Chapter 6 - The House Richard Never Sold
Helen owned three properties.
Emily knew about two.
The large colonial house where she had lived with Richard for thirty-four years.
And a small lake cabin used during summers.
Police discovered the third property through tax records.
A narrow farmhouse forty-two miles outside Briarwood.
Purchased nineteen years earlier.
Never sold.
Nathan stared at the address when Officer Reyes showed him.
"I've never been there."
"Your mother pays the property taxes."
"She never mentioned it."
"Your father signed the original purchase."
Emily looked at the brass key sealed inside an evidence bag.
"Does it fit something there?"
Reyes nodded.
"We're obtaining a warrant."
Nathan immediately shook his head.
"You don't understand."
Reyes's expression hardened.
"Then explain it."
"If that property is connected to Dad's records, you can't just send local officers."
"Why?"
Nathan lowered his voice.
"Because I don't know who else was involved."
Reyes studied him.
"Meaning law enforcement?"
"I don't know."
"Judges?"
"I don't know."
"Hospital administrators?"
Nathan looked away.
"Possibly."
Emily felt exhausted by that answer.
Everything was I don't know.
She wanted one solid truth.
Oliver had nearly frozen because adults kept hiding things.
She turned to Nathan.
"Start with what you do know."
Nathan sat.
"Helen began acting differently after Dad died."
"Different how?"
"Paranoid. She changed the locks. Installed cameras. Got rid of Dad's computer."
Emily remembered.
Helen had claimed grief made her afraid to stay alone.
Nathan continued.
"Then people started visiting."
"What people?"
"Men I didn't recognize. Sometimes women."
"Did you ask?"
"She said they were handling estate matters."
"And you believed her?"
"At first."
Oliver slept while they talked.
Reyes recorded everything.
Nathan leaned forward.
"About nine months after Dad died, I saw her paying someone cash in the garage."
"Who?"
"I later found out he worked at St. Catherine before it closed."
"Elliot Vane?"
"No. Another man."
"Name?"
"Peter Colson."
Reyes immediately typed it into his phone.
"What happened to him?"
Nathan stared at the floor.
"He died."
"When?"
"Two weeks later."
"Cause?"
"Car accident."
Emily looked at him.
"And you never thought that was suspicious?"
"I did."
"Then why didn't you go to police?"
Nathan laughed bitterly.
"Because the detective who investigated his accident was one of the men visiting my mother."
Silence.
Reyes stopped typing.
"Name?"
"Detective Marcus Vale."
Reyes's expression changed.
Emily noticed.
"You know him."
Reyes nodded slowly.
"Former detective. Retired last year."
"Why?"
"Medical leave."
Nathan looked unconvinced.
Reyes stepped outside to make a call.
Emily sat across from Nathan.
"How much of this did your mother know you had discovered?"
"Eventually, all of it."
"And she still worked with you?"
"She told me Dad had made enemies. She said Meridian Shield could help us recover what he hid before someone dangerous found it."
"But you stopped trusting her."
"Yes."
"When?"
Nathan looked at Oliver.
"When she asked me to delete footage."
Emily's stomach tightened.
"What footage?"
"From the restaurant."
"When?"
"Six months ago."
"Hartwell House?"
"Yes."
"What was on it?"
Nathan hesitated.
"A woman meeting my mother."
"Who?"
"I couldn't identify her."
"What happened?"
"Three days later, the woman was reported missing."
Emily leaned forward.
"And you deleted it?"
Nathan closed his eyes.
"Yes."
The room went silent.
Emily stood.
"You helped her."
"I thought I was protecting Mom."
"You helped erase evidence about a missing woman."
"I know."
"And you want me to believe you had nothing to do with what happened to Oliver?"
Nathan looked at her.
"No."
That answer startled her.
"No?"
"You shouldn't believe me."
He reached inside his coat.
Officer Han immediately stepped closer.
Nathan slowly removed his phone.
"Because last night, before dinner, my mother sent me a message."
He unlocked it.
Emily read the screen.
Make sure Emily drinks from the glass on her right.
Do not let the boy touch anything.
Emily's mouth went dry.
Nathan looked at her.
"I knew she was planning something."
"And you still brought our son?"
"I thought it was about embarrassing you. Maybe making you drunk. I didn't know about the sedative."
"You knew enough."
"Yes."
Officer Han took the phone as evidence.
Nathan stared through the window.
"I deserve whatever happens next."
Emily wanted to hate him.
Part of her did.
But another part understood something terrifying.
Nathan was finally talking because whatever Helen was protecting frightened him more than prison.
At noon, Reyes returned.
"We got the warrant."
Nathan stood.
"The farmhouse?"
Reyes nodded.
"State police are going in now."
Emily looked at the key.
"Are you going?"
"Yes."
"Then I'm coming."
"No."
"My son found the key."
"And that's exactly why you're staying here."
Emily started to argue.
Reyes's phone buzzed.
He looked at the message.
His face tightened.
"What?"
Reyes read it twice.
"The officers arrived."
"And?"
"The front door was open."
Nathan's face drained.
Reyes continued.
"The house is empty."
Emily exhaled.
Then Reyes looked at her.
"Except for one room."
"What room?"
He turned his phone so they could see a photograph sent from the scene.
A basement wall.
Painted white.
May you like
At its center stood a red metal door.
And hanging from the handle was a child's blue winter coat.
