Chapter 7 - The Envelope in the Nursery
By midnight, the Howard mansion had become an active crime scene.
Vanessa was being detained for questioning.
Gerald Pike could not be located.
Mrs. Howard remained under police supervision in the library.
Elena stayed at the hospital.
Richard returned home with Detective Ruiz.
They entered the nursery together.
The room had been designed only a month earlier.
Cream-colored walls.
A white crib.
A rocking chair near the window.
A wooden desk Elena had inherited from her grandmother.
Richard opened the top drawer.
Empty.
His stomach dropped.
“Elena said it was here.”
Ruiz examined the lock.
“No forced entry.”
Richard looked toward the hallway.
“Only household staff have keys.”
“And family.”
Richard did not respond.
Ruiz opened the second drawer.
Baby clothes.
Medical documents.
A notebook.
Nothing else.
Richard walked toward the closet.
Then he noticed something.
The photograph above the desk was crooked.
Elena never left anything crooked.
He lifted it.
Behind the frame was a small wall safe.
Ruiz glanced at him.
“You knew about that?”
“No.”
Richard entered Elena’s birthday.
Wrong.
Their wedding anniversary.
Wrong.
Then he tried the date of their daughter’s expected birth.
The safe clicked.
Inside were three items.
A USB drive.
A handwritten letter.
And the missing envelope.
Richard exhaled.
“She moved it.”
Ruiz smiled slightly.
“Your wife appears to have trust issues.”
“I earned some of them.”
Richard opened the envelope only after Elena gave permission by phone.
Inside was a legal codicil dated nine years earlier.
It amended Charles Howard’s family trust.
Ruiz read it slowly.
Then again.
“What?”
Richard asked.
Ruiz handed him the paper.
Daniel Howard had not been removed from the trust after his supposed death.
Instead, his portion had been placed into suspension.
If Daniel ever legally reappeared, ownership of forty-two percent of Howard Capital would immediately revert to him.
Richard read the sentence twice.
“That makes no sense.”
Ruiz looked at him.
“It makes a lot of sense if someone believes Daniel is alive.”
Richard looked toward the dark window.
“And if he’s dead?”
“Then your daughter becomes the next protected beneficiary.”
Richard sat down.
Now Vanessa’s obsession with Elena’s pregnancy made sense.
So did the forged transfers.
So did the attempt to destroy the marriage.
Someone needed Elena out.
Someone needed the baby’s inheritance disrupted.
But there was still something wrong.
Richard looked at the date.
“This codicil was signed nine years ago.”
Daniel’s crash happened seven years ago.
Ruiz nodded.
“So your father knew there was a reason to prepare for Daniel’s disappearance two years before the accident.”
Richard’s phone rang.
Elena.
He answered immediately.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes.”
Her voice sounded weak.
“But I remembered something else.”
“What?”
“The night your mother gave me the photo box, she told me not to trust Gerald.”
Richard looked at Ruiz.
“Did she say why?”
“She said your father once kept a second set of books.”
Richard stood slowly.
“Where?”
“She didn’t tell me.”
A crash sounded downstairs.
Ruiz turned toward the hallway.
A uniformed officer shouted.
Richard ran from the nursery.
He reached the library seconds later.
The window was open.
Rain blew across the carpet.
Mrs. Howard’s chair was empty.
On the table sat a single handwritten note.
Richard picked it up.
It contained only seven words.
May you like
I HAVE TO FINISH WHAT CHARLES STARTED.
His mother had disappeared.
