Chapter 10 - The Key Under the Floor
Malcolm stepped inside.
"Nobody needs to get hurt."
Daniel raised the lamp.
"You already tried to burn us alive."
"I didn't light that fire."
"Then who did?"
Malcolm's eyes moved to the envelope.
"Give me the key."
Arthur stood between him and the table.
"You served this family twelve years."
"I serve the person who signs my checks."
"That's not service."
Malcolm's jaw tightened.
"Last warning."
A siren sounded outside.
Malcolm looked toward the window.
Arthur smiled faintly.
"I pressed my emergency alarm when you touched the building door."
Malcolm swore.
Daniel lunged.
The gun hit the floor.
Arthur kicked it under the table.
Malcolm drove an elbow into Daniel's shoulder, broke free, and ran down the stairs before police entered the building.
He escaped through the alley.
But he left fingerprints on the gun.
And the gun was unregistered.
That changed Detective Brooks's mood.
"We now have probable cause to pick him up," she said.
Daniel held up the brass key.
"And we have somewhere to go."
Police accompanied Daniel and Arthur to Vance House.
The nursery was on the third floor.
Eleanor had locked it for nearly fifteen years.
The brass key opened the old door.
Dust covered a white crib.
Faded blue stars were painted on the ceiling.
Daniel stood in the center of the room, suddenly remembering his father reading to him there.
Arthur tapped the floorboards.
One sounded hollow.
They pried it up.
Underneath sat a metal box.
Inside were three leather ledgers.
The original family trust.
And a cassette tape labeled CHARLES - PRIVATE.
Daniel stared at it.
"My father recorded something?"
Arthur found an old player in the closet.
The tape crackled.
Then Charles Vance's voice filled the nursery.
"If you're hearing this, Eleanor has probably gone too far."
Daniel went pale.
Sarah listened on speakerphone from her hospital bed.
Charles continued.
"She believes control is survival. She has moved company money, threatened staff, and pressured me to alter my father's trust. I refused."
Then a pause.
"If anything happens to me, do not let her use Daniel."
Daniel stopped breathing.
The tape hissed.
Then his father said something even worse.
"Victor Hale knows everything. And if Eleanor is still protecting him, then the danger is not inside this family alone."
Arthur looked toward the window.
A black SUV had just turned onto the estate road.
Detective Brooks checked her radio.
"No unit is supposed to be coming in."
Daniel closed the metal box.
The SUV stopped in front of the mansion.
Three men stepped out.
One was Malcolm.
The second was Graham Pike.
May you like
And the third was Victor Hale, chairman of the Vance board.
Arthur whispered, "They came for the box."
