Chapter 13 - The Lake House
Police surrounded the lake house before sunset.
Diane was not there.
Frank Deller was.
He came out through the rear door with both hands raised after a thirty-minute standoff.
Inside, investigators found burner phones, copied security badges, photographs of Emma’s routes, Lily’s pediatric schedule, and a folder labeled CONTINGENCIES.
Michael stood behind the police line when Morales carried it out.
“What’s in there?”
“Plans.”
“For what?”
“For discrediting Emma. Discrediting Rachel. Discrediting Caleb.”
“And me?”
Morales hesitated.
“Yes.”
Deller asked for a deal before midnight.
He admitted wiping security footage.
He admitted sabotaging the elevator.
He admitted trying to scare Owen.
He denied being ordered to kill anyone.
“Diane always said ‘pressure,’” he told investigators. “Never ‘murder.’”
Morales asked about Stephen.
Deller’s face changed.
“I drove her to the clinic.”
“Why?”
“She said Stephen had taken something that belonged to her.”
“What?”
“A vial.”
Michael stared through the observation glass.
A vial?
Deller continued. “Afterward, she made me drive to Stephen’s house. I waited outside.”
“How long?”
“Forty minutes.”
“Did Stephen die that night?”
Deller looked down. “Yes.”
“What did Diane say when she came out?”
Deller swallowed.
“She said he had finally stopped making trouble.”
Michael felt Emma grip his arm.
Morales asked, “What was in the vial?”
“I don’t know.”
“You expect us to believe that?”
Deller shook his head. “I know where it is.”
Everyone in the room went still.
“Where?”
“Diane didn’t destroy it. She hid it.”
“Why?”
“Insurance.”
“Against who?”
Deller looked directly at the one-way glass as if he knew Michael was there.
“Against Michael.”
Michael’s stomach turned.
Deller continued.
“The vial contains the DNA sample that proves who Michael Bennett’s real father is.”
Michael almost laughed from disbelief.
“We already know,” Emma whispered.
Deller shook his head from inside the room.
May you like
“No,” he said.
“You don’t.”
