Chapter 13 - The Man My Father Fired
Gavin Price had a record before he ever worked for us.
Assault. Fraud. Unlawful restraint.
Dad had hired him through a security contractor and fired him after discovering he was accessing executive files outside his assignment.
What none of us knew was that Gavin never really left.
He started working for Mother.
Cash payments. No invoices.
Detective Brooks found withdrawals from one of Diane’s personal accounts matching dates when Gavin’s phone pinged near the lake house.
Diane was arrested that afternoon.
She asked for a lawyer and said nothing.
Michael, however, started talking.
Not because he felt guilty.
Because he was angry Mother had run without him.
“She said we were protecting the company,” he told detectives. “She said Amelia would sign, we’d scare her, then let her go.”
“Under the floor?” I asked through the interview-room glass.
Michael looked at me through the camera.
He knew I was watching.
“She wasn’t supposed to be there long.”
I nearly went through the glass.
Brooks blocked me with one arm.
Michael continued. “Gavin moved her back to the house because the lake property had been compromised.”
“Compromised how?” Brooks asked.
“Somebody was watching it.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
That mattered.
Because it meant a fourth player existed—someone watching the lake house, someone neither side controlled.
That evening, I brought Amelia and Noah to a secured rental outside the city. Mei chose to stay with us after police cleared her.
At 11:38 p.m., the doorbell camera sent an alert.
A man stood at the gate.
Gray coat.
Scar near his chin.
Gavin Price.
I called Brooks while watching the live feed.
Gavin didn’t try to enter.
He raised both hands where the camera could see them.
Then he held up a manila envelope.
On the front, in thick black marker, he had written:
I KNOW WHERE ELEANOR IS.
May you like
Below it was another line.
AND I KNOW WHAT THOMAS REALLY DIED FROM.
