Chapter 8: The Fourth Key
“Why are you smiling?””
David’s expression disappeared.
“I’m not.””
“You were.””
Richard pulled against the officer holding him.
“Mark, listen to me.””
I held up the note.
“You had plenty of opportunities to talk.””
“I couldn’t risk David knowing.””
David leaned back.
“Here we go.””
“Knowing what?”” Harris asked.
Richard looked toward Lily.
“The key around her neck wasn’t the master key.””
Elena frowned.
“You said it was.””
“I needed Vanessa to believe that.””
Vanessa stared at him.
“You used me again.””
“The symbol means something else.””
Harris removed Lily’s key from evidence and held it under the desk lamp.
The circle.
Three crossing lines.
“What does it mean?”” I asked.
Richard answered quietly.
“Four.””
I stared at him.
“There are four keys?””
“Yes.””
David stood.
“No.””
Every officer reacted.
Harris pushed him back into the chair.
“You said there were three,” Elena whispered.
David looked at Richard.
“There were.””
Richard shook his head.
“Not after Thomas discovered what we were doing.””
My dead uncle’s name hung between us.
“What did Thomas do?””
“He created a failsafe.””
Richard pointed toward the filing cabinets.
“The three original keys open this room. The fourth opens the actual archive.””
Harris looked at the computer screens.
“You said this was the archive.””
“It’s a decoy.””
Vanessa laughed.
“Of course it is.””
Richard continued.
“The real evidence isn’t digital.””
“Then what is it?””
“Paper records. Original signatures. Account ledgers.
Photographs. Recorded conversations. Enough evidence to dismantle Victor Shaw’s entire network.””
Harris frowned.
“Where?””
Richard looked at Lily’s key.
“That key opens the compartment containing the location.””
David stood again.
“This is insanity.””
Richard pointed at him.
“Why are you afraid?””
“I’m not.””
“You came here tonight because Daniel told you the key had surfaced.””
David’s face changed.
Elena saw it too.
“Dad?””
David looked at her.
“I came because I learned you were alive.””
“How?””
Silence.
“Dad.””
“An anonymous message.””
Richard laughed.
“Daniel.””
“No.””
“Yes.””
David turned toward him.
“You don’t know that.””
Richard’s voice became cold.
“I know because he sent me one too.””
Harris rubbed his forehead.
“So Daniel deliberately brought both of you here.””
“Exactly.””
“Why?””
Richard looked toward the monitor showing my mother.
“To empty the board.””
I understood.
“Get everyone in one place.””
“Yes.””
“And while we’re here…”
“He takes something somewhere else.””
My phone vibrated.
Another message from Daniel.
THIRTY MINUTES.
Harris looked at me.
“You’re not going alone.””
“He has my mother.””
“And he wants you emotional.””
“He has my mother.””
“I heard you.””
Elena stood.
“Mark.””
I turned.
She took my hands.
“If you walk into whatever Daniel planned without thinking, Lily could lose both of us tonight.””
I looked at our daughter.
She was exhausted.
Confused.
Trying not to cry.
I crouched in front of her.
“Lily, I need you to stay with Mommy.””
“Are you leaving?””
“For a little while.””
“Because Uncle Daniel has Grandma?””
My throat tightened.
“Yes.””
She hugged me.
“Bring her home.””
“I will.””
When she released me, she whispered something.
“Daddy, the key opens Grandma’s music box.””
I froze.
“What?””
“The brass key.””
Richard stared at her.
“How do you know that?””
Lily looked frightened.
“Grandma showed me.””
“When?””
“Last Christmas.””
My mother’s music box.
A dark walnut box that had sat on her bedroom dresser for as long as I could remember.
She never let anyone touch it.
Richard stood slowly.
“Where is it?””
“At Grandma’s house,” Lily said.
Richard looked at me.
“Daniel doesn’t want the key.””
“What?””
“He wants whatever Margaret hid inside that box.””
Harris immediately ordered officers to my mother’s home.
I called one of them twenty minutes later from the back seat of an unmarked police SUV.
“Detective,” an officer said over speakerphone, “we found the music box.””
“Open it,” Harris ordered.
“The normal latch opens, but there’s a second compartment underneath.””
I held Lily’s key.
“We’re bringing the key.””
A pause.
Then the officer said, “You might want to hurry.””
“Why?””
“The house has been searched.””
My chest tightened.
“Daniel?””
“Possibly.””
“Is the box damaged?””
“No.””
“Then he couldn’t open it.””
“That’s not the problem.””
“What is?””
The officer hesitated.
“There’s blood in the bedroom.””
Richard whispered my mother’s name.
Harris accelerated.
When we reached her house, the front door was hanging open.
Drawers had been emptied.
Furniture had been overturned.
The music box sat untouched on the dining table.
I inserted Lily’s key into the hidden slot underneath.
It turned.
A false wooden panel popped loose.
Inside was a small cassette recorder, a photograph, and a sealed envelope.
My name was written on it.
MARK — IF RICHARD EVER RETURNS, LISTEN FIRST.
I stared at my mother’s handwriting.
Harris put on gloves and opened the envelope.
A single sheet of paper was inside.
I read the first sentence.
My hands began shaking.
Mark,
The man you know as Richard Bennett is not your biological father.
I stopped.
“No.””
Harris looked over my shoulder.
I forced myself to continue.
Your father was Thomas.
The room disappeared around me.
My uncle.
The man on the plane.
The man buried under Richard’s name.
Richard stepped backward.
“Margaret promised me she destroyed that.””
I turned toward him.
“You knew?””
He didn’t answer.
I crossed the room and grabbed his shirt.
“You knew Thomas was my father?””
“Yes.””
My fist tightened.
“Why did you raise me?””
“Because Thomas asked me to.””
“Before you sent him onto that plane?””
“I DID NOT SEND HIM TO DIE!””
His shout echoed through the house.
Then the cassette recorder clicked.
None of us had touched it.
A tiny red light came on.
My mother’s recorded voice filled the room.
“If you’re hearing this, Richard has returned, which means Daniel has probably discovered the truth too.””
Richard closed his eyes.
The recording continued.
“Mark, there is one thing Richard never knew.””
He stared at the recorder.
My mother’s voice trembled.
“Thomas survived the crash.””
Nobody moved.
“And if Daniel has taken me, he isn’t trying to find Thomas.””
May you like
A pause.
“He already has him.””
