Chapter 5 - What Emma Saw
Nathan reached the gate in less than a minute.
Emma followed despite his order to stay inside.
Rachel’s car was empty.
Her phone lay on the passenger floor, screen cracked but still glowing. Her purse had spilled beside the curb. Nothing else looked disturbed.
Nathan called her name.
No answer.
He walked twenty yards down the tree-lined road and found one shoe in the grass.
Emma stopped behind him.
“Oh my God.”
Nathan immediately called police.
While they waited, he turned to Emma. “You know more than you’ve told me.”
Her face tightened. “Yes.”
The honesty surprised him.
“Start talking.”
Emma looked back toward the mansion. “Not here.”
“Here.”
She lowered her voice. “Three weeks ago, I saw Victoria meeting a man near the service entrance after midnight.”
“Who?”
“I didn’t know then. I know now.”
“How?”
“I found his photograph online.”
Nathan stared at her.
“He is Daniel Kerr,” Emma said. “A private financial manager. He used to work for your company.”
Nathan knew the name.
Kerr had been fired six years earlier for falsifying vendor invoices.
Nathan had personally signed the termination papers.
“What was he doing here?”
“I heard them arguing about deadlines. Victoria said, ‘Once the girls are gone, he won’t have anything left to fight over.’”
Nathan felt cold despite the afternoon heat.
“Why didn’t you tell me that?”
“I tried.”
“Why didn’t you call police?”
“Because I had no proof, and because the next morning Victoria showed me a termination letter with your signature.”
Nathan blinked.
“She said if I spoke to anyone, I would be removed from the property immediately.”
“Why did you stay?”
Emma looked at him as if the answer were obvious.
“Because your daughters were afraid of her.”
The words landed hard.
A sheriff’s cruiser turned onto the road.
Nathan watched it approach.
Then Rachel’s broken phone began vibrating inside the car.
Unknown number.
Nathan grabbed it and answered.
Silence.
“Rachel?”
A man breathed once on the other end.
Then a distorted voice said, “Stop digging into the trust.”
Nathan’s face changed.
“Where is my sister?”
“You came home early. That was unfortunate.”
“Where is she?”
A soft sound came through the line.
A woman crying.
Nathan recognized Rachel.
The caller said, “Sign the transfer papers tomorrow, and she comes home.”
The line went dead.
Nathan slowly lowered the phone.
May you like
The sheriff’s cruiser stopped ten feet away.
And Emma whispered, “Mr. Cole… if they took Rachel because you came home early, then someone inside this house told them you were here.”
