Chapter 8 - The House Outside Bellmont
The property outside Bellmont was an abandoned private clinic once owned by Dr. Kessler's father.
Paint peeled from the exterior.
Most windows were covered.
The driveway disappeared behind overgrown trees.
Investigators reached it shortly after dawn.
Rebecca and Owen remained outside while the property was searched.
Ethan stayed at the hospital with Sarah.
Inside the clinic, investigators found medical restraints.
Empty sedative vials.
A portable cardiac monitor.
Disposable gloves.
And a wooden transport crate large enough to conceal a human body.
In a waste container were pieces of fabric matching Sarah's funeral dress.
But Daniel was gone.
So was Kessler.
In one upstairs room, a camera system had been hastily removed.
Only cables remained.
Owen examined the wall.
"They recorded something."
Rebecca looked around.
"Why?"
"Insurance. People committing crimes together often don't trust each other."
A technician recovered part of the system's internal storage.
Most files had been erased.
One survived.
The video showed Sarah unconscious on a medical cot.
Daniel stood beside her.
Kessler checked the monitor.
Their voices were faint but understandable.
"How much did you give her?" Daniel asked.
"Enough to keep her unresponsive for twelve hours."
"The funeral is tomorrow morning."
Kessler looked toward Sarah.
"Then she needs another dose."
Daniel hesitated.
"If it kills her?"
Kessler answered, "That's the point, isn't it?"
The video ended.
Rebecca felt sick.
Later that morning, Sarah watched the footage from her hospital bed.
She did not cry.
Ethan was not allowed to see it.
Sarah stared at Daniel's image.
"He knew."
Rebecca nodded.
"Yes."
Sarah looked away.
"Part of me kept hoping Kessler had lied to him."
"Sarah."
"I know."
Her voice became quiet.
"I know what I heard."
Rebecca sat beside her.
"There's something I need to ask. Daniel told me something else is missing."
Sarah's eyes narrowed.
"The ledger."
"What ledger?"
"My father kept handwritten records whenever he suspected fraud. He didn't trust digital systems."
"Where is it?"
"I thought Daniel destroyed it years ago."
"Why would he?"
"Because my father investigated him before he died."
Rebecca stared.
"You never told me that."
"I didn't know until six months ago."
Sarah explained.
While cleaning the blue room, she had discovered a letter from her father.
He wrote that Daniel had approached him five years earlier requesting access to Sarah's trust.
When refused, Daniel secretly attempted to use one of Sarah's signatures.
Her father caught him.
Daniel apologized.
Claimed it had been a misunderstanding.
Sarah's father never believed him.
Instead, he created the second amendment.
"What exactly does it do?" Rebecca asked.
Sarah looked at her.
"If Daniel commits fraud against the trust, every marital claim he has to the estate is void."
Rebecca exhaled.
"That destroys his entire financial motive."
"Yes."
"Where's the amendment?"
"My father wrote in the letter that the original would be held somewhere Daniel could never reach."
Rebecca thought.
"Bank vault?"
"No."
"Law office?"
"No."
"Then where?"
Sarah smiled faintly.
"My father loved riddles."
Ethan walked into the room carrying a cup of ice.
He heard the last sentence.
"Grandpa said the safest box is one nobody knows is a box."
Sarah looked at him.
"When did he say that?"
"At the train station."
Sarah stared.
"What train station?"
"The model one."
In Sarah's childhood home, now maintained as part of the Harrison family estate, her father had built an enormous model railway in the attic.
Ethan had played with it when he was younger.
Sarah looked at Rebecca.
"The station."
That afternoon, Rebecca and Owen visited the estate.
The model railway remained beneath sheets.
They uncovered the station building.
Ethan's grandfather had crafted it by hand.
Owen lifted the roof.
Nothing.
Rebecca examined the base.
One wooden platform detached.
Inside was a narrow metal box.
Rebecca opened it.
The original trust amendment lay inside.
Beneath it was a handwritten ledger.
Sarah's father's handwriting covered dozens of pages.
Dates.
Payments.
Meetings.
Daniel Cole appeared repeatedly.
So did Martin Kessler.
Rebecca turned to the final page.
One entry was circled.
Daniel requested information regarding medication capable of producing apparent cardiac death. Claims research purpose.
The entry was dated four years earlier.
Rebecca stared at it.
Four years.
Daniel had not invented the plan after Sarah discovered the theft.
He had been considering it long before.
Then Owen found something tucked inside the back cover.
A sealed letter addressed to Sarah.
Rebecca did not open it.
May you like
But one sentence was written beneath Sarah's name.
If Daniel ever tells you my death was an accident, do not believe him.
