Chapter 7 - The Trap at Noon
By morning, Grant's house looked normal from the street.
Inside, it was anything but.
Renee Walsh arrived with Malik and a cyber-forensics specialist named Priya Desai. Grant showed them the burner phone, the photograph, Caroline's recording, and the note from the study.
Priya examined the image metadata.
"The office photo wasn't taken last night."
Grant frowned. "What?"
"Three weeks ago. The time stamp was altered before it was sent."
"So the writing on the wall—"
"May not be there."
They checked.
The wall was clean.
Renee gave Tyler a careful look. "Victor is trying to control your sense of time. Make you feel like he is always one step ahead."
Tyler stared at the burner phone. "It's working."
Grant hated that sentence.
At 11:42, Victor sent an address pin for the abandoned Mercer family house outside town.
At 11:49, Malik reported that Victor's SUV had been spotted six blocks from there.
Grant said, "We notify police."
Renee shook her head. "We have enough to reopen the crash investigation, not enough for them to move fast on a vague meeting request. We need him talking."
Leah folded her arms. "Then we let him think I came."
"No," Grant said immediately.
"You can't lock me in this house while everyone solves a mystery about my mother."
"I can keep you away from a man who may have murdered her."
"You can try."
Grant stared at her and heard Caroline in the stubborn set of her jaw.
Renee interrupted. "Nobody goes inside. We use a decoy car, remote audio, and surveillance."
At noon, a black sedan pulled into the old property's driveway.
Victor emerged from the porch wearing a tan coat and a smile.
He walked toward the car.
Then stopped.
His smile disappeared.
He looked directly at the tiny camera hidden in the windshield.
"Grant," he said calmly, as if speaking through glass to his brother. "You always did think buying better equipment made you smarter."
Malik swore under his breath.
Victor reached into his coat.
Grant tensed.
But Victor only pulled out a white envelope and set it on the hood.
Then he walked away through the side yard and vanished into the trees before police units reached the property.
Inside the envelope was one photograph.
Caroline sat in a restaurant booth beside Leah's former fiancé, Ryan Cole.
The date printed in the corner was one week before Caroline's death.
On the back, Caroline had written:
If Grant sees this, Ryan is already dangerous.
Leah whispered, "Ryan told me he never met my mother."
May you like
Then her phone rang.
Ryan's name appeared on the screen.
