Chapter 8 - THE NIGHT EDWARD COULD NOT REMEMBER
Edward’s face went blank.
“That is impossible.”
Linda laughed.
“Is it?”
Arthur moved toward her.
“Stop.”
“No,” Linda said. “You’ve hidden enough.”
Deputy Reynolds looked at Edward.
“Mr. Harper, have you previously entered the chamber?”
“No.”
“Have you ever seen the hidden staircase?”
“No.”
Linda shook her head.
“You don’t remember October 12?”
Edward stared at her.
“What happened on October 12?”
“You came home after midnight. Your shirt was torn, and there was blood on your sleeve.”
Margaret remembered that night.
Edward had arrived during a thunderstorm.
Linda told her he had been involved in a minor traffic accident.
The following morning, his car was gone.
He said it had been taken to a repair shop.
Margaret never saw it again.
Edward rubbed his forehead.
“I was at a client dinner.”
“No,” Linda replied. “You were here.”
Arthur looked at Edward.
“Do you experience missing time?”
“What?”
“Periods you cannot remember?”
Edward stepped back.
“Sometimes I lose track after drinking.”
“Were you drinking that night?”
“I don’t know.”
Linda’s voice softened.
“You weren’t.”
Edward looked at her.
“You told me I was.”
“I had to.”
“Why?”
“Because the truth would have destroyed you.”
Arthur’s anger rose.
“You gave him the medication.”
Margaret turned.
“What medication?”
Linda looked down.
Calvin’s group had developed a method of controlling witnesses and unwilling participants through sedatives, staged recordings, and psychological pressure. It did not erase memories completely. It fragmented them.
Edward had been easy to manipulate.
He already suffered from insomnia.
Linda began adding small doses to his evening tea, then convincing him that his confusion came from stress.
On October 12, Calvin took Edward into the chamber because the door required Harper family biometric access after the emergency lock was installed.
Edward opened it without understanding what he was doing.
Rebecca was waiting inside.
“She tried to wake you,” Linda said. “She knew you were her brother.”
Edward’s breathing became uneven.
“What happened?”
“Calvin demanded the updated list.”
“Did she give it to him?”
“No.”
“Then where is she?”
Linda looked at Arthur.
“I don’t know.”
“You were there.”
“I was upstairs.”
“You just said my shirt had blood on it.”
“Calvin brought you back up.”
Edward pressed his hands against his temples.
Images were returning in flashes.
White lights.
A woman’s voice.
Metal cabinets.
Someone holding his face between cold hands.
Edward, listen to me.
A loud crack.
Blood on the floor.
He staggered toward the table.
Margaret caught him.
“I remember her eyes,” he whispered.
Arthur stepped closer.
“What else?”
“She said my name.”
“Did Calvin shoot her?”
“I don’t know.”
Edward closed his eyes.
Another image surfaced.
Rebecca on the floor.
A dark stain beneath her shoulder.
Calvin searching the cabinets.
Linda standing at the bottom of the staircase.
Not upstairs.
Inside the chamber.
Edward opened his eyes.
“You were there.”
Linda froze.
“You stood beside Calvin.”
“No.”
“I saw you.”
“You were drugged.”
“I saw you holding the necklace.”
Linda shook her head.
“You are confused.”
Edward moved toward her.
“You took it from her neck.”
Deputy Reynolds stepped between them.
Linda’s face became desperate.
“She was already bleeding.”
“You stole from her while she was dying?”
“I was trying to find the key hidden in the pendant.”
Margaret looked at the necklace in the evidence bag.
“The pendant contains a key?”
Arthur nodded.
“A data key.”
Evelyn examined it.
“The chain is broken.”
Linda spoke quickly.
“Rebecca pulled it away from me. It fell beneath a cabinet.”
“Then why was it in your closet?” Margaret asked.
“It wasn’t.”
“Ashley found it there.”
“Because someone planted it.”
“Who?”
Linda looked at Edward.
He stared back at her.
“No,” he said. “Don’t you dare.”
“You brought the blue box upstairs.”
“I didn’t remember the chamber.”
“You remembered enough to hide evidence.”
Arthur stepped between them.
“Both of you were manipulated.”
Linda laughed.
“You still want to protect him.”
“He is my son.”
“And I was your asset.”
“You sold families to Calvin.”
“I did what I had to do.”
Margaret looked at her.
“That is the sentence people use when they refuse to admit they had a choice.”
A deputy returned from the chamber.
“We found something behind the Witness Seven cabinet.”
He held up a clear bag containing a mobile phone.
“The battery is dead, but the device appears intact.”
Arthur stared at it.
“Rebecca’s phone.”
Deputy Reynolds handed it to a forensic officer.
Linda watched them carry it away.
Her fear returned.
Margaret saw it.
“What is on that phone?”
Linda looked toward the front door.
“Nothing.”
“What did Rebecca record?”
“I don’t know.”
Margaret stepped closer.
“Linda.”
Linda whispered, “She recorded the person who ordered Arthur’s death.”
The room fell still.
Arthur’s face changed.
Margaret looked at him.
“You said your death was staged.”
“It was.”
Linda shook her head.
“Not originally.”
May you like
She met Margaret’s eyes.
“The heart attack was real.”
