Chapter 8 - THE BROTHER WHO KEPT THE KEY
Richard moved so quickly that Ethan stepped between him and Samuel.
“You told David where Thomas was going?”
Samuel looked twenty years older.
“I can explain.”
“Then explain!”
“I wasn’t protecting David.”
Richard laughed without humor.
“You’ve spent the last hour accusing everyone else.”
“Because I was ashamed.”
Samuel lowered his eyes.
“At the time, Halcyon owed millions. If Thomas went public before we separated the legitimate projects from David’s acquisitions, hundreds of employees would lose everything.”
“So you betrayed him?”
“I asked David to delay him.”
Lauren stared at Samuel.
“My father died that morning.”
“I never told David to hurt him.”
“You gave him the location.”
“Yes.”
She slapped him.
The sound cracked through the room.
Nobody stopped her.
Samuel accepted it.
“I deserve that.”
I felt strangely calm.
Perhaps grief has limits.
After enough revelations, the mind simply starts collecting facts.
“What did David do?” I asked.
Samuel looked toward him.
David answered.
“I confronted Thomas in a parking garage.”
“What happened?”
“We argued.”
“And?”
“He collapsed.”
Lauren went still.
“You watched my father collapse?”
“I called an ambulance.”
“That’s not what happened,” I said.
Thomas had come home himself.
David stared at me.
“He refused the ambulance.”
My pulse quickened.
“He said if he went to a hospital, someone would take the documents from his house while you were gone.”
That sounded exactly like Thomas.
Stubborn.
Protective.
Terrified.
“Did you touch him?” Ethan asked.
David shook his head.
“No.”
“Did you give him anything?”
“No.”
Samuel covered his face.
Richard turned away from him.
Then Lauren suddenly looked at me.
“Mom, Dad died from a heart attack, right?”
“That was the ruling.”
“Was he taking medication?”
“No.”
“Was there an autopsy?”
“No.”
Ethan frowned.
“Why not?”
“Because there was no reason to suspect anything.”
David looked uncomfortable.
I noticed.
“What?”
He said nothing.
“David.”
He exhaled.
“Thomas suspected someone had tampered with his coffee.”
Lauren whispered:
“What?”
“He told me in the garage.”
“And you never told anyone?”
“I thought he was paranoid.”
My anger exploded.
“You attended his funeral knowing that?”
“Yes.”
I grabbed the edge of the table to steady myself.
Richard looked toward the property documents.
“Who had access to Thomas that morning?”
I remembered.
He left home before seven.
He stopped at a diner every Tuesday.
Maggie’s.
Same booth.
Same coffee.
Same waitress.
Except that morning, Thomas mentioned something strange when he returned.
I had forgotten it for twenty years.
“The waitress wasn’t there.”
Everyone looked at me.
“He said someone else served him.”
David narrowed his eyes.
“Who?”
I closed my eyes and saw Thomas standing in our kitchen, loosening his tie.
A younger man served me today, he had said.
Nice kid.
Said he was filling in for his aunt.
Evelyn suddenly dropped into a chair.
Richard stared at her.
“What?”
She shook her head.
“No.”
“What do you know?”
Tears appeared in her eyes.
“That diner belonged to my sister.”
And then Ethan whispered:
“My father had a cousin working there.”
Richard slowly turned toward him.
“Yes.”
Ethan swallowed.
“A cousin named Michael.”
May you like
Evelyn began crying.
Because Michael Cole had disappeared the day after Thomas died.
