Chapter 7 - The Ledger Beneath the Wall
Detective Ruiz arrived twenty minutes later with county deputies.
Connor Vale was gone.
His vehicle had not been at the cabin, which meant someone else had driven him or he had hidden transportation nearby.
Elaine was taken to the hospital for treatment.
Daniel was separated from me and questioned.
I remained in the cellar with Marcus Shaw and Detective Ruiz.
The north wall consisted of rough stones fitted together without mortar.
Elaine had claimed Margaret buried a metal case behind it.
A deputy used a crowbar to loosen the stones.
After forty minutes, he exposed a cavity.
Inside was an empty space.
No metal case.
Only a piece of blue fabric.
I recognized it immediately.
Margaret’s gardening apron.
Someone had reached the hiding place before us.
Marcus found fresh scratches on the stones.
“The case was removed recently.”
“How recently?”
“Days. Maybe hours.”
Daniel insisted he had never entered the cellar before that evening.
Elaine said Connor had searched the room while she was restrained.
Connor likely had the case.
Yet something bothered me.
If Connor had found the ledger, why had he left Elaine tied downstairs?
Why flee when I arrived?
Why not simply take the case and disappear?
Detective Ruiz found a partial answer in the ashes of the fireplace.
Burned paper.
Most of it had been destroyed, but one corner remained readable.
It contained a list of initials and dollar amounts.
A.B. appeared beside forty-five thousand dollars.
D.B. appeared beside ninety-two thousand.
M.B. appeared beside one point eight million.
Arthur Bennett.
Daniel Bennett.
Margaret Bennett.
Or perhaps the initials belonged to other people.
Ruiz sealed the fragment in an evidence bag.
Then a deputy found blood on the porch.
Not enough to indicate a severe injury.
But enough to suggest someone had struggled.
The blood did not belong to Elaine.
We would need testing to identify it.
At three in the morning, I returned home with Helen.
A police vehicle remained outside.
Daniel was not arrested that night.
There was not yet enough evidence proving he had personally forged the loan documents.
The bank fraud was clearer.
His ATM withdrawals had been recorded on surveillance cameras.
He claimed I had verbally authorized them.
Rebecca supported his story.
Because the card and PIN had originally been provided with permission, prosecutors needed to establish when that permission ended and whether Daniel knowingly exceeded it.
The home-equity loan was different.
The application had been signed electronically from an internet address registered to Daniel’s house.
But multiple people had access to the network.
The false documents were created on a computer connected to Northbridge.
Daniel said Connor handled everything.
Connor had disappeared.
Helen made tea in my kitchen.
Neither of us drank it.
At dawn, she asked whether I wanted to stay somewhere else.
“No.”
“Arthur, someone entered this house yesterday.”
“They were searching for the notebooks.”
“They may return.”
“Then the police will catch them.”
“That is not a plan.”
“It is all I have.”
She sat across from me.
“You also have a choice.”
“About what?”
“Daniel.”
My eyes moved toward the family photographs on the wall.
Daniel as a baby.
Daniel on his first day of school.
Daniel holding Lily after she was born.
“What choice?”
“You can cooperate fully with the investigation, even if it leads to charges.”
“I already am.”
“You have not yet provided a formal statement saying his withdrawals were unauthorized.”
I understood.
Without that statement, the bank case remained weaker.
Helen continued.
“You are still protecting him.”
“He is my son.”
“And you are his father. That did not prevent him from using your money.”
I stood and walked to the sink.
Outside, morning light touched Margaret’s roses.
“Do you have children?” I asked.
“One daughter.”
“Could you send her to prison?”
Helen did not answer immediately.
“If she did this to me, I would not be sending her anywhere. Her choices would.”
The words were reasonable.
Reason did not make them easier.
My phone vibrated.
A message from an unknown number.
It contained a photograph of the missing metal case.
The case sat on a table beside a newspaper dated that morning.
Beneath the photograph was a sentence.
Margaret did not leave the ledger for you.
A second message followed.
Ask Helen who paid for Daniel’s first house.
I turned toward her.
“What did you do?”
Helen’s face became unreadable.
“What are you talking about?”
May you like
I showed her the message.
For the first time since the investigation began, my attorney looked afraid.
