Chapter 6 - THE BROTHER IN THE VIDEO
Harold Stone had spent twenty years resenting Gabriel.
Their father left control of Stone Protective Services to Gabriel.
Harold received money, properties, and a ceremonial board seat.
It was never enough.
The blue-room video showed Harold entering through the wine-cellar passage.
Michael handed him company documents.
Harold said:
“Once Victoria is gone, Mia’s shares become manageable.”
Mia owned twenty percent of Stone Holdings through a trust created by her late grandmother.
Victoria controlled the voting rights until Mia turned twenty-five.
If Victoria died, guardianship determined who voted the shares.
Michael planned to gain custody.
Harold planned to gain control of the company.
Serena managed the insurance money.
Everyone expected the others to remain loyal after Victoria’s death.
Gabriel knew conspirators rarely survived success together.
Harold called him before police arrived.
“Gabe, I heard about Victoria.”
“Did you?”
“Is she alive?”
The question came too quickly.
Gabriel answered carefully.
“She is fighting.”
“I can come to the hospital.”
“No.”
“She is my niece.”
“You stopped treating her like family when you planned her funeral.”
Silence followed.
Harold ended the call.
Police reached his Gold Coast residence twenty minutes later.
He was gone.
His study had been cleared.
A private plane registered to one of his companies departed from Chicago Executive Airport before the arrest warrant became active.
The flight plan listed Montreal.
The aircraft turned south over Lake Michigan and disappeared from civilian tracking.
Harold had another destination.
Detective Morales searched his financial records.
He owned a lodge near the Wisconsin border.
The property included a private landing strip and access to an abandoned iron mine.
Gabriel remembered Mia’s warning.
Michael said the lake would hide everything.
The lodge stood beside Black Pine Lake.
A search team entered before nightfall.
They found a weighted steel container near the dock.
Inside were Victoria’s jewelry, a duplicate passport, and clothing stained with animal blood.
Michael planned to create evidence that Victoria fled, died, or was attacked somewhere else.
The mine contained more.
A room had been prepared with a bed, restraints, medical supplies, and a camera.
The plan might not have been to kill her immediately.
They intended to force her to transfer the shares first.
Then a technician called from the far tunnel.
He had found photographs of another woman held in the same room six years earlier.
Gabriel recognized her.
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Michael’s first wife, Caroline Cross.
Everyone believed she died in a boating accident.
