Chapter 6 - The Missing Night
The recorder ended with the sound of a door slamming.
Detective Reese bagged it as evidence.
Michael stood in the study where his father had apparently been threatened less than twenty-four hours before he died.
“I was here that weekend,” he said.
Reese looked up. “You were?”
“I left Saturday morning. Dad died Sunday night.”
“Why did you leave?”
Michael struggled to remember. “Sophia called. Said Mom had fallen at home.”
Reese’s eyebrows rose. “Did she?”
“No. By the time I got there, Sophia said she’d overreacted.”
A lie that had moved Michael seventy miles away from his father.
His phone rang.
Emily.
He answered immediately. “Are you okay?”
Her voice was low. “Someone tried to get into my room.”
Michael’s entire body tightened.
“What?”
“A man in scrubs. He said he was taking me for an ultrasound. My nurse knew nothing about it.”
Reese was already moving toward the door.
“Where is he now?” Michael asked.
“He ran when security came.”
“And Mason?”
“With me.”
“Lock the door.”
“Michael, listen to me. He dropped something.”
“What?”
“A visitor badge.”
She sent a photo.
The badge name was fake.
But the security camera image attached to it showed a face Michael recognized.
“Who is that?” Reese asked.
Michael stared at the screen.
“Victor’s driver. Paul Raines.”
They sped back toward the city.
At the hospital, Reese placed an officer outside Emily’s door.
Michael entered slowly.
Emily looked exhausted.
Mason slept beside her with his head near her hip.
Michael said, “I’m moving you both somewhere secure.”
Emily nodded. “Good.”
He swallowed. “I found a letter from Dad.”
“What did it say?”
“That you would understand why he chose you.”
Emily’s expression shifted.
“What?” Michael asked.
She looked toward Mason.
“Your father did choose me.”
Michael went still.
“Six weeks before he died, he called me.”
“You told me you barely knew him.”
“I barely did. But he knew I worked in forensic accounting before Mason was born.”
Michael stared.
“He asked me to review something privately,” Emily continued. “I refused. I was pregnant with Mason and overwhelmed.”
“So he tried again?”
“He mailed me a key.”
Emily reached for her purse.
“It opened a safe deposit box.”
Michael’s breath caught.
“Where is the key?”
Emily opened the purse.
Then froze.
May you like
The inside pocket had been cut open.
The key was gone.
