Chapter 14 - when the lights went out
Margaret ordered Richard to open the envelope.
He refused.
“Your father directed that it be read publicly,” she said.
“My father was a liar.”
“He was the man whose name you spent your life defending.”
Richard held the envelope close to his chest.
Maisie looked at Leah.
“What does it say, Mom?”
Before Leah could answer, someone knocked three times on the front door.
Then every light in Hale House went out.
The emergency system should have activated immediately.
It did not.
The dining room fell into darkness.
A chair overturned.
Someone screamed.
Leah reached for Maisie but found only empty air.
“Maisie!”
“Mom!”
Her daughter’s voice came from near the fireplace.
Leah moved toward it.
A hand caught her shoulder.
She twisted free.
Margaret activated a flashlight.
Its beam crossed the room.
Richard was gone.
So was the sealed envelope.
Maisie stood beside Diane, unharmed.
Chelsea had fallen near the table, but she rose quickly.
“The corridor door is open,” Charles said.
Margaret called the court officers outside.
No one responded.
Leah ran toward the foyer.
The front door stood open, allowing snow to blow across the marble floor.
Two officers lay unconscious beside the gate controls. They were breathing, but their communication equipment had been removed.
A black vehicle disappeared beyond the gates.
Richard had escaped.
“Who helped him?” Chelsea asked.
“The person who knocked,” Leah replied.
They returned to the dining room.
On the table, someone had placed a small wooden wolf.
Margaret picked it up.
“Elias carved this.”
Leah opened the hidden compartment.
Inside was a note.
Do not trust the four words.
Beneath the sentence was a symbol resembling a crown divided by a vertical line.
Margaret recognized it.
“Daniel used this mark on private messages.”
“Then he is alive,” Chelsea said.
Maisie stepped closer.
“The man at the train station had that symbol on his ring.”
Leah knelt.
“What exactly did he do when he saw you?”
“He looked at my necklace.”
Maisie wore a silver pendant Leah had found inside the baby blanket when adopting her. She had never considered it important.
Margaret examined the pendant and pressed the edge.
It opened.
Inside was a tiny photograph of Rose.
Behind the photograph were four engraved words.
Maisie is my daughter.
Margaret sat down heavily.
“Daniel wrote this.”
“Those must be the four words,” Chelsea said.
Leah shook her head.
“The envelope had different spacing.”
She remembered Richard whispering when he saw the handwriting.
He had not said Maisie is my daughter.
She had seen his lips move.
The first word had been longer.
Diane gripped the table.
“I heard him.”
Every person looked at her.
“What did he say?” Leah asked.
Diane’s face was white.
“He said, Margaret knows the truth.”
Margaret stared at her.
“That is four words.”
Leah turned toward the senior trustee.
“What truth do you know?”
“Nothing beyond what I told you.”
“Your son disappeared. Your sister died. Your granddaughter was hidden near me. And you expect me to believe you knew nothing?”
“I searched for Daniel for nine years.”
“Did you find him?”
“No.”
“Did he find you?”
Margaret did not answer quickly enough.
Leah stepped back.
“He contacted you.”
“Once.”
“When?”
“Six months ago.”
Chelsea moved between Margaret and the door.
“What did he say?”
“That Richard was preparing to access the trust.”
“Why didn’t you tell Leah?”
“Daniel warned me that someone close to the family was working with Richard.”
“Who?”
“He did not give me a name.”
Leah pointed toward the wooden wolf.
“This note says not to trust the four words. Did Daniel leave it?”
“I don’t know.”
“Does he believe the sealed page is false?”
Margaret shook her head.
“Elias wrote the envelope. I witnessed it.”
“But you never saw what was inside.”
“No.”
A notification sounded on Leah’s phone.
An unknown number had sent a photograph.
Richard sat in the back of a moving vehicle. He held the sealed envelope against his knee.
Beside him was the dark-haired man from the lake-house photograph.
Daniel Mercer.
A message appeared beneath the image.
May you like
Your father is not escaping.
He is being delivered.
