Chapter 6 - The Person Thomas Trusted
Serena held the photograph toward Rebecca’s video call and said, “You were in my house.”
Rebecca’s face went completely still.
Behind Serena, Daniel locked the study door.
On Thomas’s desk sat the old recorder.
Its timestamp showed seventeen minutes nobody had heard yet.
The woman Serena had trusted to explain her father’s secrets had become one of them.
Rebecca did not deny the photograph.
Instead she closed her eyes.
“Yes.”
Serena’s anger came quickly.
“You told me Dad called you that afternoon.”
“He did.”
“You didn’t mention coming here.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because Thomas asked me not to.”
“He’s dead, Rebecca.”
“I know.”
“And for two years you let me believe the official version of everything?”
“The official version was not false.”
“You were standing in my house seventeen minutes before my father died.”
Daniel leaned toward the phone.
“Were you here when he fell?”
Rebecca looked at him.
“No.”
“How can we believe you?”
“You shouldn’t. Not without evidence.”
That answer caught Serena off guard.
Rebecca continued.
“Play the rest of Thomas’s recording.”
Serena looked at the recorder.
“You know what’s on it?”
“Some of it.”
“Tell me.”
“No.”
Serena stared.
Rebecca’s voice remained calm.
“If I tell you, you’ll hear everything through my explanation. Thomas wanted you to hear his words first.”
Serena almost ended the call.
Instead she pressed play.
The recording resumed.
Martin’s voice:
“Thomas, give us the original file and this ends tonight.”
Thomas:
“There is no ‘us,’ Martin. You used Evelyn because she was scared for her son.”
Then Evelyn:
“I told you, I’m done.”
A door closed.
Footsteps.
Thomas spoke again.
“Daniel is coming. Leave.”
Martin:
“Daniel is exactly why I’m staying.”
Then a woman’s voice.
Rebecca.
“Martin, it’s over.”
Serena looked at the phone.
Rebecca did not react.
The recording continued.
Martin:
“You shouldn’t be here.”
Rebecca:
“Neither should you.”
Thomas:
“Rebecca, take the documents.”
Papers moved.
Then Martin said something barely audible.
Daniel leaned closer.
Serena increased the volume.
“You think that box protects you?”
Thomas answered:
“No. Serena does.”
Silence.
Then footsteps.
A door slammed.
Rebecca’s recorded voice:
“You need to call police tonight.”
Thomas:
“I will.”
Rebecca:
“Not tomorrow.”
Thomas:
“I said I will.”
Rebecca:
“And Daniel?”
Thomas sighed.
“I need to speak to him first.”
The recording went quiet for nearly twenty seconds.
Then Thomas whispered something.
The microphone barely captured it.
Serena replayed.
“Blue room. If Serena ever needs it.”
Rebecca replied:
“I understand.”
Then the study door closed.
The recording continued.
Minutes passed.
A new voice.
Daniel.
“Thomas?”
Serena stopped the audio.
Daniel looked at her.
“That’s when I arrived.”
Rebecca nodded from the screen.
“Yes.”
“You left before Daniel?” Serena asked.
“Through the side entrance.”
“Why?”
“Thomas did not want Daniel pulled into the investigation unless necessary.”
Serena resumed.
The argument between Thomas and Daniel unfolded almost exactly as Daniel had described.
The deed.
Evelyn.
Boundaries.
Daniel promising he did not want ownership.
Thomas telling him that avoiding conflict with his mother was not the same as protecting Serena.
Then footsteps toward the foyer.
Thomas:
“One day Serena is going to ask you to choose between keeping everyone comfortable and making her feel safe.”
Daniel:
“That’s not fair.”
Thomas:
“No. Marriage usually isn’t.”
Even now, Serena almost heard her father smiling.
Then another sound.
A glass.
Thomas coughing.
Daniel:
“You okay?”
Thomas:
“Dizzy.”
Daniel:
“Sit down.”
Thomas:
“No, I’m fine.”
Footsteps.
Then Thomas gasped.
A scrape.
Daniel shouted.
“Thomas!”
A violent crash.
The recording continued.
Daniel’s breathing.
A call to 911.
No third person.
No push.
No attack.
Serena stopped it.
Daniel covered his face.
For two years he had carried the memory.
Perhaps even the suspicion that he could have prevented it.
Evelyn had known that.
Martin had exploited it.
Rebecca spoke.
“The police heard a copy.”
Serena looked sharply at her.
“What?”
“Thomas had configured the recorder to upload automatically.”
“Then why wasn’t this investigated?”
“It was.”
“Rebecca, his toxicology showed zolpidem.”
“The original toxicology did not.”
Serena went silent.
Daniel turned.
“What?”
Rebecca continued.
“The report Evelyn showed you was altered.”
Serena thought of the highlighted phrase.
“Martin forged it.”
“Yes.”
“The bottle?”
“Likely planted later.”
“In Dad’s locked basement safe?”
Rebecca shook her head.
“The evidence bag itself was not there when Thomas died.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I opened the safe with him two weeks earlier.”
Serena’s mind raced.
“Then someone accessed it afterward.”
“Yes.”
“Who had the key?”
“Thomas. Me. And after probate, theoretically you.”
“But I didn’t know the safe existed.”
“That was the point.”
“Why would you put the key in an envelope instead of telling me?”
“I didn’t.”
Serena stared.
“Then who wrote the yellow envelope?”
“I don’t know.”
The basement key had come from Martin.
Everything connected back to him.
Daniel asked, “Why would Martin plant Mom’s sleeping pills years later?”
“To revive suspicion,” Rebecca said.
“Why now?”
“Because Serena’s father kept evidence capable of exposing financial crimes far larger than anything involving Willow Crest.”
Serena looked at the binders.
