Chapter 10 - The Last Trap David Left Behind)
Darkness swallowed Room B.
Margaret gasped.
Claire immediately activated the flashlight on her phone.
Ruiz did the same.
"Nobody move."
Paul looked toward the ceiling.
"He cut the breaker."
Ruiz frowned.
"David is in custody."
Mark whispered, "Not David."
Everyone looked at him.
"What?" Ruiz asked.
Mark stood slowly.
"David had help."
"Who?"
Mark swallowed.
"Our cousin Nathan."
Margaret stared.
"Nathan?"
Arthur's nephew had handled the Bennett family's legal affairs for years.
He had prepared Margaret's updated will.
He had filed the forged deed.
He was also the person who had introduced David to the dead notary whose seal appeared on the documents.
Claire said, "Where is Nathan now?"
Mark answered.
"He has a key to the house."
Above them, a door slammed.
Ruiz immediately radioed Harris.
No answer.
Static.
She tried dispatch.
The basement walls blocked the signal.
"We're going upstairs."
Paul stood despite Claire's objection.
"I'm coming."
"No."
"I know the house."
Mark said, "So do I."
Ruiz looked at both brothers.
"Then stay behind me."
Claire pushed Margaret's wheelchair toward the stairs.
The emergency light over the basement steps failed.
Someone had disabled more than the breaker.
At the pantry door they smelled smoke.
Claire froze.
"Fire."
Ruiz pushed the panel open.
Gray smoke filled the kitchen.
Flames crawled along curtains beside the back door.
Margaret shouted, "My God."
Ruiz rushed forward.
A figure moved through the haze.
Nathan Bennett.
Sixty-three.
Silver hair.
Expensive coat.
Holding a red gasoline can.
He saw Ruiz and ran.
She chased him toward the foyer.
Claire pushed Margaret toward the front door.
Paul grabbed a fire extinguisher.
Mark joined him.
Together they attacked the flames.
Outside, Harris lay beside his patrol vehicle.
Conscious but bleeding from his forehead.
"Nathan hit me."
Claire checked him quickly.
"Stay down."
Police sirens approached in the distance.
Inside the house came a crash.
Then a gunshot.
Margaret screamed.
Claire turned.
Paul appeared in the doorway.
"Ruiz is okay."
"What happened?"
"Nathan fired into the ceiling."
Mark emerged behind him coughing.
"He ran upstairs."
Margaret whispered, "My bedroom."
Claire understood.
"The papers."
Paul nodded.
"Nathan's destroying anything he can find."
Ruiz shouted from inside.
"Stay outside!"
Another crash.
Smoke rolled through the doorway.
Then Nathan appeared at an upstairs window.
He held the red-cord bag.
He dumped its contents onto the roof of the porch.
Old papers scattered into the air.
One sheet drifted toward the yard.
Margaret recognized it.
"Arthur's trust."
Paul ran forward.
Claire grabbed him.
"Don't."
"That document protects the house."
"Your life matters more than a deed."
For a second Paul stared at her.
Then stopped.
Additional deputies arrived.
Within minutes the house was surrounded.
Nathan barricaded himself upstairs.
Ruiz came outside coughing.
"He says he'll burn the rest."
Margaret looked at her.
"Let him."
Everyone turned.
Margaret's expression had changed.
No fear.
No confusion.
No hesitation.
"Let him burn every piece of paper in that bedroom."
Paul said, "Mom."
She pointed toward Room B.
"The originals are downstairs."
Ruiz nodded.
"Exactly."
Margaret looked toward the upstairs window.
For the first time in years, David and Nathan had no leverage over her.
Nathan realized it too.
Ten minutes later he surrendered.
The fire was contained mostly to the kitchen.
The bedroom suffered smoke damage but little else.
As firefighters moved through the house, Margaret sat wrapped in a blanket beside the ambulance.
Paul sat beside her.
Mark stood several feet away in handcuffs.
He had not been arrested for the recent fire.
Ruiz had arrested him for his role in Paul's 1999 disappearance and for assisting David in the recent confinement.
Margaret stared at him.
Mark looked back.
"I'm sorry."
Margaret said nothing.
He began crying.
"I really am."
She finally answered.
"I believe you."
Hope flickered across his face.
Then Margaret added, "Believing you're sorry does not erase what you did."
Mark lowered his head.
Paul watched silently.
Margaret continued.
"You were a frightened boy once."
Mark looked at her.
"But you kept choosing fear long after you became a man."
A deputy led him toward the patrol car.
Before entering, Mark turned to Paul.
"I should have dug you out."
Paul replied, "You should never have put me in."
Mark nodded.
The car door closed.
Claire sat beside Margaret.
"You need somewhere else to stay tonight."
Margaret looked at the burned kitchen window.
"I suppose so."
Paul said quietly, "You can stay with me."
She looked at him.
"You have a home?"
"A small one."
"Where?"
"Forty miles north."
Margaret gave him a tired smile.
"Does it have a basement?"
Paul laughed for the first time.
"No."
"Good."
Then Ruiz approached carrying a sealed evidence bag.
Inside was a photograph recovered from Nathan's coat.
She handed it to Paul.
His smile vanished.
The photograph showed Arthur Bennett.
Alive.
Standing outside a motel.
The date printed on the back was October 21, 1999.
Seven days after his official death.
Margaret stared at it.
"That's impossible."
Paul whispered, "No."
Claire looked at him.
"What?"
Paul's face had turned pale.
"I've seen this motel."
"Where?"
He looked at his mother.
"It's where you came to meet me before the hospital."
Margaret shook her head.
"I never went there."
May you like
Paul whispered.
"Then someone wanted both of us to believe you did."
