Chapter 12 - The Empty Safe
The Hart family home in Greenwich had never felt dangerous to Caleb before.
That changed when he walked into his father’s study at two in the morning with Detective Morales, Margaret, Emma, and a warrant team behind him.
The painting above the fireplace was already crooked.
The wall safe stood open.
Empty.
Thomas sat on the leather sofa with both hands over his face.
“I never told Victor the combination.”
Margaret looked at him. “You told Sloane.”
Thomas raised his head.
“What?”
“Last Christmas. You were drunk. You opened the safe to show her Eleanor’s watch collection.”
Caleb turned to Sloane, who had arrived separately with her attorney.
She nodded once.
“I knew the code.”
Caleb felt sick.
“Did you take the envelope?”
“No.”
“Can you prove that?”
“No.”
Her honesty almost hurt more than another lie.
Morales examined the safe.
“No forced entry.”
Thomas whispered, “Then someone with the code opened it.”
Sloane looked toward the security panel near the study door.
“The house logs smart-lock access, right?”
Emma nodded. “And hallway motion sensors.”
They checked the home system.
The server had been wiped at 6:12 p.m., twelve minutes before the wedding ceremony was scheduled to begin.
Caleb stared at the screen.
“Who has administrator access?”
Thomas answered quietly. “Me. Margaret. Caleb.”
Emma said, “And the family office.”
Everyone looked at her.
“The IT account. Remember? Dad gave them emergency access after the ransomware scare.”
Thomas groaned.
The family office was run by Martin Voss, Thomas’s chief financial officer of twenty-seven years.
Caleb called him.
No answer.
Morales ran his name.
Then she looked up from her phone.
“Martin Voss boarded a private flight out of Teterboro forty minutes ago.”
“To where?”
“Montreal.”
Margaret shook her head.
“He doesn’t have the amendment.”
Caleb looked at her.
“How do you know?”
She walked to Eleanor Hart’s old writing desk in the corner.
“Because your grandmother never trusted safes.”
Margaret pulled open the bottom drawer.
She removed the drawer completely.
Taped beneath it was a yellowed envelope.
Thomas stared.
Margaret peeled it loose.
May you like
On the front, in Eleanor’s handwriting, were three words.
FOR CALEB ONLY.
