Chapter 4 - the heir before ethan)
"I inherit nothing."
Jonathan's answer came too quickly.
Briggs laughed.
Curtis shoved him against the wall.
"Answer the question."
"I wasn't talking to you."
Briggs looked at Maya.
"She came here for secrets. Give her one."
Jonathan stepped closer.
"If Ethan dies, his shares go into the family trust."
Briggs smiled.
"And who controls the trust?"
Jonathan said nothing.
Maya understood.
"Vivienne."
Jonathan nodded once.
"Until a successor is appointed."
"And after that?"
"The board selects one."
Briggs laughed again.
"That's the version they put in the annual reports."
Curtis searched his pockets.
He removed a second phone.
Jonathan held out his hand.
Curtis gave it to him.
The device required a passcode.
Maya looked at Briggs.
"Why were you in that room?"
He ignored her.
She crouched near the black bag and examined the hard drives.
One label caught her attention.
JULIAN.
"Who is Julian?"
Jonathan went still.
Maya looked up.
"Jonathan?"
He stared at the hard drive.
"My brother."
"You never mentioned a brother."
"He died."
"When?"
Jonathan swallowed.
"Twenty-five years ago."
"How old was he?"
A long silence.
"Twenty."
Maya felt the corridor narrow around her.
The same age as Ethan.
"How?"
"Heart failure."
Briggs chuckled.
Jonathan turned on him.
"What?"
"Nothing."
Curtis shoved him again.
"What do you know?"
Briggs said, "I know people don't die of the same mysterious heart condition in the same mansion by coincidence."
Jonathan's face drained.
Maya remembered Ethan on the marble floor.
His chest.
His shaking hands.
"Was Julian sick before he died?"
Jonathan nodded slowly.
"For months."
"What kind of sick?"
"Fatigue. Dizziness. Nausea. He lost weight."
Maya closed her eyes.
Ethan had lost eleven pounds since she started working at the mansion.
She knew because the cook complained that he barely touched breakfast.
"Jonathan."
He understood.
"No."
"He has the same symptoms."
"No."
"Think."
Jonathan backed away.
"No."
Maya stood.
"Ethan has been sick for months."
"My brother had a congenital heart problem."
"Who told you that?"
Jonathan looked at her.
She saw the answer before he spoke.
"Dr. Mercer's father."
Curtis frowned.
"The family doctor before Mercer?"
"Yes."
Maya looked at Briggs.
He smiled.
"Generational loyalty."
Jonathan grabbed him.
"What happened to my brother?"
Briggs looked almost amused.
"I'm security. Not a historian."
"Then why do you have a hard drive with his name?"
"Because I was paid to move it."
"By who?"
Briggs's smile disappeared.
"Go to hell."
Curtis pulled him away.
"We'll see how tough you feel when the police arrive."
Briggs suddenly twisted.
His elbow struck Curtis in the jaw.
He lunged toward the stairs.
Jonathan caught his jacket.
The fabric tore.
Briggs stumbled.
Maya saw his hand reach inside his waistband.
"Gun."
Curtis moved first.
He slammed Briggs against the railing.
The weapon dropped.
Jonathan kicked it away.
Briggs was pinned within seconds.
The struggle ended almost as quickly as it began.
Maya stared at the gun.
This was no longer suspicion.
Someone inside Ashcroft Manor had prepared to kill.
Curtis handcuffed Briggs to the iron stair rail.
Jonathan picked up the hard drive marked JULIAN.
"We need to open this."
Curtis nodded toward the hidden room.
"There's a computer."
They returned upstairs, leaving a second guard with Briggs.
The hard drive connected immediately.
One folder.
Six video files.
Jonathan clicked the oldest.
The footage showed a bedroom.
The date read twenty-five years earlier.
A young man sat on the edge of a bed.
He looked so much like Ethan that Maya initially thought it was him.
Jonathan whispered, "Julian."
The young man in the video held a glass of water.
A woman entered.
Thirty-five years old.
Blond hair.
Pearls.
Vivienne.
Jonathan stopped the recording.
No one spoke.
He started it again.
Vivienne sat beside Julian.
They talked, but the recording had no audio.
Then Julian handed her the glass.
Vivienne smelled it.
Her face changed.
She stood abruptly.
She threw the water into a potted plant.
Then she slapped the glass from Julian's hand.
It shattered.
Maya stared.
That was not the behavior of a woman poisoning her son.
That was the behavior of a woman who had realized someone else had.
Jonathan leaned toward the screen.
"Keep watching."
The bedroom door opened.
Another person entered.
A young man wearing a dark suit.
The camera angle showed only part of his face.
Maya did not recognize him.
Jonathan did.
He whispered, "Miles."
Curtis looked at him.
"Who's Miles?"
Jonathan did not answer immediately.
His eyes remained on the screen.
"Miles Hargrove."
Maya recognized the name.
Everyone in American finance did.
Hargrove had been Ashcroft Industries' general counsel for more than three decades.
He was at the party downstairs.
Jonathan stood abruptly.
"Where is he?"
Curtis grabbed his radio.
"Ballroom team, locate Miles Hargrove immediately."
Static.
Then a guard answered.
"Mr. Hargrove left before lockdown."
Jonathan turned.
"How?"
"Private kitchen exit. He told Briggs you approved it."
Jonathan looked at Maya.
The realization hit both of them together.
The blackout.
The glass.
The erased footage.
Briggs escaping with the drives.
Miles Hargrove had not been fleeing a party.
He had been cleaning a crime scene.
Then Maya noticed something else on the video.
In the corner of Julian's bedroom stood a young maid.
Dark hair.
Slim shoulders.
Terrified eyes.
Anna Reed.
Maya's mother.
May you like
She covered her mouth as Miles Hargrove approached Julian.
Then the screen went black.
