Chapter 26 - The Man Who Should Be DeadThe service tunnel led beneath the forest and opened near an abandoned railway line.
We reached the road just as a police cruiser pulled up.
Ruiz stepped out, weapon drawn.
“Daniel!”
I nearly collapsed with relief.
“How did you find us?”
“Your phone was tracked. We lost you for twenty minutes.”
“Eleanor is still inside.”
Ruiz's expression changed.
“Who?”
“Eleanor Vale.”
Ruiz went very still.
“Daniel, Eleanor Vale died twelve years ago.”
The rain seemed to stop.
“No. I was with her.”
“Her brother Adrian died twenty years ago. Eleanor died in a boating accident twelve years ago. There was a memorial. A death certificate. Everything.”
I looked back toward the tunnel.
The woman who had saved us.
The woman who had shown us Claire's film.
The woman who claimed to be Eleanor Vale.
“Then who was she?”
Ruiz didn't answer.
Her radio crackled.
“Detective, we have a situation at the Carter residence.”
My blood turned cold.
“What happened?”
“Possible break-in. Multiple units responding.”
We drove back through the rain.
My house was surrounded by police.
The front door hung open.
Inside, the living room was overturned. Drawers had been emptied. Family photographs lay shattered across the floor.
But nothing valuable had been taken.
Not the television.
Not the jewelry.
Not the safe.
Only one thing was missing.
Claire's original death certificate.
And on my office wall, written in black marker, were six words:
YOU ARE LOOKING IN THE WRONG DIRECTION.
Noah stood in the doorway, staring at the message.
Then he said, “Uncle Dan?”
“What?”
“Mom used to say that when someone wanted you to look left, you should check what was happening on the right.”
I turned toward him.
“What are you thinking?”
He pointed to the empty space where the family photograph had hung.
“The picture of Grandpa and Adrian.”
The photograph was gone.
I searched every room.
Then I remembered the old frame in my father's study—the one I had never opened because the glass was cracked.
Behind the photograph was a thin envelope.
Inside was a second key.
And a note.
The first agreement was a decoy.
The real owner is not Northstar.
Find the woman who signed the original trust.
May you like
At the bottom was a name I recognized.
CLAIRE CARTER.
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