“What crimes?”
“More than thirty fraudulent liens. Elderly homeowners. Widows. People with inherited property. Martin and several associates used forged signatures, inflated renovation contracts, and private loans to create artificial debt.”
Serena’s stomach turned.
“And Dad discovered it.”
“Yes.”
“Why wasn’t Martin arrested?”
“Thomas didn’t have enough to connect Martin personally to every transaction.”
“What’s in the safe?”
“Enough now, perhaps.”
Daniel looked at Serena.
“Then Martin needs the box.”
“Yes.”
Serena asked, “Where is he?”
Rebecca hesitated.
“Serena, there’s something I haven’t told you.”
She laughed bitterly.
“That describes this entire day.”
“Martin contacted me three days ago.”
“What did he want?”
“He said Evelyn was becoming unstable.”
Daniel stiffened.
“My mother?”
“He believed she might finally tell Serena everything.”
“So he started sending messages.”
“Yes.”
“To Daniel too?”
“Probably.”
“Why warn Daniel not to let Evelyn show me the file?”
“To make Daniel distrust Evelyn and keep the family fighting among themselves.”
Serena sat slowly.
The brilliance of it was ugly.
For two years, they had done Martin’s work for him.
Evelyn’s control.
Daniel’s silence.
Serena’s resentment.
Everybody looking at everybody else.
Nobody looking outside.
“What does he want now?” Serena asked.
“The original ledger.”
Serena looked at the safe.
“What does it look like?”
“A dark red accounting book.”
Serena scanned the contents.
There was a ledger.
But it was black.
“No red book.”
Rebecca’s face tightened.
“Then Thomas moved it.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
Daniel’s phone buzzed.
A message from Evelyn.
PLEASE COME TO MY HOUSE.
I FOUND SOMETHING MARTIN LEFT HERE YEARS AGO.
Daniel immediately called.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Serena stood.
“No.”
Daniel looked at her.
“What?”
“This is exactly what happened before. We rush toward whatever someone sends us.”
“But if Mom is in danger—”
“We call police first.”
They did.
Officers were dispatched to Evelyn’s address.
Daniel and Serena followed several minutes later.
The drive was silent.
Then Daniel spoke.
“I should have corrected her the first time.”
Serena stared ahead.
“Yes.”
“I kept thinking defending you meant attacking her.”
“That was your mistake.”
“I know.”
She turned toward him.
“No. Listen to me. Your mother’s feelings were never the price of my safety. You could have loved her and still told her no.”
Daniel nodded.
“I understand.”
“Do you?”
“I’m starting to.”
That was the first answer Serena believed.
At Evelyn’s house, the front door stood open.
Police vehicles lined the street.
Serena’s stomach dropped.
They hurried inside.
Evelyn sat in the dining room wrapped in a blanket.
Alive.
Shaken.
A broken window behind her.
Daniel embraced her.
Serena remained nearby.
Evelyn looked over Daniel’s shoulder.
Her eyes met Serena’s.
“I’m sorry.”
Serena did not say it was okay.
It wasn’t.
Instead she asked, “What did you find?”
Evelyn pointed toward the dining table.
A cardboard storage box.
Inside were files Martin had left with Evelyn years earlier.
Loan applications.
Property searches.
Photographs.
A list of addresses.
Willow Crest appeared at the top.
Beside it:
PRIMARY TARGET – DOCUMENT ARCHIVE POSSIBLE.
Then Serena saw another sheet.
A handwritten schedule.
THOMAS — THURSDAY 7:30
REBECCA — 8:15
DANIEL — 8:45
Serena stared.
Every visitor on the night Thomas died.
Martin had tracked all of them.
The last notation was at 9:00.
ADMINISTERED.
Daniel saw it.
“Administered what?”
Evelyn’s face collapsed.
“That’s why I thought the pills mattered.”
Serena looked closer.
The word had an asterisk.
At the bottom of the page:
NOT DRUG. DEVICE.
“What device?” Serena whispered.
Evelyn pointed into the box.
Beneath the files was a small electronic module.
Daniel picked it up carefully.
“What is this?”
One of the officers recognized it.
“A remote HVAC control relay.”
Serena stared.
Thermostat.
Air-conditioning.
The beginning of every argument.
Thomas had died after suddenly becoming dizzy.
Martin had access to a device connected to the house system.
But a thermostat could not kill someone.
Could it?
Rebecca arrived twenty minutes later.
She looked at the module.
Then at Serena.
“This doesn’t control temperature.”
“What does it control?”
Rebecca turned it over.
A serial number had been scratched away.
“This model was used with older gas heating systems.”
Serena’s heart stopped.
Willow Crest had used gas heat before Thomas renovated.
Rebecca continued.
“If improperly wired, something like this could override a ventilation shutoff.”
Daniel whispered, “Carbon monoxide.”
Police immediately contacted investigators.
Serena remembered Thomas coughing.
Dizzy.
Walking toward the stairs.
No push.
No drug.
Perhaps an invisible gas.
But testing years later would prove little.
Unless Thomas had known.
Unless he had documented it.
Serena suddenly remembered his letter.
The house is protected, but the house is not the only thing I protected.
She looked toward Evelyn.
“Did Dad ever give you anything else?”
Evelyn shook her head.
Then stopped.
“Wait.”
She hurried upstairs.
Returned with a small wooden box.
“After Thomas paid Martin’s debt, he gave me this and told me never to open it unless Martin contacted me again.”
“You never opened it?”
“I was ashamed.”
Inside was a single red accounting ledger.
Rebecca gasped.
“That’s it.”
Serena reached toward it.
Before her fingers touched the cover, every light in Evelyn’s house went out.
May you like
A second later, the front door opened.
And a man’s voice called Serena’s name.
