Chapter 5 - The Girl They Couldn’t TakeOwen Brooks saw the pistol half a second before Evelyn fired.
He smiled.
He thanked her for coming.
Then he allowed her to ride back to Blackwood Mansion in the car beside him.
Evelyn had represented his family for fourteen years.
She had handled his father’s estate.
His divorce.
Three corporate acquisitions.
The attempted kidnapping of Alexander’s nephew.
She knew every weakness he possessed.
If Marcus was telling the truth, Evelyn was not simply involved.
She might be the architect.
Inside the mansion library, Alexander poured two drinks.
Evelyn accepted hers.
“You’re unusually calm.”
“I’m tired.”
“That’s understandable.”
Alexander watched her reflection in the window.
“Detective Hayes found Sebastian’s boat.”
Evelyn’s glass paused halfway to her lips.
“Where?”
Alexander lied.
“Connecticut.”
Relief flickered across her face.
So small most people would have missed it.
Alexander didn’t.
“Police are heading there now.”
“Good.”
Evelyn drank.
Alexander changed the subject.
“Did you know my father wasn’t Theodore’s biological son?”
“No.”
Too fast.
Alexander nodded.
“And Richard?”
“What about him?”
“Did my father ever talk about him?”
“Rarely.”
Another lie.
Charles Blackwood’s diaries contained seventeen meetings with Evelyn during the final year of his life regarding Richard’s estate claim.
Alexander had discovered them thirty minutes earlier.
“You should sleep,” Evelyn said.
“I will.”
She placed her glass down.
“I’ll review the archive documents from my office.”
“No.”
She turned.
Alexander smiled.
“They stay here.”
Something sharpened in her expression.
“Of course.”
After she left, Detective Hayes entered through the private study door.
“Well?”
“She reacted to Connecticut.”
“Meaning?”
“Whitehorse Marina is in Maryland.”
Hayes understood.
“If she believed Sebastian was somewhere else, she relaxed.”
Alexander nodded.
“We move tonight.”
The operation at Whitehorse Marina began at 11:40 p.m.
Police found Sebastian’s registered yacht empty.
But Grace’s DNA was discovered on a towel.
Blood too.
Alexander stood on the dock as forensic officers worked.
Then Lily’s voice came through his phone.
Owen was with her at the mansion.
“Mr. Blackwood?”
“Hey, kiddo.”
“I remembered something.”
“What?”
“The place Mommy took me.”
Alexander looked toward Detective Hayes.
“When?”
“A long time ago. She said if we ever got separated, I should remember the red door.”
Alexander straightened.
“What red door?”
“At the water.”
“Lily, was it a house?”
“No.”
She thought.
“A building. It had horses painted on it.”
Alexander’s eyes moved toward the old warehouse across the marina.
A faded white horse logo covered the wall.
The front loading door was red.
Police stormed it within minutes.
Empty crates.
Old machinery.
A generator running.
Then Detective Hayes found a hidden elevator.
It descended below the warehouse.
Alexander followed despite orders to remain outside.
At the bottom was another tunnel.
Theodore Blackwood had not merely built secret passages beneath his mansion.
He had created an entire underground transportation network between several properties once owned by Blackwood Industries.
Cold War infrastructure.
Escape routes.
Storage chambers.
Smuggling corridors.
Someone had restored them.
They found Grace’s second prison cell.
Again empty.
But this time she had left something.
A strip of fabric tied around a pipe.
Her blouse.
And scratched beneath it:
E.S. KNOWS
Evelyn Shaw knows.
Alexander stared at the letters.
Marcus had told the truth.
Then Detective Hayes shouted.
A laptop had been left running on a metal table.
Live feed.
Sebastian appeared on screen.
He smiled.
“Hello, cousin.”
Alexander stepped closer.
“Where is Grace?”
“Safe.”
“Show me.”
Sebastian moved the camera.
Grace sat behind him.
Her wrists were tied.
Her lip was split.
But she was alive.
Alexander exhaled.
Grace looked directly at him.
“Don’t give him anything.”
Sebastian slapped her.
Alexander lunged toward the screen as if he could reach through it.
“Touch her again and—”
“And what?”
Sebastian smiled.
“You’ll bankrupt me?”
Grace glared at Sebastian.
He laughed.
“This woman has been extraordinarily inconvenient.”
“Let her go.”
“Bring me the archive.”
“No.”
Sebastian’s smile vanished.
“It belongs to my father.”
“Your father lost his rights.”
“My father was robbed.”
“Then prove it in court.”
“You think courts matter to men like us?”
Alexander’s voice turned cold.
“They matter more than tunnels and hostages.”
Sebastian leaned closer.
“Your grandfather destroyed my father. Your father inherited stolen wealth. You inherited the throne.”
“This isn’t about justice.”
Sebastian’s eyes darkened.
“You’re right.”
He turned slightly.
“It became personal when Grace discovered my mother.”
Alexander frowned.
Sebastian’s mother, Catherine, had supposedly died fifteen years earlier.
“Your mother?”
Grace shouted suddenly.
“Alexander, Catherine is alive!”
Sebastian spun toward her.
Too late.
Alexander felt the room change.
Another dead woman who wasn’t dead.
Grace continued.
“She’s the one behind—”
Sebastian struck her again and cut the feed.
Detective Hayes cursed.
Alexander stared at the black screen.
Evelyn.
Marcus.
Rebecca.
Catherine.
Too many people connected.
Then police found a folder inside the laptop.
One document contained wire transfers.
Evelyn Shaw had transferred money to Sebastian repeatedly.
But the oldest payment dated back eighteen years.
Before Sebastian’s public feud with Alexander.
Before Evelyn even became Blackwood attorney.
Detective Hayes frowned.
“She’s been connected to him almost her entire career.”
Alexander saw another file.
A photograph.
Young Evelyn.
Catherine Blackwood.
Standing together.
On the back, a handwritten note.
To my little sister. Someday the Blackwoods will pay us both.
Alexander’s blood went cold.
“Evelyn is Catherine’s sister.”
And suddenly the conspiracy was no longer about Sebastian reclaiming his father’s inheritance.
It was a family war planned by two sisters for nearly twenty years.
Meanwhile, back at Blackwood Mansion, Evelyn Shaw walked into Lily’s bedroom holding a glass of warm milk.
Owen stood outside the door.
“Ms. Shaw, Mr. Blackwood asked that Lily not be disturbed.”
Evelyn smiled.
“I know.”
May you like
Then she lifted a pistol from her handbag.
“Unfortunately, Alexander asks for many things he isn’t going to get tonight.”
Related Stories
