Chapter 7 - What Katherine RecordedThey watched Katherine’s videotape inside a secure Reed Global conference room in New York.
Alexander did not believe him.
They met in Alexander’s office the next morning, Marcus standing near the door.
“You were in the car,” Alexander said.
“Yes.”
“With Richard.”
“Yes.”
“With the woman who stole Sophie’s key.”
Charles’s expression hardened.
“I did not know she stole anything.”
“Why were you meeting?”
“Richard called me. He said Delaney was frightened and wanted money to leave.”
“Why would you help her?”
“Because she claimed you were about to accuse her of crimes she didn’t commit.”
Alexander gave a humorless laugh.
“She disabled security cameras.”
“I know that now.”
Marcus spoke.
“Where is Mrs. Delaney?”
Charles looked at him.
“I don’t know.”
Marcus did not blink.
“Wrong answer.”
Charles stood.
“I’m not one of your suspects.”
Marcus replied, “Everybody is a suspect.”
Alexander stepped between them.
“Did Richard have Sophie’s key?”
Charles hesitated.
“That night?”
“Yes.”
“I saw something brass in his hand.”
Alexander’s pulse quickened.
“What did he do with it?”
“I don’t know.”
Alexander slammed a palm against the desk.
“Stop saying that.”
Charles’s face cracked for the first time.
“You think I don’t regret what happened?”
“To Mother?”
“To all of it!”
The shout stunned the room.
Charles sank back into his chair.
For a moment, he looked seventy instead of indestructible.
“I was arrogant,” he said. “I thought losing Katherine would be temporary. I thought she would calm down.”
Alexander stared.
“You knew she was leaving.”
“Yes.”
“Did you follow her the night she died?”
“No.”
“Did Richard?”
Charles closed his eyes.
“I believe he did.”
Alexander went still.
“Why?”
Charles looked at the floor.
“Because I told him to stop her.”
The silence became enormous.
Sophie, who had been listening from the partially open door, stepped inside.
Alexander stared at his father.
“You sent him after her?”
“I wanted him to talk to her.”
“On a rainstorm?”
“I didn’t know she had already left.”
“You told a man she was accusing of fraud to intercept her.”
Charles looked sick.
“Yes.”
Alexander turned away.
“What happened?”
“Richard called me later. He said he couldn’t find her. Then police called about the crash.”
“Did you believe him?”
“For years, I told myself I did.”
“And now?”
Charles looked toward Sophie.
“Now I don’t know.”
Sophie spoke quietly.
“What does the key open?”
Charles shook his head.
“I genuinely don’t know.”
Lily appeared in the doorway behind Sophie.
She had been coloring with one of the house staff.
“Mommy.”
Sophie turned.
“Sweetheart, you’re supposed to be with Maria.”
Lily held up a piece of paper.
“I drew bird house.”
Alexander’s attention sharpened.
“What did you say?”
Lily showed them a childish picture.
A house.
A tree.
A blue bird.
And a circle on the roof.
Sophie smiled gently.
“That’s pretty.”
But Alexander recognized something.
“Where did you see this house?”
Lily pointed toward the hallway.
“Picture.”
They followed her.
She led them to an old framed photograph in the upstairs corridor.
It showed Katherine Reed standing in front of a small cottage in Maine.
Alexander remembered visiting once as a child.
His mother called it Starling House.
The family sold it after her death.
Except—
Charles frowned.
“We never sold it.”
Alexander looked at him.
“What?”
“It was transferred into a private trust your mother created.”
“Who owns it?”
Charles thought.
“You do.”
Alexander stared.
Nobody had mentioned Starling House in decades.
Marcus was already making calls.
By afternoon, they were in the air aboard Alexander’s helicopter.
Sophie initially refused to bring Lily.
Alexander agreed.
Then they discovered someone had entered Sophie’s apartment overnight.
Nothing valuable had been stolen.
Drawers were opened.
Boxes searched.
Whoever did it wanted something specific.
So Lily came with them, surrounded by security.
Starling House stood near the Maine coast, half hidden by pine trees.
The cottage looked frozen in time.
Blue shutters.
Gray shingles.
A stone chimney.
Alexander stepped from the SUV and felt memory rush over him.
His mother baking blueberry muffins.
His father arriving late.
Margaret laughing in the garden.
Had Margaret been here too?
Inside, dust covered the furniture.
Sophie found blue birds embroidered into old curtains.
Lily squealed.
“Bird house!”
Alexander stared at them.
Of course.
Starling House.
Margaret’s clue.
They searched for hours.
Nothing.
Then Lily disappeared.
Sophie panicked.
“Lily!”
A tiny voice answered from upstairs.
“Mommy!”
They found her in Katherine’s old bedroom.
She was sitting on the floor beside an antique sewing cabinet.
“Look.”
Lily held up a wooden bird.
Sophie crouched.
“Where did you find that?”
“In hole.”
One drawer in the sewing cabinet had a false bottom.
Beneath it rested another brass key.
Almost identical to the stolen one.
Alexander picked it up.
“The second key.”
Marcus examined the cabinet.
“There’s no lock here.”
Alexander looked around.
Then he remembered something his mother once told him.
Every house should have a place for secrets.
He moved toward the fireplace.
A small metal door sat beside it.
Coal storage, perhaps.
The key fit.
Inside was not coal.
It was a steel compartment.
Alexander opened it.
Folders.
Bank statements.
Photographs.
A videotape.
And a handwritten ledger.
Marcus whistled.
“This is what everyone’s been looking for.”
Alexander picked up one photograph.
Richard Vale stood beside Charles near an offshore bank.
Another showed Richard meeting a man Alexander did not know.
Sophie opened the ledger.
“Look at the dates.”
Transfers from the foundation.
Payments to shell companies.
Then payments back to someone identified only as R.V.
Richard Vale.
Alexander reached for the videotape.
Before he could lift it, headlights swept across the windows.
Marcus moved instantly.
“Everybody away from the glass.”
An engine roared outside.
Then came a gunshot.
The front window exploded.
Sophie grabbed Lily.
Alexander threw himself over both of them.
Marcus shouted into his radio.
“Security! North side!”
A second shot struck the wall.
Then silence.
Alexander looked down.
Lily was crying beneath him.
Sophie was shaking.
He realized his arm was bleeding from broken glass.
Sophie stared.
“You’re hurt.”
“I’m fine.”
Marcus ran outside with the guards.
Alexander remained over Sophie and Lily until they heard the all-clear.
The shooter had vanished into the woods.
But left tire tracks.
Marcus returned twenty minutes later.
“We found something.”
He held up a phone dropped near the driveway.
The lock screen displayed a recent text.
Only six words.
GET THE TAPE. NO MATTER WHAT.
May you like
The sender’s contact name was simply:
RICHARD.
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