Chapter 18 - The Attorney
Martin was found in the records room with blood on his shirt and his hands zip-tied behind his back.
He was alive.
Barely conscious, but alive.
“I came when the alarm triggered,” he told Torres after paramedics treated a cut above his eye. “Caleb was already here.”
“Why didn’t you call police?”
“I did. He hit me before I finished.”
Torres showed him the frozen reflection.
Martin stared at it.
“That’s me.”
“Convenient.”
He looked offended, then exhausted.
“I’ve represented Ethan for nineteen years.”
“So had Caleb managed the estate for twelve.”
That ended the argument.
Police searched Martin before allowing him to leave the room.
In his inside jacket pocket they found a small brass key.
He frowned.
“That is not mine.”
It opened a safe behind a framed photograph in Caleb’s office.
Inside were backup drives, notarized documents, bank tokens, and a handwritten ledger.
Caleb had planted the key on Martin.
Or Martin was lying.
At that point, I trusted evidence more than history.
The ledger helped.
It listed payments to shell companies, Victor’s former security account, a brokerage employee, and Rebecca.
Rebecca had received $180,000 over two years.
She admitted it.
“Caleb paid my debts,” she said from a hospital bed, wrapped in warm blankets after the river. “Then he told me if I walked away, he would prove I helped him steal.”
“You did help him.”
“Yes.”
“And when did slapping Henry become part of paying your debts?”
She closed her eyes.
“It didn’t.”
“Good. Don’t hide that behind Caleb.”
Tears ran into her hair.
“I won’t.”
For once, I believed her.
Torres entered the room.
“We found Caleb’s car.”
“Where?”
“Your estate.”
I stood.
My son was at the hospital under guard.
“What would he want at my house?”
Rebecca’s eyes opened.
“The wall safe.”
“What wall safe?”
“In Sarah’s old dressing room.”
I stared at her.
“There is no safe there.”
“There is. Sarah found it before she died. She put something inside and changed the code.”
“What?”
“I don’t know.”
Torres’s phone buzzed.
She read the message and swore.
“What?”
“The officers at your estate found one guard unconscious.”
My stomach dropped.
“And Caleb?”
“Inside.”
I headed for the door.
Torres caught my arm.
Then her phone rang again.
This time she put it on speaker.
A child’s voice came through.
“Dad?”
I froze.
“Henry?”
“I’m at home.”
May you like
The room stopped breathing.
Henry whispered, “Mr. Caleb took me.”
