Chapter 18 - Beneath the Chandelier
Police returned to the estate that afternoon.
The destroyed chandelier had already been removed.
Beneath the damaged floorboards, investigators found a steel safe embedded between the foundation beams.
Thomas had reached it first.
The safe was open.
Empty.
But he had left something behind.
Blood.
Keller followed the trail through the service corridor.
It ended in the wine cellar.
Thomas lay behind a stack of wooden crates.
He was alive.
Barely.
A knife wound crossed his abdomen.
Emily stayed outside while paramedics worked.
Thomas opened his eyes when Keller approached.
“Mercer.”
Keller frowned.
“Mercer is in custody.”
Thomas coughed.
“Not him.”
“Who?”
Thomas looked toward Emily.
“Nathan.”
Emily froze.
Nathan was supposed to be under guard at the hospital.
Keller called immediately.
Two minutes later, his expression changed.
Nathan had escaped again.
A corrections officer had been found unconscious in a supply closet.
His uniform was missing.
Thomas struggled to speak.
“He knew about the trust.”
“He made me open the safe.”
“Where did he go?”
Thomas swallowed.
“River house.”
Margaret gasped.
The Harrington river house had been abandoned since Charles died.
Sofia looked at Emily.
“What was in the safe?”
Thomas closed his eyes.
“Original trust.”
“And Claire’s evidence.”
Keller leaned closer.
“Anything else?”
Thomas whispered.
“A confession.”
Emily frowned.
“Whose confession?”
Thomas’s eyes opened.
“Charles recorded Nathan after Claire’s crash.”
“He got Nathan talking.”
A hidden audio confession.
That was why Nathan had returned.
Not for money.
For the one piece of evidence that could destroy every defense he had left.
Emily looked at Keller.
“He’s going to burn it.”
Keller nodded.
Police units mobilized.
Margaret stepped forward.
“I’m coming.”
Keller refused.
Emily refused too.
Margaret looked at her.
“He is my son.”
Emily’s voice hardened.
“That stopped being an excuse twenty-three years ago.”
Margaret flinched.
Emily immediately regretted the cruelty.
But not the truth.
Sofia touched Margaret’s arm.
“You can help Claire.”
Margaret looked toward her.
“Stay with her.”
“For once, protect the person Nathan hurt instead of following him.”
Margaret slowly nodded.
Emily turned toward Keller.
“I’m going.”
“No.”
“Nathan asked for me from the beginning.”
“That is exactly why you’re not going.”
Emily looked him in the eyes.
“My name is probably written all over whatever is in that trust.”
“He won’t destroy it until he knows whether killing me still gives him anything.”
Keller stared at her.
Emily continued.
“That gives you time.”
He hated the logic.
But he could not deny it.
May you like
Thirty minutes later, Emily stood outside the river house wearing a police wire.
Inside, Nathan waited with a can of gasoline.
