Chapter 5: The Ledger Beneath the Floor
The brass key lay between Emma and Marcus like a challenge neither of them wanted to accept.
Marcus didn't touch it.
“Tell me the name,” he said.
Richard shook his head.
“Not until you understand what the ledger proves.””
“You've spent twenty years keeping secrets. I'm done waiting.””
“And if I tell you the wrong way, you'll do exactly what Victoria expects.””
Marcus leaned over the table.
“My mother threatened my fiancée, manipulated a recording, and may have tried to poison her. Don't tell me what she expects. Tell me what you know.””
Richard looked at Emma.
“Do you remember the summer your mother took you to stay with your aunt in Baltimore?””
Emma nodded slowly.
She had been sixteen. Her father had left the family home three weeks earlier, and her mother had barely stopped crying long enough to pack their suitcases.
“I remember.””
“Daniel called me that night. He said Victoria had discovered the original ledger and was looking for the backup copy.””
“Why didn't you call the police?”” Emma asked.
“I did.””
Detective Harris looked up from his notes.
“Which department?””
“The county sheriff's office. The investigator assigned to the case told me there was no evidence of a crime.””
“Do you remember his name?””
Richard hesitated.
“Peter Cross.””
Marcus went pale.
“My uncle?””
Richard nodded.
Peter Cross was Daniel's younger brother, a former law enforcement officer who had later become the Cross family's legal adviser. Marcus remembered him as the relative who always arrived at holidays with expensive gifts and left before dessert.
His uncle had also been the person who explained the official circumstances of his father's death.
“He told me the accident was caused by wet roads,” Marcus said.
“He said Dad lost control of the car.””
“Peter gave that statement before the medical examiner completed the report,” Richard replied.
“He was at the scene before the emergency crews arrived.””
Detective Harris stopped writing.
“Are you alleging that Peter Cross interfered with the investigation?””
“I'm telling you that he knew things he shouldn't have known.””
Emma felt her stomach twist.
The Cross family wasn't merely hiding a financial scandal. Someone had spent decades constructing a version of the past that everyone was expected to accept.
“Where is the ledger?”” she asked.
Richard picked up the brass key.
“There's a storage unit registered under your mother's maiden name. I rented it before I disappeared. The original records are inside a metal case.””
“Then why didn't you retrieve them?””
“Because someone has been watching the unit.””
“Who?””
“I don't know. But three months ago, I found a fresh scratch around the lock. Someone had tried to open it.””
Marcus looked at Detective Harris.
“We should send officers there immediately.””
Harris nodded.
“I'll arrange it. No one goes alone, and nobody touches the case until our forensic team documents it.””
Richard's shoulders relaxed slightly.
“There's one more thing. The ledger won't make sense unless you compare it with the original audio.””
Elena, who had been listening quietly, spoke from the doorway.
“Then we need to secure the second phone.””
Harris stood.
“I'll request a warrant.””
Marcus looked at his uncle's name in the notes.
“Peter won't hand that phone over voluntarily.””
“He won't have to,” Harris replied.
Two hours later, the investigators escorted Richard to a secure room while they prepared to search the storage unit. Emma and Marcus waited in a conference area with Elena.
The silence between the couple had grown heavier.
Finally, Marcus spoke.
“When we got engaged, I thought the hardest part would be convincing my mother to accept you.””
Emma stared at the table.
“I never expected her to accept me.””
“Why didn't you tell me about the flash drive?””
“Because every time I tried to understand what my father left behind, I found another connection to your family. I didn't know whether you were involved. I didn't want to lose you over something I couldn't prove.””
Marcus leaned back.
“You should have trusted me enough to let me make that decision.””
“You're right.””
He seemed surprised by her answer.
Emma looked at him.
“I was wrong to keep it from you. I can explain why I did it, but I can't pretend it was fair.””
He rubbed his palms over his knees.
“I don't know how to separate the woman I love from the secrets surrounding her.””
“Then don't separate them yet. Just look at the evidence.””
Marcus met her eyes.
“And if the evidence proves your father lied?””
“Then I'll deal with it.””
“And if it proves my mother was responsible for my father's death?””
Emma reached across the table.
“Then you won't have to face it alone.””
He took her hand.
For the first time since the pool, his fingers relaxed around hers.
A door opened.
Detective Harris returned carrying a sealed plastic evidence bag containing a small black phone.
“We recovered the device from the Cross residence,” he said.
“Mrs. Cross claimed it was a personal backup phone. The initial examination found two audio files, one of which appears to have been edited.””
Marcus stood.
“Can we hear it?””
“Not yet. Our forensic specialist is preserving the device. But we did find a third file in a hidden directory.””
“What does it contain?””
Harris glanced toward Elena.
“A conversation recorded twelve years ago between Victoria Cross and Thomas Bell.””
Elena frowned.
“Bell died that year.””
“Correct.””
Harris placed a printed waveform beside the phone. The page contained no readable transcript, only a visual representation of the audio.
“The recording is damaged,” he continued, “but we recovered a section in which Bell accuses Victoria of paying someone to alter Daniel Cross's original audio.””
Marcus gripped the back of his chair.
“Who did she pay?””
“We don't know yet.””
Emma's phone vibrated.
A message had arrived from an unknown number.
It contained a photograph of her father's old house.
The windows were dark. The front door stood open.
Beneath the photograph were seven words.
*Your father should have stayed buried with Daniel.*
Emma showed Marcus.
His expression turned cold.
“Detective, someone knows where Richard is.””
Harris immediately called the security team.
Elena moved toward the door.
“I'm checking the building perimeter.””
Marcus grabbed his jacket.
“I'm going with you.””
“No,” Emma said.
He turned.
“Emma—”
“If someone is trying to separate us, don't give them what they want. Stay here, where the investigators can protect the evidence.””
Marcus looked furious, but he stopped.
Elena left with two officers.
For twenty minutes, nobody received an update.
Then Harris's phone rang.
He listened without speaking.
When the call ended, he looked at Emma.
“The storage unit has been opened.””
Her heart sank.
“Was the ledger stolen?””
“No. The metal case is still there.””
Marcus exhaled.
“Then what's missing?””
Harris's face hardened.
“Nothing from the case. But someone left a photograph inside.””
He placed it on the table.
It showed Daniel Cross standing beside Richard Vance outside the mansion, both men smiling at the camera.
A third person stood behind them, partially obscured by the doorframe.
Emma leaned closer.
The figure wore a security uniform.
Marcus stared at the photograph for several seconds.
Then he whispered, “That's Peter.””
Detective Harris nodded.
“The date on the back is the day your father died.””
Marcus's face drained of color.
But Emma was looking at something else.
The man standing behind Daniel and Richard wore a distinctive silver ring on his right hand.
A ring she had seen before.
May you like
On the hand that had held the vial beside the pool.
Victoria's.
