Chapter 4 - The Third Person
Carter watched the video again.
He didn't blink.
The third person stood beside Chloe and Victor.
The face was unmistakable.
Carter whispered, “No.”
Maya looked at the screen.
“Who is that?”
Carter closed the laptop.
“Someone who should never have been here.”
Chloe stepped closer.
“Carter.”
He turned.
“You knew.”
“I knew there was someone else.”
“You knew who it was.”
“I suspected.”
“That's not the same thing.”
“It is when you're afraid.”
Carter stared at her.
“What did they want?”
Chloe looked toward the window.
“Control.”
“Of what?”
“Everything.”
Carter's phone vibrated.
An unknown number.
He answered.
Nobody spoke.
Then a voice said:
“You should have stayed in Saudi Arabia.”
The call ended.
Carter looked at the screen.
Maya whispered, “Who was it?”
“I don't know.”
Chloe did.
Carter could see it in her face.
“Tell me.”
She shook her head.
“Not here.”
“Where?”
“The greenhouse.”
Carter followed her.
The greenhouse was at the rear of the property.
Chloe locked the door behind them.
“You need to listen.”
“I've been listening for months without knowing it.”
She took a breath.
“Victor isn't the leader.”
Carter stared.
“Then who is?”
Chloe looked directly at him.
“Your father's closest friend.”
Carter froze.
His father's closest friend had been dead for six years.
At least, that was what Carter believed.
Chloe reached into her handbag.
She removed an old photograph.
Carter looked at it.
His father stood beside three men.
One was Victor.
One was his father's business partner.
And the third was a man Carter had mourned at a funeral six years earlier.
His uncle.
Carter slowly shook his head.
“That’s impossible.”
Chloe whispered:
“I saw him two weeks ago.”
Carter looked at her.
“Alive?”
She nodded.
“Then who did we bury?”
Neither of them had an answer.
Behind the greenhouse glass, a figure suddenly moved.
Carter turned.
Nobody was there.
Then his phone received a message.
One photograph.
It showed Eleanor sitting alone in the mansion.
May you like
Under the picture were five words.
YOU ARE ASKING THE WRONG QUESTION.
