Chapter 12 - The Frame Around Emily
David snatched the email.
“It’s forged.”
Sloan backed away.
“Maybe.”
“You know it is.”
“I know someone used your key.”
“What key?”
Sloan looked at Daniel.
“The family cryptographic key assigned to David after his return.”
Daniel frowned.
“Who issued it?”
“Trust administration.”
“Controlled by?”
Sloan swallowed.
“Charles.”
David laughed once.
“There.”
But Marcus didn’t relax.
“Could you have sent it?”
David looked at him.
“No.”
“You lied about being alive.”
“Yes.”
“You watched me.”
“Yes.”
“You touched my car.”
“To save you.”
“You keep asking me to trust the part you say was good.”
David’s face broke slightly.
Fair.
Daniel stepped between them.
“We prove it.”
The email metadata led to a trust office server.
Old Carter annex.
Police entered with them.
The terminal used to send it sat beneath a camera.
Footage existed.
A hooded figure.
Face hidden.
Daniel watched.
The person used David’s key.
Then removed the hood for half a second.
Emily gasped.
Margaret.
Daniel froze the frame.
“Mom?”
Margaret stepped back.
“That’s not me.”
The woman looked exactly like her from behind.
Same coat.
Same hair.
Then David zoomed.
Hand.
No wedding ring.
Margaret always wore hers.
Daniel exhaled.
A disguise.
The camera captured one more thing.
A scar at the base of the thumb.
Sloan stared.
“Ruth.”
Daniel snapped toward him.
“Grandma Ruth is dead.”
Sloan whispered, “I saw that scar when I was a junior associate.”
Margaret shook her head.
“My mother died.”
David looked at the timestamp.
Recent.
Emily said, “How many dead people in this family are alive?”
Nobody laughed.
Sloan sat down hard.
“Charles wasn’t the only one who staged records.”
Margaret stared.
“What are you saying?”
Sloan looked at her.
“Ruth disappeared before Charles did.”
“No.”
“You never saw her body either.”
Margaret’s face emptied.
Daniel’s phone rang.
Police at Emily’s house.
Anonymous tip.
Evidence found in Emily’s car.
Printed messages.
A map of Marcus’s route.
Explosive-component packaging.
Emily went white.
“They’re framing me now.”
Daniel looked at Sloan.
“Who benefits?”
Sloan whispered:
“Whoever wants Marcus dead and David blamed.”
Marcus’s eighteenth birthday.
Eight days.
Then a second call.
Margaret’s house.
Her study had been broken into.
One item missing.
Ruth Carter’s original trust seal.
David stared.
“With that seal…”
Sloan finished:
May you like
“They can rewrite the succession.”
CUT.
