Chapter 6
For several seconds, I thought I had misunderstood Margaret.
Then she said it again.
“I killed Charles.”
The officer beside us immediately turned.
“Ma’am?”
Margaret shut her eyes.
Too late.
Detective Cole was still outside the van coordinating the pursuit.
I looked at her.
“You need to tell him.”
“No.”
“You just told me.”
“Because I need you to understand.”
“I don’t understand anything.”
She squeezed my wrist harder.
“Charles was going to kill Daniel.”
My anger disappeared.
“What?”
Margaret looked toward the factory.
“Not with his hands. With money.”
“That makes no sense.”
“It will.”
Cole returned before she could explain.
He opened the door.
“Marcus’s vehicle abandoned two miles south. Sophie isn’t inside.”
Daniel arrived carrying Oliver.
Vanessa followed in handcuffs.
She had surrendered when police secured the factory.
Her face was streaked with tears.
“Where is my daughter?” she demanded.
Cole ignored her.
Margaret suddenly stood.
“I killed Charles.”
Everything stopped.
Daniel turned slowly.
“What did you say?”
Margaret looked at her son.
For once, she didn’t cry.
“I killed your father.”
Daniel handed Oliver to Richard, who had arrived with the police convoy.
Then he walked toward his mother.
“My father died in bed.”
“Yes.”
“Coroner said heart failure.”
“He had heart problems.”
Daniel’s face went rigid.
“What did you do?”
Margaret looked at Cole.
“I’ll tell you everything after Sophie is safe.”
Daniel slammed his hand against the side of the van.
“No!”
Oliver jumped.
Daniel immediately regretted it.
He crouched beside his son.
“I’m sorry, buddy.”
Oliver’s lower lip trembled.
“Where’s Sophie?”
“We’re finding her.”
“Mom knows.”
Daniel looked at Vanessa.
Vanessa shook her head.
“I don’t.”
Oliver looked confused.
“Yes, you do.”
Everyone turned toward him.
Vanessa knelt as far as the handcuffs allowed.
“What do you mean?”
Oliver wiped his face.
“Grandpa Marcus said Sophie was going to the house under the horses.”
Vanessa froze.
Daniel stared.
“What house?”
She didn’t answer.
“Vanessa.”
Her eyes closed.
“My father had a ranch outside Weatherford when I was little.”
Cole was already moving.
“Address?”
“It doesn’t exist anymore.”
“What does that mean?”
“The main house burned down.”
Daniel leaned toward her.
“House under the horses.”
Vanessa suddenly inhaled.
“The storm shelter.”
Cole pointed toward an officer.
“Find the property.”
Vanessa shook her head.
“It’s not in his name.”
“What name?”
“My mother’s maiden name. Elise Arden.”
Twenty minutes later, we were moving west.
Daniel and Oliver rode in an SUV with police.
Vanessa rode separately under guard.
Margaret had technically confessed to homicide, but Cole chose to keep her close until Sophie was recovered.
I wanted to go home more than ever.
But the person behind the anonymous messages had involved me directly.
Cole wanted my phone monitored.
So I stayed.
The ranch was nearly an hour away.
Halfway there, my phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
A voice message.
I played it through the car speakers.
Sophie was crying.
Then Marcus spoke.
“Daniel, your family has taken enough from mine.”
Daniel’s voice cracked through the radio from the vehicle ahead.
“Trace it!”
Cole answered.
“We are.”
Marcus continued.
“I didn’t want the children involved. Vanessa made that mistake.”
Vanessa heard the same message in another car.
She began shouting over the police radio.
“Dad! Let Sophie go!”
Marcus continued.
“My daughter thought revenge would heal her.”
Vanessa went silent.
“She was wrong.”
Then his voice hardened.
“But truth might.”
There was a pause.
“You have until one in the morning to bring Margaret Whitmore to the ranch.”
Daniel spun toward our vehicle from the SUV ahead as if he could see his mother through the darkness.
Marcus spoke again.
“No police.”
Cole muttered, “Not happening.”
“If Margaret doesn’t come, I send everything Ethan collected to the press.”
Daniel almost laughed.
“Do it.”
Then Marcus added,
“And Sophie disappears.”
Daniel’s face changed.
The message ended.
Margaret whispered, “I’ll go.”
“No,” Daniel said over the radio.
“You don’t decide.”
“You’re not trading yourself.”
“Daniel.”
“You lied to me my whole life. You don’t get to suddenly play martyr.”
Margaret looked out the window.
“I’m not trying to save myself.”
