Chapter 3 - The Man With the Silver Ring)
Daniel Bennett climbed out of his truck smiling uncertainly.
The man beside him did not smile.
He was perhaps fifty, tall, silver-haired, dressed in a charcoal suit that looked too expensive for Bennett Street.
Mark walked toward them.
Daniel lifted both hands.
"Before you say anything, this is Victor Hale. He's been helping Margaret with a property issue."
Mark looked at Victor's right hand.
Silver ring.
A narrow black stone set in the center.
Victor followed his gaze.
"Mr. Bennett."
"You've been inside my house?"
Victor glanced toward Margaret.
"Several times."
"Without me knowing?"
"Your wife hired me."
"For what?"
Margaret approached quickly.
"Mark, not now."
"Yes. Now."
Victor appeared almost bored.
"I'm a consultant."
"Consultant for what?"
"Property acquisition."
Mark looked at Daniel.
"You brought him here?"
Daniel frowned.
"He was at my office when you called."
"Why?"
Margaret answered.
"Because I asked him to be."
Mark felt the pieces shifting around him.
Daniel owned Bennett Development, a small construction and property company inherited from their father.
Margaret had handled bookkeeping for Daniel for nearly two years.
Mark rarely asked questions about it.
He worked with his hands.
Daniel handled contracts.
Margaret handled numbers.
It had seemed harmless.
Now Victor Hale stood in the flashing light of three fire engines while Caitlyn whispered that he had been inside Margaret's office.
Mark stepped closer.
"My daughter saw you."
Victor's expression remained smooth.
"I'm sure she did."
"What were you doing?"
"Discussing a development."
"Which development?"
Victor looked toward the houses surrounding them.
"This one."
Mark's stomach tightened.
"Bennett Street?"
"Several properties in this neighborhood may soon be consolidated."
Daniel interrupted.
"Victor, that's confidential."
"Not anymore," Victor replied.
Margaret closed her eyes briefly.
Mark looked from one face to another.
"Consolidated by who?"
Nobody answered.
"Daniel?"
His brother rubbed his jaw.
"It's complicated."
"It stops being complicated when my kid nearly dies."
Daniel's face changed.
"What?"
Mark pointed toward the house.
"Bedroom door locked. Fire inside. Margaret and Samantha standing outside."
Daniel stared at Margaret.
"Tell me that's not true."
Margaret's control finally cracked.
"I didn't know there was going to be a fire."
The sentence silenced everyone.
Mark stared.
"You didn't know there was going to be a fire."
Margaret realized her mistake.
"I mean I didn't know a fire had started."
"That's not what you said."
Victor stepped in.
"Emotions are high."
Mark turned toward him.
"Stay out of my family."
Victor's eyes sharpened.
"I suspect that stopped being possible a long time ago."
Daniel whispered, "Victor."
Mark almost missed it.
A warning.
Not to Mark.
To Victor.
Police officers began separating them for statements.
Victor declined to answer questions beyond his identity.
Margaret repeated that she believed the bedroom lock had jammed.
Samantha claimed she had never noticed the smoke until Mark arrived.
Mark told the truth.
Almost all of it.
He still kept the recorder hidden.
By midnight the fire department released the unaffected portion of the house.
Caitlyn refused to go inside.
Mark did not force her.
He packed a bag and took her to Daniel's house.
Margaret and Samantha stayed with one of Margaret's friends.
On the drive, Caitlyn sat silently in the back seat.
Daniel drove.
Mark sat beside him.
Victor had disappeared.
Ten minutes passed before Daniel spoke.
"You're going to hate what I'm about to tell you."
Mark looked out the window.
"Try me."
"Bennett Street sits over a groundwater corridor."
"So?"
"Three companies have been quietly buying properties here for almost a year."
"For what?"
"Industrial access. Underground fiber routes. Utility easements. Nobody seems to agree on the final project."
"And you're involved?"
"I thought I was arranging redevelopment."
"You thought?"
Daniel gripped the steering wheel.
"Victor came through Margaret."
Mark looked at him.
"You're telling me my wife introduced him to you?"
"Last December."
Mark remembered December.
Margaret had insisted they host Christmas.
Victor might have been one of the people she called clients.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"It was business."
"My house is part of this business?"
Daniel hesitated.
"Possibly."
Mark leaned toward him.
"What does that mean?"
Daniel sighed.
"Your property is the last privately owned parcel on this side of the block that hasn't signed an option agreement."
Mark stared.
"I never received an agreement."
Daniel said nothing.
Mark understood.
"Margaret did."
"Yes."
"And?"
"She signed something."
Mark's voice disappeared.
"She can't sell my half."
"No."
"Then what did she sign?"
Daniel looked in the mirror at Caitlyn.
"Not in front of her."
Mark turned.
Caitlyn was awake.
Watching them.
"Bug, you okay?"
She nodded.
Then whispered, "I know about the paper."
Daniel looked at Mark.
"What paper?"
"The custody transfer."
Daniel almost swerved.
"What?"
Mark repeated Caitlyn's description.
Daniel's knuckles whitened.
"That's impossible."
"Why?"
"Because temporary guardianship would only matter if both parents were unavailable."
Mark stared at him.
Daniel continued more quietly.
"Or legally removed."
For the first time Mark understood the shape of what might be happening.
If Margaret obtained custody.
If Mark was arrested.
If Caitlyn was removed.
If the property could somehow be controlled through guardianship or family trust arrangements.
Still, something did not fit.
"Why Samantha?"
Daniel asked.
"What about her?"
"Margaret doesn't need paperwork for Samantha. She's already her legal mother."
Mark turned toward the back seat.
Caitlyn had closed her eyes.
He lowered his voice.
"Unless the document wasn't about Margaret taking Caitlyn."
Daniel glanced over.
"Who else?"
Mark remembered Caitlyn saying Samantha's name appeared on the papers.
He pulled out the recorder.
Daniel's eyes widened.
"What is that?"
"Maybe the reason tonight happened."
At Daniel's house, Caitlyn finally fell asleep on the sofa.
Mark and Daniel sat at the kitchen table.
Mark connected the recorder to Daniel's laptop.
Twenty-seven audio files appeared.
The newest had been recorded yesterday.
Mark clicked it.
At first there was only muffled movement.
Then Margaret's voice.
"You said Mark wouldn't come home early."
Victor replied.
"He wasn't supposed to."
Samantha spoke next.
"What if Caitlyn tells him about the documents?"
Margaret answered.
"She won't."
Mark stopped breathing.
The recording continued.
Victor said, "Fear usually works better than force."
Samantha laughed.
"She cries over everything."
Then another voice entered.
A man's voice.
Mark did not recognize it.
"What matters is the signature. Once Bennett is discredited, Margaret can activate the transfer."
Margaret asked, "And the property?"
The unknown man replied.
"The property becomes accessible."
Daniel stared at the laptop.
Mark's hand trembled above the keyboard.
Then came a sound from upstairs.
A floorboard creaking.
Daniel looked toward the staircase.
Nobody else was supposed to be home.
Mark stood.
Another creak.
May you like
Then a door quietly closed.
Someone was inside the house.
