Chapter 5 - THE PERSON UPSTAIRS
Michael moved first.
Brooks stopped him.
"Stay here."
Two officers went upstairs.
Another crash.
Then footsteps.
A bedroom door slammed.
"Police!"
I held Emma tighter.
Thirty seconds later, officers came down with our house manager, Denise.
She was crying.
"I wasn't stealing."
Brooks looked at the tote bag in her hand.
It was full of papers.
My tax returns.
Emma's birth certificate.
Copies of my passport.
"What were you doing?"
Denise looked at me.
"Trying to save these."
"From who?"
"Mrs. Patterson."
Margaret.
Denise had worked for the family for eleven years.
She told us Margaret came back after we left for the hospital.
She ordered Denise to destroy the kitchen camera drive and collect every document with my signature.
Denise pretended to agree.
Then Margaret and Vanessa left through the garage.
"Why help me now?"
Denise wiped her face.
"Because I sent the videos."
I stared.
"You?"
She nodded.
"I've been saving clips for two weeks."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"I was scared."
"Of Margaret?"
"Of Charles."
The attorney.
Denise opened her tote.
At the bottom was a black flash drive.
"Mr. Vane pays the staff who cooperate."
Michael looked sick.
"Pays them for what?"
"Information. Your schedule. Rachel's travel. When Emma cries. Who visits."
I felt violated in a way I could barely name.
Brooks took the drive.
Denise continued.
"Mrs. Patterson wanted something to happen before Friday."
"The trust."
Denise nodded.
"But she kept saying the trust wasn't enough."
"What does that mean?"
"I don't know."
Michael asked, "Where is my mother?"
Denise looked at him.
"She said she was going to your father's office."
"My father is dead."
"I know."
His face changed.
The Patterson Foods executive office had been sealed since Richard Patterson died six months earlier.
Only three people had keys.
Michael.
Margaret.
And Charles Vane.
Brooks asked, "What's in that office?"
Michael whispered, "The original trust documents."
Then his phone rang.
Margaret.
He answered on speaker.
May you like
Her voice came through calm and cold.
"Michael, if you want your wife to stay out of prison, come alone."
