Chapter 19 - The Dead Man
Police took David into custody before he entered the house.
Detective Brooks questioned him for five hours.
Sarah waited.
At 2:30 a.m., Brooks finally emerged.
“He says Nathan survived the boating accident.”
Rebecca stared at her.
“That’s impossible.”
Brooks shook her head.
“The body recovered four years ago was badly decomposed.”
“Identification relied partly on personal effects.”
Rebecca covered her mouth.
Sarah remembered Thomas’s warning.
Trust records.
Not people.
Brooks continued.
“David claims Nathan staged his death after discovering Raymond had hired someone to silence him.”
Rebecca started crying.
“Why wouldn’t he tell me?”
“He believed keeping you uninvolved kept you alive.”
Sarah felt anger rise.
Again.
Men deciding secrecy was protection.
Thomas.
Nathan.
Everyone making choices for the women they claimed to love.
“Where is Nathan now?”
Brooks looked at David through the interrogation-room glass.
“He says he doesn’t know.”
Sarah walked inside.
David looked older.
Defeated.
She sat across from him.
“You betrayed me.”
David lowered his head.
“Yes.”
“You gave Raymond information.”
“Yes.”
“You helped Julian access trust documents.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
David’s eyes filled.
“Because I hated Thomas.”
Sarah stared.
“He treated you like family.”
“He treated me like your little brother.”
“You were my little brother.”
David laughed bitterly.
“Exactly.”
He had spent his life believing Sarah had everything.
The successful husband.
The company.
The house.
The respect.
Raymond had exploited that resentment.
A little information became more.
Then money changed hands.
Then David discovered what Raymond really was.
By then, he was trapped.
“Why did you come back?”
David looked at Sarah.
“Because Nathan contacted me.”
Sarah’s pulse jumped.
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
“What did he say?”
David swallowed.
“He said Raymond had one final insurance policy.”
“What?”
“A ledger.”
Sarah frowned.
“Another ledger?”
“No.”
David leaned forward.
“This one isn’t about company money.”
“It’s about people.”
“Judges.”
“Bankers.”
“Politicians.”
“Police officers.”
Sarah felt the room change.
“Where is it?”
David looked at her.
“That’s why Nathan contacted me.”
“He thinks Raymond hid it somewhere no investigator would search.”
Sarah already knew before David finished.
“Your house.”
David shook his head.
“Not mine.”
Sarah’s stomach tightened.
David whispered.
“Yours.”
Three hours later, police searched Sarah’s estate.
At dawn, Noah found something behind the dining-room wall.
A narrow metal compartment.
Inside was a black ledger.
And beside it was a photograph.
Sarah picked it up.
Nathan Cole stood beside Thomas.
The photograph was recent.
Very recent.
On the back was a date.
December 23.
The day before Christmas Eve.
Sarah stared at it.
Thomas had been dead three years.
But the handwriting beneath the date was unmistakably Nathan’s.
SARAH, I’M SORRY I WAITED THIS LONG.
Then her phone rang.
Unknown number.
She answered.
A man spoke.
“Sarah.”
Rebecca gasped.
May you like
She recognized the voice instantly.
Nathan.
