Chapter 7 - Saint Matthew’s
The candles went out.
A gunshot struck the stone beside the altar.
I dropped behind the pew.
Agnes crawled toward the side aisle.
Police shouted from outside.
The chapel doors had been chained.
Smoke began entering through the ventilation grilles.
Someone had set fire to the convent’s western wing.
Agnes grabbed my sleeve.
“There is a passage behind the confessional.”
We moved through the dark.
Another shot struck the pew.
The shooter entered from the sacristy.
I saw only a silhouette.
Agnes pushed me through the confessional door.
The panel closed behind us.
A narrow stone passage descended beneath the chapel.
Smoke followed.
Agnes carried a small flashlight.
Her hands shook.
“She always burns what she cannot own,” she said.
“Isabella?”
“Conrad.”
The distinction mattered.
Isabella controlled through performance.
Conrad handled destruction.
We reached a locked iron gate.
Agnes removed a silver key from her coat.
It opened the gate.
Beyond it stood an underground archive.
Boxes covered the shelves.
Claire’s name appeared on many.
Agnes had preserved what she removed from the coastal house.
Medical files.
Foundation ledgers.
Photographs.
A sealed evidence bag containing Claire’s torn glove.
Two fingers of the glove were stained with blood and rust from the cliff railing.
“There is skin beneath the nails,” Agnes said.
“Claire scratched Conrad while he held her.”
The gunshot above had not come from Isabella.
Conrad had followed Agnes to prevent the evidence from reaching police.
The passage ended near the cemetery.
Detective Ortiz’s officers reached us as flames spread across the chapel roof.
Conrad fled through a wooded ravine.
Police found his vehicle abandoned two miles away.
Inside were false passports and a photograph of William entering Ethan’s hospital room.
A red circle had been drawn around his chest.
The threat had expanded.
Agnes entered protective custody.
She gave a complete statement.
Forensic technicians collected Claire’s glove.
The preserved material beneath the nails matched Conrad Pike.
The rust matched the railing at the coastal estate.
Combined with Agnes’s testimony, the evidence placed Conrad in physical contact with Claire at the cliff.
But Isabella’s role remained Agnes’s word against hers.
Then investigators opened the foundation ledgers.
The stolen amount was not ten million dollars.
It was one hundred and eighty million.
Funds intended for orphan housing, medical grants, and education programs had been moved into shell companies.
Isabella, Conrad, and Dr. Mercer signed the transactions.
William’s electronic signature appeared on several approvals.
He denied authorizing them.
A forensic specialist found that the signature file originated from his personal computer.
Someone had accessed it using his password.
Only three people knew that password.
William.
May you like
Isabella.
And Julian.
