Chapter 8 - BENEATH THE APPLE TREE
The family cabin stood near Lake Crescent.
Snow covered the narrow road, but the storm had not reached the area with the same force.
Mercer traveled with Nathan and a federal financial-crimes agent named Ava Sinclair.
They arrived before sunset.
The cabin had belonged to Nathan and Sarah’s mother.
After her death, neither sibling could bear to sell it.
Marcus had visited only once.
He hated the isolation.
The apple tree remained behind the cabin.
Its branches were bare and twisted against the winter sky.
Nathan knelt where he and Sarah had buried the cedar box twenty-eight years earlier.
The ground was frozen.
They used a shovel and metal bar to break through it.
Two feet beneath the soil, the shovel struck wood.
Nathan pulled out the box.
The original hinges had rusted.
Inside were childhood drawings, a marble, two faded photographs, and a newer plastic container.
The black ledger lay inside.
Sarah had placed it there the previous summer during a rare trip Marcus allowed her to take with Lily.
The ledger documented foundation theft, bribery, false clinics, and payments to judges, police officers, and private physicians.
Malcolm’s name appeared throughout it.
So did Marcus’s.
Another name appeared beside several of the largest transfers.
Judge Evelyn Kane.
Marcus’s mother.
She had presided over family-court cases for nearly twenty years.
Sarah had attempted to request protective orders twice.
Both petitions disappeared.
Judge Kane had used her position to keep her son beyond investigation.
Agent Sinclair photographed every page.
“This is enough for federal conspiracy charges.”
A shot shattered the cabin window.
Mercer pulled Nathan to the floor.
Another bullet struck the fireplace.
“Back exit,” Mercer ordered.
Agent Sinclair secured the ledger beneath her coat.
They moved toward the kitchen.
A man stepped onto the porch.
It was Malcolm.
He held a rifle.
“Nathan,” he called.
“Give me the book.”
Nathan stayed behind the wall.
“You stole from sick children.”
“I redirected funds.”
“To Marcus?”
“To people who understood opportunity.”
“You told me to abandon Sarah.”
“She was interfering.”
“She was being abused.”
Malcolm’s voice became impatient.
“Sarah made choices.”
“So did you.”
Mercer signaled silently toward the side door.
Agent Sinclair moved into position.
Malcolm fired again.
The bullet tore through a cabinet.
Then an engine roared near the front of the cabin.
A black SUV crashed into Malcolm’s vehicle.
Marcus emerged from the driver’s side.
For one strange second, Nathan believed Marcus had come to stop him.
Then Marcus raised a handgun toward the cabin.
“Burn it,” he shouted.
May you like
Malcolm reached into his coat.
He pulled out a flare.
