Chapter 12 - The agents searched every room again.No one was there.
Yet the system showed that someone had accessed the trust file from my home.
Reed checked the router.
Someone had installed a device.
Hidden inside the wall.
A tiny transmitter.
I stared at it.
“They've been listening.”
“Yes.”
“For how long?”
Reed looked at the serial number.
“Eleven months.”
Exactly eleven months.
The same length of time Harrison and Sloan had lived in my house.
My blood ran cold.
Someone had been listening to everything.
Every argument.
Every phone call.
Every conversation about the money.
Every time I talked to Brenda.
Then I remembered something.
“Brenda.”
“What about her?”
“She knew about the cake.”
She knew everything.
But why would anyone care about Brenda?
Unless Brenda wasn't as ordinary as I thought.
I called her.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Harrison looked at me.
“When did you last see her?”
“The morning before the bank appointment.”
“Did she know about the trust?”
I shook my head.
“I never told her.”
Then my phone received a message.
Unknown number.
A photograph.
Brenda sitting in a chair.
My heart stopped.
Under it were six words.
SHE KNOWS WHERE THE LIST ENDS.
Reed cursed.
“We're going.”
We reached Brenda's house.
The front door was open.
Inside, furniture had been overturned.
No blood.
No body.
But on the kitchen table sat a birthday card.
My name was written on it.
I opened it.
Inside was one sentence.
HAPPY 65TH, EVELYN.
NOW YOU FINALLY KNOW.
The house went quiet.
Then Claire noticed something.
A small blue ribbon on the floor.
She picked it up.
“This belonged to Brenda.”
“How do you know?”
“She gave me one.”
I looked at her.
“What?”
“Two months ago.”
“Where did you meet her?”
Claire hesitated.
“At a café.”
I stared at my daughter.
“You met Brenda before you met me?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“She found me.”
“Why?”
Claire's face changed.
“She said she knew my father.”
“Thomas?”
Claire nodded.
Then another realization hit me.
Brenda had been involved from the beginning.
Not as an enemy.
As a guardian.
Perhaps Thomas had trusted her.
Perhaps that's why she spent hours making my birthday cake.
Perhaps the cake wasn't just a birthday cake.
I called Margaret.
This time she answered.
“Evelyn.”
“Where's Brenda?”
Silence.
“You knew this was coming.”
“What are you talking about?”
“The list.”
Margaret's breathing changed.
“You found it.”
“Yes.”
“Then you are in danger.”
“I already know.”
“No. You don't.”
“Who is Martin Voss?”
Margaret whispered:
“The man who funded your husband's investigation.”
“What?”
“He wasn't just the banker.”
“Then what?”
“He was Thomas's partner.”
I felt dizzy.
“Partner in what?”
“Everything.”
She hung up.
I stared at the phone.
Harrison looked at me.
“Mom?”
I could barely speak.
“Thomas and Voss built the trust together.”
“Why?”
“To hide money.”
“Whose money?”
Margaret called back.
Before I could answer, Reed picked up.
The voice on the other end was broken.
“Evelyn...”
It was Brenda.
“Brenda?”
“I don't have much time.”
“Where are you?”
“I can't tell you.”
“Why?”
“Because they're listening.”
“Who?”
“Voss.”
I froze.
“He has your house.”
“What does that mean?”
“He owns the company that bought your mortgage.”
“I don't have a mortgage.”
Brenda's voice trembled.
“You think you don't.”
A pause.
Then she whispered:
“Evelyn, your house was transferred into a shell company eleven months ago.”
My heart stopped.
“What?”
“Sloan signed the paperwork.”
I looked at Harrison.
Sloan's face drained of color.
“No.”
Brenda continued.
“They're not living in your house.”
She swallowed.
“They're living in property they legally control.”
I stared at Sloan.
She began crying.
“I can explain.”
Brenda whispered:
“Your birthday cake wasn't the trap.”
Then the call ended.
Reed turned to Sloan.
“Sit down.”
She didn't move.
He repeated:
“Sit down.”
I looked at my daughter-in-law.
May you like
For eleven months, she had walked through my home like she owned it.
Maybe she did.
