Chapter 6 - THE CLOSEST PERSON
Mara saw the suspicion in his face.
“Don’t,” she said. “Elena knew me.”
“She knew everyone around me.”
“And she trusted me.”
Arthur held up the tablet. “Her last message says not to.”
Lily looked between them. “Who is she?”
Mara answered quietly. “Your father and I ran a federal task force targeting organized corruption. Your mother helped us as a forensic accountant.”
Arthur’s head snapped toward her. “Elena was supposed to be out.”
“She came back without telling you.”
“Why?”
“Because she found the Whitmore network.”
Before Arthur could respond, an explosion shook the east side of the mansion.
Glass rained across the terrace.
Guests screamed and ran toward the lawn.
Black smoke poured from an upper window.
“The server room,” an agent shouted. “Someone set it on fire.”
Richard pulled away from the officer questioning him and sprinted toward the house.
Arthur caught him near the steps.
“What’s in that room?”
“My business files.”
“Or your mother’s insurance archive?”
Richard shoved him. “My mother is insane, but this isn’t her.”
A second blast blew out another window.
Margaret was suddenly nowhere in sight.
Mara ordered fire teams inside. Arthur looked toward the medical SUV.
Lily’s door stood open.
The seat was empty.
His blood turned cold.
“Lily!”
Her blanket lay on the ground. Beside it was a phone displaying one message:
BRING THE ELENA FILE TO THE OLD GREENHOUSE. COME ALONE.
Arthur ran toward the back gardens.
Richard followed.
“Stay back,” Arthur warned.
“She’s my wife.”
“You lost the right to say that.”
The old greenhouse stood beyond the hedge maze, its glass walls clouded by age. Arthur entered through a broken side door.
Lily sat tied to a chair.
Margaret stood behind her with a pruning knife against her throat.
But Margaret was not alone.
A man stepped from behind the hanging vines.
He was older now, heavier, but Arthur recognized him instantly.
Senator Thomas Vale.
Arthur’s former commanding officer.
The man who had signed the report declaring Elena’s death an accident.
May you like
Vale smiled.
“Welcome back, Arthur,” he said. “You were always difficult to bury.”
