Chapter 9 - The Lake House
The lake house had been empty for seventeen years.
Richard had kept it because Caroline loved it.
He had never been able to sell it.
The place sat behind a wall of pines nearly an hour outside the city, where the road narrowed and cell service disappeared.
Police went first.
Richard and Ethan were told to remain behind.
Neither did.
By the time they reached the property, two unmarked vehicles were already parked near the dock.
The front door stood open.
Sophia was inside.
She sat at the kitchen table wearing Richard's old gray coat over her torn yellow blouse.
Her makeup was gone.
Without the carefully arranged hair and controlled expressions, she looked younger and more exhausted.
A thick brown ledger lay on the table in front of her.
Ethan stopped when he saw it.
Richard did not move at all.
Caroline's initials were embossed into the leather.
C.H.
Sophia placed both hands flat on the table.
"I didn't steal it for myself."
Ethan laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
"That's your opening sentence?"
"Vivian told me the ledger proved Richard stole from the company."
"So you broke into his safe."
"Daniel gave me the key."
"And you used it."
Sophia looked down.
"Yes."
Richard walked to the table.
"Why did you frame me?"
She finally looked at him.
"Because Daniel said the guardianship case needed a triggering event."
"A triggering event."
Richard repeated the phrase as if tasting something rotten.
Sophia's eyes filled.
"They said no one would believe you could become violent unless there was a witness Ethan trusted."
Ethan's face tightened.
"You mean you."
She nodded.
"They said the video system would be down."
"And when it wasn't?"
"I panicked."
Richard's voice remained quiet.
"You were not panicking when you tore your blouse."
Sophia did not argue.
A detective asked how she left the station.
She explained that before formal arrest processing, she had been allowed to use the restroom while investigators discussed the case.
She slipped out through a side corridor used by witnesses.
It was reckless and only made her situation worse.
She knew that.
"Why come here?" Ethan asked.
Sophia touched the ledger.
"Because Vivian doesn't know I found the last pages."
Richard opened it.
Caroline's handwriting filled the first half.
Dates.
Account numbers.
Names.
Questions written in the margins.
Then, near the back, the handwriting changed.
The newer entries were in Vivian's hand.
Richard turned another page.
Payments to Daniel.
Payments to Dr. Greene.
Payments to a company controlled by Sophia Bennett.
Ethan stared at her.
"You were paid."
Sophia's cheeks colored.
"Yes."
"How much?"
"Two hundred thousand."
The number hung in the room.
Ethan looked as though she had struck him.
"You were going to marry me in six weeks."
Sophia's voice broke.
"I know."
"Were you ever going to tell me?"
She shook her head.
He looked away.
Richard continued through the ledger.
Near the final pages was a list of planned steps.
MEDICAL RECORD.
SIGNATURE PAGES.
BEHAVIORAL INCIDENT.
EMERGENCY PETITION.
TRANSFER VOTING AUTHORITY.
LIQUIDATE NORTH COVE.
Then one final line.
REMOVE R.H. BEFORE SEPTEMBER 1.
Richard read it twice.
"Remove."
Sophia spoke quickly.
"Vivian told me it meant moving you to a private care facility."
Richard looked at her.
"And you believed that?"
She did not answer.
A floorboard creaked upstairs.
Every detective in the room reacted.
One raised a hand for silence.
Another moved toward the staircase.
Sophia's face drained.
"I thought I was alone."
A door shut on the second floor.
The detectives moved up.
Ethan stepped protectively toward Richard without thinking.
Richard noticed.
A minute passed.
Then two.
One detective called down.
"Clear."
They had found an open window in the rear bedroom.
Fresh mud marked the sill.
Someone had been inside the house while Sophia waited.
On the bed lay a phone.
Not Sophia's.
It was playing a live audio feed from the kitchen.
Someone had been listening to everything.
The detectives rushed outside.
A vehicle engine roared somewhere beyond the trees.
By the time they reached the road, it was gone.
Richard returned to the ledger.
A folded sheet of paper had slipped from the back cover.
It was not old.
It had been printed recently.
At the top was a list of names and wire amounts.
At the bottom was a handwritten note in Vivian's script.
DANIEL GETS 20%.
SOPHIA GETS 5%.
GREENE GETS 2%.
E.H. GETS EVERYTHING ELSE, WHETHER HE KNOWS IT OR NOT.
Ethan read the line again.
"What does that mean?"
Sophia looked at him with genuine fear.
"It means they were planning to put the stolen money in your name."
The room went silent.
Richard understood first.
"They weren't just stealing my company."
May you like
He looked at his son.
"They were preparing to make you the criminal."
