Chapter 4 - Locker 214
Police entered the freight depot through three doors at once.
Beckett ordered me to remain behind a patrol vehicle.
I lasted eleven seconds.
Then I heard Jonah scream.
Wyatt caught my wheelchair before I could push toward the loading bay.
“Sadie.”
“He’s in there because of my family.”
“And you have stitches behind your eye.”
“I know.”
A gunshot cracked inside.
Every officer outside moved.
My breath stopped.
Then Beckett’s voice shouted from the building.
“Drop it!”
A second voice screamed.
Melanie.
“I didn’t shoot him!”
There was another crash.
Then silence.
Two officers emerged first.
Between them walked my sister.
Her cream dress from the day before had been replaced by jeans and a black sweater.
Mud covered her shoes.
Her mascara had run down both cheeks.
Her hands were cuffed.
She saw me.
For one second, she looked ashamed.
Then the old resentment returned.
“This is your fault.”
Wyatt stepped between us.
“Don’t.”
Melanie laughed bitterly.
“Still playing hero?”
An officer moved her toward the cruiser.
She twisted back.
“You think she loves you?”
“She loves winning.”
Wyatt did not answer.
He did not need to.
Beckett came out next.
Blood marked his sleeve.
“Jonah?”
“Alive.”
My whole body sagged.
“He has a head wound.”
“Paramedics are with him.”
“What happened?”
“Melanie was not alone.”
“Who?”
“One man escaped through the rear.”
“Description?”
“Jonah says he works for your mother.”
I stared at him.
“My mother doesn’t have employees.”
“Hale Ridge does.”
Samuel arrived just as paramedics brought Jonah out.
The elderly man looked even smaller than he had behind the curtain.
A bandage covered his forehead.
His eyes found me immediately.
“Miss Sadie.”
I moved closer.
“You came back.”
“I’m sorry it took so long.”
“Why were you in my parents’ house?”
He looked toward the police cruiser holding Melanie.
“Looking for what your grandfather hid.”
“The box?”
Jonah nodded.
“Did you find it?”
His expression became complicated.
“I found where it should have been.”
“Empty?”
“No.”
“Moved.”
Beckett joined us.
“Jonah, we should do this at the hospital.”
The old man shook his head.
“They’ll try again.”
“Who?”
Jonah looked directly at me.
“Your mother.”
My stomach dropped.
He continued.
“Robert is violent.”
“Denise is patient.”
“That makes her worse.”
The paramedic protested.
Jonah ignored him.
“Nine years ago, Theodore knew he was dying.”
“He also knew your father had been taking money from the company.”
“How much?”
“At least two million then.”
Samuel’s face tightened.
“I never knew that.”
“Theodore didn’t tell anyone until he had proof.”
Jonah continued.
“He changed the will.”
“He put Sadie in control.”
“He gave Robert and Denise the house only so long as they behaved.”
“They found out.”
“How?”
“Denise searched Theodore’s desk.”
“She found a draft.”
“What did they do?”
“Robert confronted him.”
Jonah’s eyes filled with shame.
“I heard shouting.”
“I should have called police.”
“What happened?”
“Your father grabbed Theodore.”
“Your grandfather fell.”
I stopped breathing.
“Granddad died of a stroke.”
Jonah looked away.
“He had a stroke after the fall.”
The world tilted.
“My father caused it?”
“I believe so.”
“Did he hit him?”
“I didn’t see the first moment.”
“I saw Theodore on the floor.”
“I saw Robert standing over him.”
“And I heard Denise say, ‘Now we have to fix the papers before he wakes up.’”
Wyatt cursed under his breath.
Samuel looked sick.
“Why didn’t you tell police?”
“I tried.”
“What happened?”
“Denise told them Theodore fell alone.”
“Robert told me if I contradicted them, they would accuse me of stealing from the estate.”
“I was afraid.”
He looked at me.
“That fear cost you nine years.”
I reached for his hand.
“You came back.”
“Because I saw the wedding notice.”
He smiled sadly.
“Theodore said marriage would open the trust.”
“I knew Robert would panic.”
“Then I saw Hale Ridge filing papers at the depot.”
“So you came looking.”
“For the original will?”
“And Theodore’s recording.”
“What recording?”
Jonah looked toward the depot.
“A video.”
My pulse jumped.
“Theodore recorded himself signing the codicil.”
“He explained every clause.”
“He named the money Robert stole.”
“He said if anything happened to him before he could confront your parents, the recording was to go to Samuel.”
Samuel closed his eyes.
“That would destroy the revocation claim.”
“Yes.”
“Where is it?”
“Theodore hid it in locker 214.”
I held up the brass key.
Jonah stared.
“You have it.”
“It was empty.”
He shook his head.
“No.”
“Locker 214 isn’t inside the building.”
I frowned.
He pointed toward the old rail yard behind the depot.
“Theodore never trusted obvious hiding places.”
“He welded a storage compartment beneath freight car 214.”
I remembered the rusted cars sitting on dead tracks.
Beckett called officers over.
We moved toward the yard.
Freight car 214 stood at the far end.
Red paint peeled from its sides.
Officers searched underneath.
One of them found a steel panel behind the wheel assembly.
The key fit.
Inside was a waterproof case.
Samuel opened it with gloved hands.
Documents.
A hard drive.
An old digital video camera.
And a ledger.
Beckett stared at the contents.
“Looks like your grandfather kept receipts.”
Jonah nodded.
“Theodore kept everything.”
A shout came from the front of the depot.
An officer ran toward us.
“Detective!”
“Melanie wants to talk.”
Beckett frowned.
“About what?”
“She says the man who escaped is coming back.”
“Why?”
The officer looked at me.
“Because he wasn’t supposed to leave witnesses.”
A vehicle engine roared beyond the trees.
Then the black SUV that had been parked behind the depot burst through the side gate.
It accelerated directly toward the rail yard.
Toward me.
Wyatt grabbed my wheelchair.
“Move!”
He shoved me behind the freight car as the SUV smashed through a wooden barrier.
Police opened fire at the tires.
The vehicle swerved.
It struck the rail track.
One wheel lifted.
The SUV rolled onto its side and slid across the gravel.
Officers surrounded it.
The driver was dragged out bleeding but alive.
Jonah saw his face.
“That’s him.”
“Who?”
Beckett asked.
Jonah answered.
“Graham Voss.”
Samuel went pale.
I knew that reaction mattered.
“Who is Graham Voss?”
Samuel looked at me.
“He isn’t an employee.”
“He’s the lawyer who represented your father when Theodore’s original will disappeared.”
May you like
The man who helped bury my inheritance nine years ago had just tried to run me down beside the evidence that could prove he did it.
