Chapter 2 - THE FOOTPRINT BY ROBERT’S DESK
Margaret called Owen back immediately.
“Has anyone entered the main house today?”
“No one except Daniel and Miss Crowe.”
“What about the study?”
“I thought that room was locked.”
“It was.”
Owen arrived ten minutes later carrying a flashlight and a ring of maintenance keys. He was sixty-eight, broad-shouldered, and cautious in the way of a man who had spent most of his life protecting land that did not technically belong to him.
He examined the damp print.
“Too narrow for Daniel’s shoe,” he said.
Margaret looked toward the window.
The lock had not been broken. There were no scratches on the frame.
“Could someone have entered from outside?”
“Not without a ladder.”
Owen checked the drawer where Margaret had placed the transfer form.
The lock was intact.
Nothing appeared to be missing.
“Maybe Vanessa came in,” Margaret said.
“Why would she?”
“To find something.”
Owen glanced at her.
“What are you giving Daniel for the wedding?”
Margaret hesitated.
She trusted Owen. Robert had trusted him too. Still, speaking the plan aloud suddenly felt dangerous.
“The house.”
Owen stopped beside the desk.
“All of Lakehaven?”
“Yes.”
His expression worried her.
“You think I shouldn’t?”
“I think Mr. Robert would have wanted Daniel to inherit it.”
“That was not my question.”
Owen crossed the study and closed the door.
“Three months before Mr. Robert died, he asked me to replace the lock on this room. He said no duplicate key was to be made.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“He asked me not to worry you.”
“Owen, my husband was already ill. Everything worried me.”
“He wasn’t worried about his illness.”
Margaret waited.
Owen looked toward Robert’s desk.
“He was worried about someone searching the house.”
“Who?”
“He never said.”
Margaret’s frustration rose.
“You waited eight years to mention this?”
“I thought the danger had ended with him.”
Margaret looked again at the damp footprint.
“And now?”
Owen’s silence answered her.
They searched the study together.
Nothing appeared disturbed until Margaret opened a cabinet behind Robert’s desk. Inside were old property records, tax documents, and maps of the lake.
One folder was missing.
Margaret could tell from the clean rectangle in the dust.
“What was kept there?” Owen asked.
“Original surveys. Mineral rights. Easement records.”
“Anything related to the southern woods?”
“Yes.”
Owen’s jaw tightened.
“Northstar wasn’t interested in building cottages.”
“How can you know that?”
“Because the southern woods contain the only private access road wide enough for heavy equipment.”
Margaret remembered the surveyors.
“What kind of equipment?”
Owen turned toward the window overlooking the trees.
“Whatever they intend to bring to the lake.”
Margaret did not sleep that night.
The next morning, she called Daniel.
He answered from his office, distracted and breathless.
“Mom, is everything okay?”
“Did you send surveyors to Lakehaven?”
A pause.
“No.”
“Are you certain?”
“Yes. Why?”
“Two men from Northstar Holdings inspected the southern boundary yesterday.”
Daniel lowered his voice.
“I don’t know anything about Northstar.”
“Vanessa mentioned building guest cottages.”
“That was just an idea.”
“Did you give her access to your company files?”
“She helps with some administrative things.”
“Your identification records?”
“Why are you asking me this?”
Margaret looked at the locked study.
“Someone entered your father’s office.”
Daniel’s tone changed.
“Was anything stolen?”
“A folder of land records.”
“I’ll come tonight.”
“No. You have work.”
“Mom, someone broke into the house.”
“Nothing else was taken.”
“That doesn’t make it less serious.”
Daniel promised to arrive before seven.
At six forty-five, a white luxury car entered the driveway.
Vanessa was driving.
Daniel sat beside her.
Margaret watched them through the front window.
Before getting out, Vanessa held Daniel’s face between her hands and spoke to him with intense urgency.
Daniel pulled away.
Vanessa caught his wrist.
He said something Margaret could not hear.
Then both of them looked toward Robert’s study window.
Vanessa noticed Margaret watching.
A smile appeared instantly.
She stepped from the car holding a bottle of champagne.
“We came to make sure you’re safe,” she called.
Margaret opened the front door.
Daniel hugged her.
Vanessa did not.
Instead, her eyes moved toward the hallway leading to the study.
“I heard someone stole old papers,” she said.
Margaret had not told Daniel what was missing.
Daniel looked at Vanessa.
“I said there might be missing documents.”
“No,” Margaret replied. “You didn’t.”
Vanessa’s smile remained in place.
“I must have misunderstood.”
Margaret stepped aside and allowed them into the house.
May you like
As Vanessa passed, Margaret noticed a faint brown stain along the edge of her white shoe.
The soil near the study window was the same color.
