Chapter 6 - what sophia had not told anyone)
Police took the threat seriously.
Detective Mara Jennings arrived that afternoon.
She had spent sixteen years investigating financial crimes and suspicious deaths in Chatham County.
Robert gave her copies of Grace's notebook pages.
Not the original.
He also told her about the call.
Jennings listened carefully.
Then she asked the question Robert had been avoiding.
"Why did Grace trust a twelve-year-old with evidence instead of going to law enforcement?"
Sophia answered herself.
"Because someone in law enforcement told Dad things."
The room went silent.
Jennings turned toward her.
"What things?"
Sophia swallowed.
This was the secret she had not told anyone.
Not Emma.
Not Robert.
Not even Grace, at first.
Three months earlier, Sophia had overheard Ethan speaking on the phone.
He was angry.
He told someone Grace was "digging again."
Then he said:
"Keep me informed if she contacts anyone downtown."
Sophia did not understand.
Two days later Grace returned from a meeting with an investigator and discovered Ethan already knew she had gone.
That night Sophia told her mother what she had heard.
Grace became terrified.
Jennings leaned forward.
"Did you hear a name?"
"No."
"Male or female?"
"Male."
"Anything else?"
Sophia thought.
"Dad called him Captain once."
Jennings' expression changed.
Robert noticed.
"You know someone."
"There are several captains."
"But you're thinking of one."
Jennings stood.
"I need to make some calls."
Before leaving, she asked Sophia whether Grace had ever mentioned a police officer.
Sophia shook her head.
Jennings left.
Robert turned toward Sophia.
"Why didn't you tell me sooner?"
"Mom said not to trust anyone until the notebook was safe."
"You can trust me."
"I know."
"Then why?"
Sophia looked at him with exhausted eyes.
"Because you get angry before you think."
The truth hurt.
Robert sat beside her.
"You're right."
She looked surprised.
"I nearly attacked your father yesterday. Your mother predicted exactly what I would do."
He took her hand.
"From now on, I listen first."
Sophia nodded.
That evening, Emma came downstairs carrying a jewelry box.
"I found something."
Inside was Grace's old silver bracelet.
One charm had been removed.
Sophia stared.
"Mom always wore the blue stone."
Emma nodded.
"It's gone."
Robert remembered seeing Grace wearing the bracelet during the final week of her life.
"What does that mean?"
Emma opened the bottom of the jewelry box.
A tiny folded paper had been hidden beneath the lining.
Grace's handwriting.
Blue stone equals locker 214.
Robert stared.
"Locker?"
Sophia suddenly remembered.
"The train station."
Savannah's old interstate bus terminal had rental lockers years ago, but most had been removed.
Martin searched online.
There was another possibility.
A private storage facility called Blue Stone Storage.
Locker 214.
Robert called.
The manager confirmed that a Grace Cole rented unit 214 four months earlier.
Robert, Martin and Detective Jennings went there that night.
The storage unit was small.
Inside was one metal case.
Grace had taped a letter to the top.
Robert opened it.
Dad,
If you found this, then things are worse than I hoped.
The notebook explains Ethan's crimes.
The recordings explain my fear.
This box explains why the wrong people may be protecting him.
Inside were printed emails.
Photographs.
Property records.
And a photograph of Ethan shaking hands with a uniformed police captain outside a private club.
Jennings recognized him immediately.
Captain Raymond Doyle.
Her former supervisor.
Robert looked at her.
"Is he the man?"
"I don't know."
But her face said something else.
She knew enough to be afraid.
Then Martin found the final document.
It was a copy of an old trust agreement belonging to Robert's late wife, Evelyn Whitmore.
Twenty-five million dollars had been placed in trust decades earlier.
Grace was the primary beneficiary.
After Grace's death, the money would pass to her children.
Unless all three children were removed from Grace's legal bloodline through a specific contested guardianship provision.
Martin read the clause again.
"This makes no sense."
Robert felt sick.
"It made sense to someone."
Sophia understood first.
"Dad didn't just want to leave us."
Robert looked at her.
"He needed someone else to take legal custody."
Martin nodded slowly.
"Social services."
If the girls entered state custody and a later guardianship challenge succeeded, control of the trust could become complicated.
And during that legal confusion, one specific person was designated temporary trustee.
Robert read the name.
Charles Carrington.
May you like
Lydia's brother.
The man who had represented Ethan for years.
