Chapter 8 - The Man in the Basement
Emergency lights flickered on.
Reed drew his weapon.
“Everyone stay where you are.”
Arthur pulled Evan behind him.
A heavy door slammed below.
Footsteps.
Running.
One security officer shouted from the basement, “Movement in the service corridor!”
Arthur ignored Clara’s order to stay upstairs and ran after Reed.
They reached the garage as the side door burst open.
A man in a dark jacket sprinted toward a black SUV parked beyond the hedges.
“Police! Stop!” Reed yelled.
The man kept running.
Arthur recognized the limp.
“Thomas!”
The estate manager glanced back.
That half second cost him.
Reed tackled him beside the driveway.
Thomas hit the pavement hard.
A small metal object skidded from his pocket.
A USB drive.
Arthur stared at him.
“You planted the bracelet.”
Thomas said nothing.
“You cut the cameras.”
Still nothing.
Reed cuffed him.
“Let’s start with burglary and evidence tampering.”
Thomas finally looked at Arthur.
“You don’t understand.”
“Then explain it.”
Thomas laughed once, bitter and scared.
“She owns you.”
“Elena?”
“She owns everyone.”
Reed lifted the USB drive with a gloved hand.
“What’s on this?”
Thomas’s face drained.
“Nothing.”
Reed smiled without humor. “That answer usually means something good.”
At the station, Thomas asked for a lawyer.
The USB was encrypted.
Clara brought in a forensic specialist from Arthur’s company.
It took three hours to open.
The files inside were organized by initials.
AV.
EV.
MS.
GP.
RL.
Arthur opened the folder marked EV.
Dozens of audio files.
Videos.
School schedules.
Medical records.
Photographs taken through windows.
His son had been monitored for months.
Maria covered her mouth.
“What kind of person does this?”
Reed opened GP.
Graham Pike.
Scans of notarized documents.
Payments.
A message thread with someone saved as EL.
EL: ARTHUR CAN’T KNOW UNTIL AFTER CLOSING.
GP: I NEED THE REST OF MY MONEY.
EL: WHEN THE BOY’S TRUST CLEARS.
Arthur scrolled farther.
Then he saw a folder labeled RV_2019.
Rebecca Vance.
The year she died.
His hand froze over the mouse.
Reed looked at him. “You don’t have to open it here.”
“Yes,” Arthur said. “I do.”
The first file was an audio recording.
Rebecca’s voice filled the room.
“You keep calling me, Elena. I told you I’m reporting the transfers.”
Arthur stopped breathing.
Then Elena’s younger voice answered.
“If you do that, Rebecca, you’re going to destroy more than a business.”
The recording ended with Rebecca saying six words.
May you like
“If anything happens to me, Arthur—”
Then the file cut to silence.
