Chapter 10: The Disappearing Father
Richard Brooks was found before midnight.
He was hiding in the estate’s abandoned greenhouse with a briefcase full of deeds, account records, and two million dollars in bearer bonds.
He claimed he had rescued the documents from the fire.
Investigators found traces of accelerant on his shoes.
Daniel immediately blamed him for everything.
“My father planned the fraud,” he told Agent Hayes. “He pressured me into the marriage. He controlled the foreign accounts.”
Richard listened in silence.
Then he began to smile.
“You always were weak,” he told his son. “Even as a child, you broke things and blamed the nearest person.”
Richard admitted creating the offshore network.
He admitted draining money from the hotels.
But he refused to accept responsibility for the fake medical report or the wax on the staircase.
“That was Daniel,” he said. “He wanted Emily frightened and dependent before the ceremony.”
Daniel called him a liar.
Richard asked investigators to examine the burner phone hidden in Daniel’s car.
Security officers searched the vehicle.
They found the phone beneath the driver’s seat.
The messages showed Daniel ordering a private contractor to falsify Emily’s medical report.
Another conversation referred to the staircase.
DANIEL: She must make it downstairs, but she shouldn’t be able to leave quickly.
CONTRACTOR: You want her hurt?
DANIEL: I want her manageable.
Emily read the message twice.
Daniel moved toward her.
“I never wanted you seriously injured.”
She stepped back.
“That is your defense?”
“I was under pressure.”
“You arranged to hurt me.”
“I arranged to delay you.”
“You drugged my champagne at the engagement party.”
Daniel’s face went still.
Emily had guessed.
His reaction confirmed it.
Six months earlier, she had collapsed during their engagement celebration. Daniel blamed exhaustion. The incident was later cited in the false medical report as evidence of neurological instability.
Agent Hayes ordered Daniel’s hands secured.
As an investigator placed him in restraints, Vanessa began crying.
Daniel looked at her with disgust.
“You helped me.”
“I didn’t know about the drug.”
“You knew enough.”
Vanessa could not argue.
Daniel turned toward Emily.
“If you destroy me, the truth about Arthur comes out too.”
Emily looked at Arthur.
“What truth?”
Daniel smiled despite the restraints.
“Ask him why your father changed the mineral deed four days before he died.”
Arthur’s face revealed the answer before he spoke.
“He believed someone was going to kill him.”
May you like
The rain seemed to stop around them.
Emily’s father had not died from natural causes.
