CHAPTER 9: THE MAN AT THE FUNERAL
Arthur watched the video three times.
Then a fourth.
No one in the garage dared interrupt him.
Emily looked tired.
Frightened.
But when she turned toward the person beside her...
She smiled.
Not the smile of a child facing a stranger.
The smile of a child greeting someone she trusted.
"Grandpa..."
Arthur paused the frame.
Only part of the older man's shoulder appeared.
A black wool coat.
A walking cane.
One wrinkled hand resting gently on Emily's shoulder.
His face remained outside the camera.
Marcus lowered his voice.
"Could she be mistaken?"
Arthur answered immediately.
"No."
Marcus looked surprised.
"Emily only ever called one person Grandpa."
Eight years earlier...
Alexander Carter's funeral had been the largest private memorial the city had ever seen.
Business leaders.
Politicians.
Celebrities.
Thousands had attended.
Arthur himself had watched the coffin lowered into the ground.
He remembered every second.
Or at least...
He thought he did.
Marcus broke the silence.
"We should exhume the body."
Arthur looked at him.
"If Alexander Carter is alive..."
"...someone else is buried in that grave."
Before Arthur could answer, Victoria spoke.
"No."
Everyone turned.
"You won't find him there."
Arthur narrowed his eyes.
"You know something."
Victoria looked exhausted.
"I know what I was told."
"Told by who?"
She hesitated.
Then...
"Alexander."
Nobody spoke.
Rain battered the garage roof.
Each drop sounded like a ticking clock.
Arthur stepped closer.
"My father died eight years ago."
Victoria slowly shook her head.
"No."
"He disappeared."
Arthur's jaw tightened.
"I carried his coffin."
"You carried a closed coffin."
Arthur froze.
She was right.
The casket had never been opened after the accident.
The official explanation had been simple:
The fire had made identification impossible.
Arthur had accepted it.
Just as he had accepted Claire's death.
Twice.
The same story.
The same excuse.
Burned beyond recognition.
Closed coffin.
No DNA.
No final goodbye.
Arthur suddenly felt sick.
Marcus immediately ordered a background review of both cases.
Within minutes, the mansion's archive room was overflowing with files.
Death certificates.
Insurance claims.
Medical reports.
Arthur spread them across a long oak table.
Something caught his attention.
Claire's death certificate.
Signed by one medical examiner.
Alexander's death certificate.
Signed by...
The same man.
Marcus frowned.
"What are the odds?"
Arthur didn't answer.
He turned another page.
Both reports had been filed...
On the same typewriter.
Different years.
Same machine.
Marcus looked up.
"Someone wanted consistency."
Arthur nodded.
"Or control."
One of the younger analysts rushed into the room.
"Sir!"
Arthur looked up.
"I found something."
He plugged a flash drive into the monitor.
A decades-old television interview appeared.
Alexander Carter sat behind his massive office desk.
Confident.
Charismatic.
The interviewer asked:
"Mr. Carter, what's the greatest lesson you've learned in business?"
Alexander smiled.
Then he answered with a sentence that made Victoria's face lose all color.
"If you want complete loyalty...
never let people know the whole plan."
Marcus paused the video.
Victoria whispered,
"He used to say that every time..."
Every time what?
Arthur looked at her.
She closed her eyes.
"Every time someone disappeared."
Silence.
No one moved.
Arthur spoke carefully.
"What people?"
Victoria looked at the floor.
"Employees."
"Partners."
"Anyone who became... inconvenient."
Marcus stared.
"You're saying Alexander had people killed?"
Victoria nodded once.
"I didn't believe it."
"Until Claire found something."
Arthur's heartbeat quickened.
"What did she find?"
Victoria swallowed.
"I don't know."
"You don't know?"
"I swear."
"She only told me..."
Victoria's voice cracked.
"...that she had proof Alexander wasn't building an empire."
Arthur frowned.
"What then?"
Victoria looked him straight in the eyes.
"A criminal organization."
Before Arthur could ask another question...
Every light in the archive room went out.
Darkness.
Complete darkness.
A second later...
The backup lights glowed red.
Marcus grabbed his radio.
"Report!"
Static.
Nothing.
Every channel was dead.
Then...
Footsteps.
Slow.
Heavy.
Coming from somewhere upstairs.
Arthur looked toward the ceiling.
The footsteps stopped.
A child's laugh echoed faintly through the ventilation system.
Emily.
"Daddy..."
Arthur's head snapped upward.
"Emily!"
No response.
Instead...
The mansion's old intercom system crackled to life.
A calm elderly voice filled every room.
Clear.
Confident.
Unmistakable.
"Good evening, Arthur."
Victoria collapsed into a chair.
"No..."
Arthur's hands clenched into fists.
He knew that voice.
He had heard it his entire childhood.
His father.
Alexander Carter.
The voice continued.
"You've done well."
"You've uncovered exactly what I wanted you to uncover."
Marcus whispered,
"Trace the signal!"
Technicians scrambled toward the control room.
Alexander laughed softly.
"You won't find me."
"I built this house."
"I know every wire inside it."
Arthur stepped toward the nearest speaker.
"What do you want?"
A pause.
Then Alexander answered.
"I want my family back."
Arthur's eyes hardened.
"You tried to kill my daughter."
"No."
The old man's voice remained calm.
"I saved her."
Arthur shouted,
"Where is Emily?"
Alexander ignored the question.
Instead, he asked one of his own.
"Arthur..."
"When Claire died..."
"Did you ever wonder why Emily never cried at the funeral?"
Arthur froze.
He remembered.
His three-year-old daughter hadn't cried.
Not once.
She had simply looked around the church...
As if searching for someone.
Alexander spoke one final sentence before the intercom went silent.
"Children always recognize the people adults refuse to see."
The speakers clicked off.
The mansion fell silent once again.
Then Marcus's phone vibrated.
He stared at the screen in disbelief.
"It can't be..."
Arthur looked over.
The message contained only a live GPS location.
Not somewhere outside.
Not in another city.
The blinking dot was moving...
May you like
Inside the Carter mansion.
Exactly beneath the family cemetery.
