Chapter 8 - The Empty Safe)
At 3:09 a.m., the hooded visitor left Margaret’s study carrying the fireproof case.
The case was heavy. The person held it with both arms, paused near the stairs, and nearly collided with Lucy, who stepped from the den rubbing her eyes. The figure raised one gloved finger to their lips. Lucy backed into the shadows.
The red scarf disappeared toward the kitchen.
Margaret replayed the footage at dawn. Greg Marsh had not yet arrived for Christmas, but someone wearing his distinctive scarf had entered the house. It might have been Greg. It might have been a deliberate disguise.
She unlocked the study.
The fireproof case was gone. The empty outline in the dust looked like a grave.
The original deed and will were safe in Evelyn’s evidence cabinet, but Thomas’s insurance policies, the savings bonds, family birth certificates, and military papers had been inside the case. More importantly, whoever took it believed the originals remained there.
Margaret checked the camera recording again. At 3:15, the kitchen door opened. Snow blew across the floor. No car appeared in the driveway view.
The thief had left through the backyard.
Lucy found Margaret in the study.
“I saw him,” she whispered.
“Who?”
The girl glanced toward the hall. “I do not know. He covered his face.”
“Was he tall?”
“Like Dad. Maybe taller.”
“Did he speak?”
“He told me to go back to bed.”
“What did his voice sound like?”
Lucy hesitated. “Like Uncle Greg when he gets a cold.”
Margaret knelt so they were eye to eye. “You did nothing wrong. I need you to tell your parents exactly what you told me.”
Terror crossed the girl’s face. “Grandma Donna said I make stories.”
“Truth is not a story just because an adult dislikes the ending.”
Lucy reached into the pocket of her sweatshirt and produced a small blue object.
It was not the flash drive from the wooden Santa. This one was flatter, with Northstar printed along the side.
“He dropped it,” she said. “I picked it up after he went outside.”
Margaret did not plug it into her computer. She placed it in an envelope and called Samuel, who arrived with a uniformed officer. The officer photographed footprints outside the kitchen door. They led across the backyard to the alley, where tire marks cut through fresh snow.
Samuel accepted the flash drive. “It may contain nothing. It may contain everything. Either way, you should consider asking your guests to leave.”
Margaret looked toward the living room, where Donna was speaking loudly about brunch as if the morning were normal. “Half of them have not arrived yet.”
“That is an argument for acting quickly.”
“And Kevin?”
“He cooperated yesterday. This morning he says Tiffany slept beside him all night. She says the same. Shane and Frank also claim they never left their rooms.”
“Someone is lying.”
“Several people are lying. We are identifying which lies are crimes.”
By noon, Samuel confirmed that Greg’s car had crossed a toll bridge into town at 1:52 a.m. Greg told investigators he was visiting a friend but refused to give a name. He denied entering Margaret’s house.
The Northstar drive contained financial projections, menus, vendor lists, and photographs of a vacant restaurant space called The Lantern Room. One folder was encrypted.
Its title was THOMAS LEDGER.
Margaret read the words over Samuel’s shoulder.
“Thomas had nothing to do with Northstar.”
“Someone thinks he did,” Samuel said.
Evelyn obtained an emergency order preserving the drive and the Northstar accounts. The escrow company froze the commercial deposit. If the claim succeeded, thirty-two thousand dollars could return to Margaret. The remaining money was scattered among checks, fees, and a six-thousand-dollar payment to Greg Marsh for consulting.
Kevin sat at the kitchen table while Evelyn explained. Tiffany stood at the window with her arms folded.
“Greg charged six thousand to stamp a page?” Kevin said.
“He also prepared the title documents,” Evelyn replied.
“I did not know.”
Tiffany spun toward him. “Stop saying that.”
“What would you prefer?” Margaret asked. “That he begin lying again?”
Tiffany ignored her. “Kevin, your mother is destroying the restaurant before it opens. If she freezes Northstar, we lose the space.”
“The deposit was her money.”
“It would have benefited all of us.”
“Did you plan to put her in Lakeside?”
Tiffany looked at Donna. “It was a possibility if she declined.”
“Declined what?”
“In general.”
Kevin laughed once, a broken sound. “You mean if she refused to give us the house.”
Tiffany reached for him. He moved away.
“You wanted this too,” she said.
“I wanted a restaurant. I did not want my mother declared incompetent.”
“You signed the form.”
“Because you lied to me.”
“Because you were too weak to ask difficult questions.”
No one answered. Tiffany had spoken cruelly, but not falsely.
At five that evening, the remaining relatives began arriving. Cars filled the driveway and both sides of the street. Coats piled across beds. Children carried presents into the living room. The house expanded with laughter from people who knew nothing, and tense smiles from those who knew too much.
Margaret could have ended it. She could have asked the police to remove everyone. Instead, she made a choice that surprised Evelyn and frightened Kevin.
“Let them stay through Christmas dinner,” she said. “Every person who heard them call me confused deserves to hear the truth.”
“That could become ugly,” Evelyn warned.
“It is already ugly. I only intend to turn on the light.”
That night, while guests sang carols around the piano, Margaret opened the hollow wooden Santa.
Her backup flash drive was missing.
May you like
In its place was Thomas’s peppermint candy, still wrapped in red paper, and a note in handwriting she did not recognize.
YOU ARE LOOKING AT THE WRONG THEFT.