“What did Dad do?”
Silence.
Daniel’s voice came again.
“What did you mean when you said you killed him because he was going to hurt me?”
Margaret breathed slowly.
“Your father knew federal investigators were getting close.”
“So?”
“He needed another person to blame.”
Daniel stopped speaking.
I already understood.
Margaret continued.
“He had used Marcus once. He couldn’t use him again.”
“So he chose Ethan?”
“No.”
Daniel’s face hardened.
“Me.”
“Yes.”
Margaret began crying.
“He planned to transfer documents into your name. Fake approvals. Fake signatures. He would make it look like you had been managing the illegal accounts.”
Daniel looked stunned.
“I was twenty-seven.”
“He didn’t care.”
“Why me?”
“Because Ethan had already left the company.”
Daniel looked toward the road.
“And you stopped him?”
“I begged him first.”
“What happened?”
“He laughed at me.”
Margaret’s voice became distant.
“He said sons existed to continue a father’s legacy, even if that meant inheriting his sins.”
Daniel’s expression twisted.
“The night he died, he told me the documents were ready.”
Margaret swallowed.
“He had taken his heart medication earlier. He was drinking. We argued.”
Cole listened without interrupting.
“I pushed him.”
Daniel looked at her.
“You pushed him?”
“He fell.”
“Down the stairs?”
Margaret nodded.
“The newspapers said he died in bed.”
“I moved him.”
Daniel shut his eyes.
“You moved his body.”
“I panicked.”
“And the doctor?”
“Charles’s physician owed him money.”
Daniel laughed bitterly.
“Of course he did.”
Margaret looked at him.
“I didn’t plan to kill him.”
“But you covered it up.”
“Yes.”
“And Marcus knows.”
“Yes.”
That explained the leverage.
But not Ethan.
Vanessa’s voice suddenly came through the police radio.
“My father didn’t kill Ethan.”
Daniel turned toward her vehicle.
“You said he did.”
“I said he was standing over Ethan.”
“What’s the difference?”
“I never saw him hurt Ethan.”
Daniel’s eyes narrowed.
Vanessa continued.
“I spent six months believing Dad killed him because Dad told me to keep quiet.”
Cole asked, “Why would he do that if he was innocent?”
“To protect me.”
Vanessa’s voice broke.
“I think Ethan was already dying when Dad arrived.”
Daniel slammed his fist against the dashboard.
“Then who drugged him?”
Nobody answered.
We reached the old ranch shortly before one.
The main house was indeed gone.
Only a stone foundation remained.
A burned chimney rose against the moonlight.
Three rotting horse statues stood beside an abandoned stable.
House under the horses.
Officers searched.
One found a metal door hidden beneath weeds behind the statues.
Daniel rushed toward it.
“Police!” Cole yelled.
They opened the shelter.
Dark stairs descended underground.
Daniel followed officers.
Vanessa screamed Sophie’s name from beside the vehicle.
Then a little girl cried from below.
“Daddy!”
Daniel ran.
They found Sophie inside a small underground room.
Alive.
Terrified.
Alone.
Daniel lifted her into his arms.
I had never seen a grown man cry like that.
Oliver rushed to his sister.
Vanessa fell to her knees outside.
“My babies.”
Daniel wouldn’t look at her.
Cole searched the shelter.
Marcus was gone.
But he had left something behind.
A laptop.
And another recording.
This one was labeled:
ETHAN — FINAL CALL.
Cole played it.
Ethan’s voice came first.
“Marcus, I need you to listen.”
Then Marcus.
“I’m listening.”
“I know who’s been dosing Daniel.”
Vanessa’s face drained.
Daniel stared.
Ethan continued.
“It isn’t Vanessa.”
Everyone looked at her.
She whispered, “What?”
Ethan’s recorded voice filled the shelter.
“I thought it was her too. I was wrong.”
Daniel looked at his mother.
Margaret shook her head.
“No.”
Ethan continued.
“The person trying to kill Daniel is someone inside the family who benefits if both brothers die.”
Daniel’s eyes moved slowly around the room.
Margaret.
Vanessa.
His children.
Then Richard Hale.
His attorney.
His father’s attorney before him.
Richard had come to the ranch.
He stood near the entrance.
And when Ethan’s recording continued, Richard began backing toward the door.
“The trust passes control to the family legal executor if Daniel and I both die before Oliver turns eighteen.”
Daniel stared at Richard.
Ethan said the final words.
May you like
“That executor is Richard Hale.”
Richard ran.
