Chapter 15 - THE MAN INSIDE THE WALLS
The mansion went into lockdown.
Armed agents searched every room.
Harris opened maintenance passages that had remained sealed for decades.
The voice did not speak again.
A heat sensor detected movement behind the library walls.
Agents entered from both sides.
They found a narrow observation room containing monitors connected to hidden cameras throughout the estate.
A cup of coffee was still warm.
The person using the room had escaped through a tunnel.
On the desk was a photograph of Henry Whitmore taken only days earlier.
He looked older but unmistakably alive.
White hair framed a severe face.
A scar crossed his left cheek.
Grant touched the photograph.
“My father never had that scar.”
Harris examined it.
“He did after the factory fire in Ohio.”
Grant frowned.
“What factory fire?”
Harris looked toward the agents.
“It happened before Grant was born.”
According to Harris, Henry and his business partner, Arthur Vale, had owned a chemical factory.
An explosion killed eleven workers.
Henry collected the insurance money and built the first Whitmore shipping company.
Arthur Vale disappeared after accusing Henry of causing the explosion.
Arthur was Renata’s father.
Renata’s relationship with the Whitmore family had not begun with Evelyn.
It had begun with revenge.
Grant looked at the photograph.
“Renata wanted to destroy my father.”
“She wanted to take his empire,” Harris said.
“She became like him in the process.”
Agents discovered fresh fingerprints in the observation room.
They belonged to Celeste Marrow.
Renata’s assistant had been watching us through the walls.
Celeste was still working for Henry.
That meant Renata had never controlled the conspiracy.
She had been another piece on Henry’s board.
A computer in the observation room contained a live map.
One flashing marker moved away from the estate.
Another remained stationary near the county hospital.
Nathaniel was being treated there.
Detective Cole called the officers guarding his room.
No one answered.
Minutes later, hospital security reported an explosion in the parking garage.
The guards outside Nathaniel’s room were found unconscious.
Nathaniel was gone.
A nurse remembered seeing an elderly man pushing his wheelchair toward a private elevator.
Henry had taken his son.
Grant stared at the map.
The moving marker headed east toward the coast.
“He’s taking Nathaniel to the harbor.”
“Why?” I asked.
“Because the Whitmore family owns a cargo terminal there.”
Grant reached for his coat.
Detective Cole blocked the door.
“You’re not going.”
“That man murdered my wife.”
“We don’t know that.”
Grant looked at Lily.
“He built the machine that did.”
Lily walked toward him.
She reached into her pocket and placed the brass button from the red coat in his hand.
“Bring Uncle Nathaniel back.”
Grant stared at her.
“He helped hurt your mother.”
“I know.”
“Why do you want me to save him?”
May you like
Lily’s answer silenced the room.
“Because Mommy would.”
