaret’s brother. Lucas’s father.”
Ryan looked at her.
“Uncle Lawrence died before Dad.”
“That is what Margaret told you?”
“Yes.”
Rebecca shook her head.
“Lawrence is alive.”
Ryan sat on the edge of the bed.
“Where?”
“I don’t know. He vanished after Dad’s accident.”
The cassette had a handwritten label.
June 14—Thomas and Margaret.
“That date,” Rebecca whispered. “It was the night before Dad died.”
We had no cassette player.
Daniel Mercer did.
Ryan remembered seeing one through the older man’s garage window.
The officers insisted on accompanying us.
We walked through the rain toward Daniel’s house while Denise called for another patrol unit.
His front door stood open.
“Daniel?” Rebecca called.
No answer.
The living room lamp was on.
A chair had been overturned.
The old cassette player lay on the floor with its cord ripped from the wall.
Ryan stepped toward the hallway.
An officer stopped him.
“Wait here.”
They searched the rooms.
Daniel was gone.
There was no blood and no sign of a serious struggle, but his coat and car remained.
A framed photograph had been knocked from a shelf.
I picked it up.
The picture showed Thomas Hale standing beside Daniel Mercer at a construction site.
A much younger Margaret stood behind them.
Beside her was another man with the same narrow eyes as Lucas.
Lawrence.
Rebecca examined the broken frame.
“There is something under the picture.”
A small memory card had been taped behind it.
Denise placed it in an evidence sleeve.
Before she could put it away, headlights swept across the front window.
A car stopped outside.
Ryan looked through the curtain.
“It’s Lucas.”
The officers moved toward the door.
Lucas stepped onto the porch with both hands raised.
His gray bank jacket was torn at the sleeve.
“I need protection,” he called.
Ryan opened the door before anyone could stop him.
“Where is Daniel?”
Lucas looked terrified.
“I don’t know.”
“Were you in our house?”
“Yes.”
The officer pulled him inside and handcuffed him.
Lucas did not resist.
“You stole six hundred thousand dollars,” Ryan said.
“No. Margaret did.”
“You certified my identity.”
“She forced me.”
“She forced you to approve a fraudulent loan?”
Lucas looked at Rebecca.
“You don’t understand what she has.”
“Then explain it.”
Lucas swallowed.
“My father contacted me six months ago.”
Rebecca stepped forward.
“Lawrence?”
“He said Margaret had kept records of every payment he ever received. If those records reached the police, he would go to prison.”
“So you helped her commit another crime?” I asked.
“I was trying to protect my family.”
Ryan laughed bitterly.
“That excuse seems popular.”
Lucas looked at the blue box in Rebecca’s hands.
“She found it.”
“We found it,” Ryan said. “You found an empty compartment.”
Lucas lowered his head.
“I thought the box was inside the wall.”
“Why did you come here?”
“Margaret told me to find Daniel and get the ledger.”
“Where is she?”
“I don’t know.”
“You drove her away from this house.”
“She made me stop at a gas station. Another car picked her up.”
“Who was driving?”
“I couldn’t see.”
Rebecca held up the cassette.
“Do you know what is on this?”
Lucas’s eyes widened.
“No.”
“You recognized it.”
“My father mentioned a recording.”
Ryan moved closer.
“What recording?”
Lucas hesitated.
The officer tightened his hold.
“Start talking.”
“My father said Thomas recorded an argument the night before the crash.”
“About the stolen money?”
“Yes.”
“And something else.”
Rebecca’s voice became sharp.
“What else?”
Lucas looked at her.
“You.”
The room went still.
“What about me?”
“Thomas discovered you had not run away. He found proof Margaret had paid Westbrook to hold you.”
Rebecca’s face twisted with pain.
“Dad knew.”
“He confronted her. He threatened to go to the police.”
Ryan stared at the broken watch.
“And the next night, he died.”
Lucas nodded.
“My father always believed Margaret caused the crash.”
Rebecca stepped back as if struck.
Ryan’s hands curled into fists.
“What does that mean?”
“I don’t know exactly. He said she followed Thomas when he left to find Rebecca.”
“Was Lawrence with her?”
Lucas did not answer.
Ryan grabbed the front of his jacket.
“Was your father with her?”
“Yes!”
The word filled the room.
The officer pulled Ryan away.
Lucas’s voice shook.
“My father said they only wanted to stop Thomas and talk to him.”
“A man died,” Rebecca said.
“It was raining. The road was dangerous.”
“Where is Lawrence now?” Ryan demanded.
“I told you, I don’t know.”
The front window suddenly exploded inward.
Everyone dropped.
A small metal object struck the wall and landed on the carpet.
It was not a bullet.
It was a rock wrapped in paper.
The officers rushed outside.
A car accelerated down the street.
Ryan unfolded the note.
ONE RECORDING FOR ONE ACCOUNTANT.
MIDNIGHT TOMORROW.
COME ALONE, REBECCA.
She read it over his shoulder.
“They have Daniel.”
Denise picked up the cassette.
“And they believe you have the only evidence that can expose them.”
Rebecca stared into the rain.
“No.”
May you like
She looked at the memory card hidden behind Daniel’s photograph.
“They only believe this tape is the only evidence.”
