Chapter 4 - THE DEAD MAN’S WARNING
Arthur arrived at the police station with Detective Reed less than an hour later.
The flash drive remained sealed inside an evidence bag.
Sarah joined the conversation by video call from the hospital.
Reed placed the photograph of Daniel and his father on the table.
“Who wrote the words on the back?”
Arthur shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
“Could it be Daniel?”
“Yes.”
“You recognize his handwriting?”
“Possibly.”
Sarah studied the image on the screen.
“It looks like his writing.”
Reed leaned back.
“What happened to Charles Vance?”
Arthur answered first.
“Five years ago, Mr. Charles fell down the staircase at the family’s lake house.”
“Who was present?”
Arthur’s silence lasted a second too long.
Reed noticed.
“Eleanor?”
“Yes.”
“Anyone else?”
“Daniel arrived afterward.”
“I was at the main residence.”
“Mrs. Eleanor said Mr. Charles had been drinking.”
Sarah frowned.
“Daniel told me his father barely drank.”
Arthur looked at her.
“That is correct.”
Reed opened another notebook.
“Was there an investigation?”
“Local police.”
“The death was ruled accidental.”
“Any autopsy?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
Arthur shook his head.
“I never saw it.”
Reed made a note.
The flash drive was sent to the department’s digital forensics unit.
They refused to plug it into a standard computer before checking for malicious software or remote deletion protocols.
Sarah remained under observation.
At 9:30 that night, Daniel’s phone finally came online.
For exactly forty-seven seconds.
Police traced the signal.
An industrial district near the river.
Then it disappeared again.
Reed immediately sent officers.
They found Daniel’s car parked behind an abandoned warehouse.
No Daniel.
The driver’s door was unlocked.
His wallet remained inside.
His phone was missing.
There was dried blood on the steering wheel.
Sarah stopped breathing when Reed told her.
“How much blood?”
“Not enough to conclude anything.”
“Was he hurt?”
“We don’t know.”
Sarah pressed a hand against her mouth.
Her baby moved beneath the monitor.
Dr. Grant warned her to remain calm.
Sarah nearly laughed.
How was she supposed to remain calm?
Her mother-in-law had tried to push her from a balcony.
Her husband was missing.
His car contained blood.
And Daniel had apparently been investigating his father’s death.
At midnight the digital forensics technician called Reed.
The flash drive contained fourteen files.
Six financial spreadsheets.
Four photographs.
Three audio recordings.
One video.
The first spreadsheet documented transfers from the Vance Foundation into a network of consulting companies.
Some companies existed.
Others did not.
The combined transfers exceeded fourteen million dollars.
The names approving them changed.
But one authorization credential appeared repeatedly.
EVANCE-01.
Eleanor Vance.
The photographs were more disturbing.
Two showed Daniel’s father, Charles, arguing with Eleanor at the lake house the week before his death.
Another showed bruising on Charles’s wrist.
The final photograph showed a typed letter.
Daniel had photographed it rather than taking the original.
The letter was addressed to an attorney.
Charles wrote that he intended to remove Eleanor as trustee of the Vance family fortune.
He accused her of “unauthorized transfers, coercion, and concealment of material financial misconduct.”
Sarah read the sentence twice.
“When was the letter written?”
“Three days before he died,” Reed said.
Arthur closed his eyes.
Sarah whispered, “Oh my God.”
The first audio recording was Daniel speaking with Rebecca.
The second was Daniel alone, apparently making notes.
The third contained two voices.
Daniel.
And Eleanor.
The recording date was Tuesday evening.
After Daniel returned from London.
Sarah gripped the hospital blanket.
Reed pressed play.
Daniel’s voice came first.
“I know what Dad found.”
Silence.
Then Eleanor.
“You think you know.”
“I have the transfers.”
“You have numbers.”
“I have his letter.”
Long pause.
Eleanor’s voice changed.
“Where did you get that?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“It matters very much.”
Daniel spoke again.
“Did Dad threaten to remove you from the trust?”
“You have no idea what your father was doing during his final months.”
“He was trying to stop you.”
Eleanor laughed quietly.
“You always needed heroes.”
“Your father was not one.”
“What happened at the lake house?”
Silence.
Then Eleanor said, “Be careful with questions you cannot survive the answers to.”
The recording ended.
Sarah felt ice spread through her chest.
Arthur stared at the table.
Reed did not speak for several seconds.
Then he asked the technician about the video.
The technician opened it.
The footage had been filmed inside the Vance mansion.
From the hidden camera above the foyer.
Timestamped that afternoon.
Sarah appeared on the second-floor balcony.
Eleanor stood behind her.
The angle was partially blocked by a chandelier.
But the picture was clear enough.
Eleanor tore the ultrasound photograph.
Sarah moved toward the railing.
Eleanor followed.
Then both hands went forward.
Sarah disappeared over the edge.
Reed stopped the video.
No one spoke.
Sarah stared at the frozen image of Eleanor’s arms extended.
There it was.
Proof.
Arthur whispered, “She recorded herself.”
The technician shook his head.
“No.”
“This camera appears to have been installed by whoever created the flash drive access.”
“Daniel?”
“Most likely.”
Sarah felt tears fill her eyes.
Daniel had put the camera there.
He had been watching the house.
Maybe because he already knew his mother was dangerous.
Reed immediately requested a warrant for Eleanor’s arrest on suspicion of attempted murder.
But by the time officers reached the mansion, Eleanor was gone.
Her bedroom was empty.
Her private safe had been opened.
Several passports were missing.
So was her car.
Lawrence Pike claimed he did not know where she was.
No one believed him.
At 2:14 in the morning, Sarah’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
Reed told her not to answer.
Then the phone rang again.
And again.
Finally Reed activated recording equipment.
Sarah answered.
“Hello?”
Silence.
Then Daniel’s voice.
Weak.
Breathing hard.
“Sarah.”
Her heart stopped.
“Daniel?”
Arthur stood.
Reed signaled everyone to remain quiet.
“Daniel, where are you?”
“I don’t know.”
Sarah started crying.
“Are you hurt?”
“Yes.”
“Listen to me.”
“Police are here.”
“Tell us where you are.”
Daniel coughed.
Then whispered, “Don’t trust Pike.”
The line crackled.
“Daniel?”
“My mother knows about the baby.”
Sarah froze.
“What does that mean?”
“She knows what Dad changed.”
“Daniel, I don’t understand.”
A sound came through the phone.
A door opening.
Daniel suddenly whispered faster.
“Sarah, if anything happens to me, Arthur knows where Dad kept the second key.”
Arthur’s face went blank.
“I don’t know any second key,” he whispered.
Daniel continued.
“Tell Arthur.”
“Blue room.”
“Behind the clock.”
The call ended.
Police traced it for only seconds.
Not long enough.
Sarah stared at Arthur.
“What blue room?”
Arthur stood motionless.
Then his expression changed.
He knew.
“The lake house.”
Sarah looked at him.
“The room where Charles died?”
Arthur nodded.
“And the clock Daniel mentioned.”
“What about it?”
Arthur swallowed.
“Mr. Charles gave it to me twenty-two years ago.”
“After Daniel was born.”
“He told me never to let Eleanor move it.”
Sarah felt another chill.
“Why?”
May you like
Arthur looked toward Detective Reed.
“I think we’re about to find out.”
