Chapter 10 - The Blue Key Was Never a Key
Emma drove to her apartment with Richard and security.
Inside a small jewelry box was the pendant.
Blue plastic.
Clouded with age.
Richard examined it.
“This isn’t jewelry.”
He twisted the metal cap.
A tiny brass shaft slid out.
Emma stopped breathing.
The pendant was a disguised key.
Anna had hidden it in plain sight.
Inside the same jewelry box was an old receipt from a bank in Stamford.
Box 417.
Richard recognized the institution.
It had been acquired years earlier but still maintained legacy records.
They went the next morning.
The box had not been opened in twenty-four years.
Inside were three things.
A cassette tape.
A stack of ledgers.
And a sealed statement from Anna.
Emma opened the statement first.
Anna described the night before Daniel died.
She and Daniel copied evidence showing Charles Ward’s theft.
Daniel planned to meet Richard.
But somebody else came to the mansion first.
Martin Cross.
The family attorney.
Anna overheard him telling Charles Ward:
Daniel cannot reach Richard tomorrow.
Emma looked at Richard.
“Nathan’s father?”
Richard nodded.
The tape contained Daniel’s voice.
He named Charles Ward and Martin Cross.
Then came another voice.
Young.
Female.
Victoria.
She was crying.
“Please, Daniel. Give me one day.”
Daniel answered.
“You already gave your father one warning.”
Victoria sobbed.
“I didn’t know what he would do.”
Daniel said something that made Emma’s blood run cold.
“If anything happens to me, Anna knows where the originals are.”
The tape ended.
Richard stared at Victoria when they returned to the mansion.
“You knew Anna had the originals.”
Victoria nodded.
“And after Daniel died?”
“I begged her to destroy them.”
Emma whispered, “Did she?”
May you like
Victoria looked at the ledger in Emma’s hands.
“No.”
