Chapter 21 - the daughter who remembered
Maya had worn the pendant for sixteen years without knowing what it opened.
Her grandfather had given it to her when she was twelve, shortly before a stroke left him unable to speak. At the time, everyone assumed the old man had become confused.
“He said the company would eventually forget who built it,” Maya recalled. “Then he told me never to give the compass to Dad.”
Nora looked toward the dark windows.
“Did Malcolm know about the necklace?”
“He saw it once. I told him it was costume jewelry.”
Grace examined the keyhole with a magnifying lens.
“It is not designed for an ordinary lock. It probably activates a mechanism.”
Maya crossed her arms.
“Before I help you, I need the truth. Are you trying to take the company from Dad?”
“No. I am preventing him from taking it from me.”
Nora showed her daughter the forged incapacity petition Malcolm had prepared. The document claimed Nora suffered from memory loss, paranoia and unstable judgment.
Maya reached the final page and found her own name listed as a supporting witness.
“I never agreed to this.”
“Your father expected you to sign after the anniversary gala.”
“He told me the papers were part of estate planning.”
Nora saw the precise moment her daughter’s trust broke.
Maya did not cry or raise her voice. She simply photographed every page.
“Where would Grandfather hide something?” Grace asked.
Maya looked toward the corridor leading to the library.
When the lake house had belonged to Nora’s father, he spent most evenings at an enormous walnut desk. Malcolm wanted to throw it away after the funeral, but Nora had kept it.
The compass pendant fitted into a small indentation beneath the center drawer.
A hidden panel released with a quiet click.
Inside they found an audio tape, two sealed contracts and a photograph of Nora’s father standing beside Gideon Price.
Someone had drawn a red circle around Gideon’s hand.
He was wearing Elias’s watch.
The same watch shown in the anonymous message.
May you like
On the back of the photograph, Nora’s father had written six words:
Gideon knows why Elias had to vanish.
