Chapter 14 - The Lake House
Police surrounded the lake house before midnight.
Mark was ordered to stay back.
He lasted seven minutes.
Elena grabbed his arm when he moved toward the tree line.
"If you go in there, you make everything harder."
"Peter is in there because of me."
"Clara needs you alive."
That stopped him.
The tactical team entered through the rear deck.
Two minutes later, gunfire cracked across the lake.
Elena flinched.
Mark did not move.
Then Ruiz's voice came through the radio.
"One suspect down. One in custody. Hostage alive."
Peter was carried out on a stretcher, conscious.
Lucas Grant came out in handcuffs.
Victoria was not there.
Inside the house, police found burner phones, fake IDs, cash, and copies of Clara's trust records.
They also found a laptop.
The files on it were worse.
There were draft petitions to declare Mark incompetent.
Draft press releases announcing a "family tragedy."
A prewritten statement mourning Clara.
Elena had to sit down when she read that one.
Victoria had written it two weeks before the staircase.
Mark stared at the screen until Daniel closed the laptop.
"Enough."
"No," Mark said. "I need to see what she planned."
One folder was labeled EXIT OPTIONS.
Inside were travel routes to Canada and Europe.
Another folder contained a list of private schools under false names.
Ruiz looked confused.
"Why schools?"
Peter, weak but awake, answered from the ambulance.
"Because killing Clara wasn't Plan A."
Everyone turned.
"What was Plan A?" Mark asked.
Peter swallowed painfully.
"Take her. Make it look like you were unstable. Get emergency guardianship. Keep Clara somewhere nobody could reach her until the board vote was finished."
"And the staircase?"
Peter closed his eyes.
"Victoria panicked when the court schedule moved up."
Ruiz opened one final file.
It contained a reservation for a charter flight leaving Waukegan Regional Airport at 5:30 the next morning.
Passenger names were aliases.
But the attached passport photographs were real.
May you like
One was Victoria.
The other was Clara.
