Chapter 9 - What Happened to Robert
Evelyn Shaw arrived two days later.
She was seventy-one now.
Her hands trembled as she sat across from Mark.
"I should have told you."
Mark did not answer immediately.
Claire sat beside him.
Lily was staying with Rachel.
Police recorded the interview.
Evelyn explained that Victoria had controlled Robert's medication schedule.
Robert trusted her.
So did everyone else.
But during the final months, Evelyn noticed pills disappearing too quickly.
She confronted Victoria.
Victoria claimed Robert was confused and accidentally taking extra doses.
Evelyn began monitoring them.
Then she discovered bottles had been switched.
"Did Victoria kill him?" Mark asked.
Evelyn looked down.
"I can't say she intended to."
"That's not what I asked."
Claire touched Mark's arm.
Evelyn swallowed.
"I believe she knowingly gave him medication in dangerous combinations."
The detective leaned forward.
"Why didn't you report it?"
"I tried."
"To whom?"
"Robert."
Evelyn explained that Robert had already become suspicious.
He confronted Victoria.
Two days later he suffered the cardiac event that killed him.
Before his death, he gave Evelyn an envelope.
She was supposed to give it to Mark.
Victoria found out.
She threatened Evelyn's daughter.
So Evelyn left.
"I kept the envelope."
Mark stared at her.
"You still have it?"
Evelyn nodded.
She placed an old envelope on the table.
Mark opened it.
Inside was a second recording.
Robert's voice.
"If Victoria says my death was expected, don't believe her."
Mark closed his eyes.
His father had known.
The recording did not prove murder.
But combined with medical records, financial transfers, witness testimony, and Victoria's recent actions, it gave prosecutors enough to investigate.
Victoria remained in custody on charges related to Claire's confinement and Lily's endangerment while detectives built the larger case.
Charles was still missing.
Then he called Mark.
"Mr. Carter."
Mark immediately alerted police.
"Where are you?"
"Safe for now."
"You took my daughter."
"I know."
"You locked my wife underground."
"I know."
"Give me one reason not to hate you."
Charles was silent.
Then he said, "Because I can prove what Victoria did to your father."
Mark's anger did not disappear.
But he listened.
Charles had kept copies.
Bank records.
Audio.
Medical logs.
Emails.
Everything Victoria ordered destroyed, he secretly duplicated.
"Why?"
Mark asked.
"Insurance."
"Against her?"
"Against everyone."
"Where are the copies?"
"Not over the phone."
Police traced the call.
A motel outside Hartford.
By the time they arrived, Charles was gone.
But he left a message written on hotel stationery.
Robert knew about the greenhouse.
Mark returned home.
The greenhouse had been searched.
Nothing important had been found.
But Robert knew about the greenhouse.
That wording mattered.
Mark remembered the old plans.
The tunnel from the basement ended beneath the greenhouse.
He and detectives searched again.
Behind a row of old planter boxes they found a section of floor that sounded hollow.
They opened it.
Below was a waterproof safe.
Inside were drives, ledgers, envelopes, and recordings.
Charles had hidden everything there.
One recording was recent.
Victoria's voice.
"Claire knows too much."
Charles answered.
"Then let her go."
"I can't."
"You said you only wanted the photographs."
"I want the house."
"Robert is dead. The house belongs to Mark."
"Not if Mark is declared incompetent."
Charles was silent.
Then Victoria said, "Fear makes men behave irrationally. A missing wife. A threatened child. Give him enough pressure and eventually he'll do something everyone can see."
Mark stared at the recording.
The hammer.
The barrier.
Victoria had wanted him to attack her.
She wanted witnesses.
May you like
She wanted evidence that Mark was violent and unstable.
The trap had nearly worked.
