Chapter 7 - The Lighthouse Ledger
Everett did not go alone.
He left the hospital in his sedan while an unmarked police vehicle followed at a distance. Gideon remained with Maren, and officers were positioned along the coastal road.
The lighthouse stood above a narrow beach surrounded by black rocks.
Its entrance was open.
Inside, the circular room smelled of salt and old wood.
A lantern burned on a table.
Beside it lay a ledger, a brass key, and Noah’s cream-colored cap.
Everett picked up the cap.
It was dry and clean.
He forced himself to breathe.
“Noah?”
Only the ocean answered.
He opened the ledger.
The first pages contained trust transactions dating back twenty-two years. Some were ordinary payments for property maintenance and legal expenses.
Others were transfers to companies Everett had never seen.
Blue Harbor Consulting.
Northline Custodial Services.
Meridian Nine Holdings.
Each company had received money from the trust before disappearing.
A photograph slipped from between the pages.
It showed Everett’s father, Alistair, standing beside Adrian Vale.
They were younger, smiling outside the lighthouse.
On the back, Adrian had written:
Alistair believes the secondary line is stealing from the unborn heirs. If anything happens to us, the schedule must never return to Blackwater.
Everett read the sentence again.
Unborn heirs.
Twenty-two years earlier, Everett had been a teenager. Silas had been twelve.
Noah had not existed.
The warning concerned future children.
A floorboard creaked above him.
Everett climbed the spiral staircase.
At the top, he found Silas standing beside the lighthouse lens.
Silas wore a dark coat. The scar near his left ear was visible.
“Where is my son?” Everett asked.
Silas looked out at the sea.
“Safe.”
“Show me.”
“I can’t.”
Everett crossed the room.
Silas raised both hands.
“I did not take him.”
“You helped move Maren.”
“I helped Celeste because she told me Maren was planning to disappear with Noah.”
“You believed her?”
“I believed the documents.”
“You created the documents.”
Silas laughed without humor.
“I am not skilled enough to invent a physician who has been dead for twelve years.”
Everett held up Noah’s cap.
“Why is this here?”
“Because someone wanted you to come.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
Everett studied him.
“You asked the trust administrator about removing me.”
Silas’s expression changed.
“I wanted to know what Celeste was attempting.”
“You expected me to believe you were investigating her?”
“I expected you to remember that your mother has never trusted either of us.”
Everett stepped closer.
“She was transferring Noah’s inheritance to someone in the secondary line. That means you.”
“Not necessarily.”
“You are the first adult beneficiary after me.”
Silas reached into his coat.
Everett tensed.
Silas slowly removed a folded sheet of paper.
It was a copy of a transfer receipt.
The recipient field did not display Silas Langford.
It displayed a number.
Beneficiary 9.
“The trust has only eight registered beneficiary positions,” Silas said. “Someone added a ninth.”
“Who?”
“That is what I have been trying to learn.”
He placed the receipt on the table.
“Celeste told me Noah had to be removed before Friday. She said the family would lose everything if the child remained in the trust.”
“Why would she say that?”
“Because the original schedule contains a clause she does not want anyone to read.”
Everett looked at the ledger.
“Where is the schedule?”
Silas nodded toward the brass key.
“Adrian Vale stored it beneath this lighthouse.”
Everett fitted the key into a metal lock hidden behind the old lens platform.
A narrow compartment opened.
Inside was an empty envelope.
Someone had reached it first.
A telephone began ringing on the floor below.
Everett and Silas exchanged a glance.
The lighthouse had no working telephone.
They descended.
An old black receiver sat beside the ledger.
Everett answered.
Maren’s voice came through the line.
“Everett, Noah is back at the house.”
Relief struck him so sharply that he gripped the table.
“Is he safe?”
“Yes. Mrs. Bell found him in the morning room.”
“Where are you?”
“On the way to Blackwater with Gideon.”
Everett looked at Silas.
“Stay at the hospital.”
“I can’t. The gala staff found something beneath Noah’s blanket.”
“The document?”
“No. A guest list.”
Maren’s breathing became unsteady.
“One name is circled.”
May you like
“Whose?”
“Mine.”
