Chapter 6 - The Guest Who Wouldn't LeaveBy morning, Mia was sitting up and asking for toast. The doctor wanted another day of observation, but her improving condition let me breathe again.

A police investigator named Inspector Fariha Rasheed came to take my statement. Her questions were careful, direct, and mercifully free of family politics.

"We have video from several angles," she said. "We are also interviewing witnesses separately."

"My security chief has supplied the originals."

"Yes. Thank you for preserving them. There will be no shortcuts simply because anyone here is wealthy."

After she left, Marcus called. "Ninety-two guests have departed on arranged flights. The bridal party remains voluntarily available for interviews. One guest refuses to leave."

"Who?"

"An elderly woman named Ruth Caldwell. She says she knew your grandfather."

Ruth appeared on my screen minutes later, white hair pinned behind her ears, both hands gripping a leather handbag.

"You look like Daniel," she said, and I nearly cried. Nobody had spoken Grandfather's name that gently in years.

"You knew him?"

"I ran his books. Your father fired me three days after the funeral."

"Why did you come to the wedding?"

"Sarah invited me to make the family look important. She didn't know I could recognize you."

Ruth opened her handbag and raised a brass key on a faded green ribbon.

"Daniel told me to give you this if your father ever tried to sell his northern land. He said the bank would be involved, and that you would need proof."

I looked at the key, then at the map on my tablet.

"Is this for a vault?"

"A locked cabinet in the old utility bunker. He didn't trust digital records."

"Why didn't you contact me earlier?"

Ruth's mouth trembled. "I tried. Three letters. They all came back. Your mother told me you didn't want to hear from anyone associated with him."

"That wasn't true."

"I know that now."

Behind Ruth, a door slammed. Marcus turned away to listen to his radio.

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Then his face hardened.

"Elena, someone's started a fire near the northern service road. The old bunker is inside the evacuation zone."