Chapter 6 - Shadows in the Orphanage Files
Before the estate security could grab me, Eleanor Cross made her move.
She wasn't just Arthur’s lawyer; she had been Caroline's godmother. She grabbed my wrist with surprising strength, yanked me through the hidden service door behind the library bookshelf, and locked the steel deadbolt from the inside.
"Run!" Eleanor hissed, her breath coming fast as we sprinted down a narrow spiral staircase leading to the estate’s wine cellar.
"I didn't poison him!" I sobbed, tears blinding me. "You have to believe me!"
"I know you didn't, Toby," Eleanor said, using my real name for the first time. "Arthur’s tea is delivered by Mark’s personal staff. Mark knew Arthur was changing the will today. If Arthur dies before the codicil is signed, Mark inherits the controlling share by default!"
She kicked open the heavy cellar exit, leading out into the rain-soaked gardens. A nondescript gray Volvo was parked behind the hedge maze, its engine idling. Henderson, the old butler, sat behind the wheel.
"Get in!" Henderson barked.
I dove into the backseat, Eleanor following right behind, slamming the door just as two of Mark’s private guards burst through the hedges, guns drawn. Henderson slammed his foot on the accelerator. The tires tore through the pristine lawn, spraying mud across the hedges as we smashed through the rear wooden gate and vanished onto the backroads of Greenwich.
"Where are we going?" I asked, trembling uncontrollably, clutching the ring around my neck.
"To the only place Mark can't buy," Eleanor said, pulling out a burner phone. "The safe deposit vault Caroline opened before she went into hiding."
She turned around in the passenger seat, looking at me with dead-serious eyes. "Toby, that ring your mother gave you isn't just an heirloom. It’s a key."
"A key?" I looked down at the silver band and the star-cut blue sapphire.
"Caroline was an engineer," Eleanor explained, her voice tight with grief and rage. "She knew Mark was tracking her financial records. Before she disappeared, she stole the digital hard drive containing the offshore shipping manifests that prove Mark’s criminal syndicate. She hid the decryption key inside the setting of that sapphire."
"And if Arthur dies..." I whispered.
May you like
"If Arthur dies and Mark destroys that key, Mark gets the Vance empire, and you go to prison for Arthur’s murder," Eleanor said grimly. "We have six hours before the toxicology report is falsified by Mark’s doctors at the hospital."
***
