Chapter 3 - The Uncle Who Knew Too MuchDetective Morris obtained a warrant for Mrs. Dalton’s phone records before sunset.
They showed eleven calls with Victor during the previous week.
Four were made the day Piper disappeared.
Victor insisted the calls concerned household repairs and trust-owned property.
Gideon did not believe him.
Not anymore.
Victor arrived at the mansion with an attorney the next morning.
“You’ve lost your mind,” he told Gideon.
Gideon stood in the library.
Piper was upstairs with a therapist.
Detective Morris had advised him not to confront Victor alone.
So Rebecca Sloan, Gideon’s longtime corporate attorney, sat nearby.
“What were you discussing with Mrs. Dalton?” Gideon asked.
“The estate.”
“What estate issue requires four phone calls in one morning?”
“The refinancing.”
Gideon frowned.
“What refinancing?”
Victor opened his briefcase.
There it was.
A stack of documents.
“The Orchard Ridge credit facility.”
Gideon stared.
Orchard Ridge was a family-owned parcel north of the city.
Two hundred acres.
Mostly undeveloped.
His father had refused to sell it.
Victor wanted to borrow against it for years.
Gideon had repeatedly rejected the idea.
Victor slid a document forward.
“We have a buyer interested in a portion. The holding company needs short-term financing first.”
“How much?”
“Eight million.”
“No.”
“You haven’t read it.”
“I’ve read six versions of this plan.”
“This one is different.”
Gideon pushed the papers away.
“Why was Mrs. Dalton involved?”
Victor hesitated.
“She manages household files.”
“She’s a housekeeper.”
“She’s been with this family longer than half the people on your board.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
Victor’s expression tightened.
“Your father trusted her.”
“My father also trusted you.”
Victor leaned forward.
“He did.”
“That isn’t helping you.”
Rebecca spoke for the first time.
“Victor, did Elise ever ask you questions about Orchard Ridge?”
Victor looked at her.
“No.”
Gideon noticed the answer came too quickly.
Rebecca did too.
“She left records involving you.”
Victor’s jaw tightened.
“What records?”
Gideon said nothing.
Victor looked between them.
Then laughed softly.
“Elise.”
The way he said her name made Gideon angry.
“What?”
“She never stopped digging into things that didn’t concern her.”
“My family finances concerned my wife.”
“Not every transaction.”
Rebecca leaned back.
“That sounds like an admission that there were transactions.”
Victor looked toward her.
“I’m done here.”
He stood.
Gideon stepped in front of the door.
“Why did Mrs. Dalton ask Piper about a blue folder?”
Victor stopped.
Again, too much reaction.
“Blue folder?”
“Yes.”
“No idea.”
“Why did you ask whether Piper found anything?”
Victor’s face hardened.
“Because you said Mrs. Dalton attacked her. People don’t do things without motives.”
Gideon stared.
“That’s almost a good answer.”
Victor smiled without warmth.
“Be careful, Gideon.”
“About what?”
“Grief has always made you easy to manipulate.”
The sentence hit harder than Gideon expected.
Victor continued.
“Elise knew that.”
Rebecca stood.
“That’s enough.”
Victor collected his briefcase.
Before leaving, he turned.
“If Mrs. Dalton has been stealing, don’t drag the entire family through the mud protecting her.”
Gideon almost laughed.
“Protecting her?”
“You don’t know what she’s done.”
“Do you?”
Victor walked out.
Two hours later Detective Morris called.
Mrs. Dalton’s sedan had been found at a motel sixty miles away.
The room was empty.
Inside the car investigators found Piper’s backpack.
No blue folder.
But there was something else.
A receipt.
A hardware store purchase made three days earlier.
Plastic sheeting.
Heavy-duty tape.
Two padlocks.
And a second shovel.
Gideon stared at the itemized list.
“This wasn’t panic.”
Detective Morris nodded.
“Some part of it was planned.”
Gideon’s stomach turned.
Mrs. Dalton had prepared confinement materials before Piper found the folder.
Which meant Piper might not have been the original target.
Rebecca asked the obvious question.
“Who was?”
They returned to Elise’s room.
For the first time in three years, Gideon searched it himself.
He opened drawers.
Cabinets.
Boxes he had avoided touching.
Near midnight he found an old appointment calendar from the final year of Elise’s life.
Many pages contained medical notes.
Others contained initials.
One date, eight months before her death, had three words written in red ink:
Dalton knows everything.
The following day:
Victor threatened her.
Gideon stared.
Mrs. Dalton had not always been working with Victor.
At least according to Elise.
Then he turned another page.
A month later:
D changed her story. Find out why.
Gideon sat down.
Mrs. Dalton had apparently begun as Elise’s source.
Something had happened.
Something turned her.
Rebecca examined the calendar.
“There’s another notation.”
Three weeks before Elise died:
Original is safe. Key with flowers.
Gideon reached into his pocket.
The brass key Piper had found.
“Flowers.”
Rebecca looked at him.
Gideon suddenly remembered.
Elise used to label keys with tiny pressed flowers sealed under clear tape.
Not words.
Not numbers.
Flowers.
He turned the brass key over.
Near the head was a faded blue mark.
A pressed petal.
Hydrangea.
Gideon thought of the flowers Mrs. Dalton had planted above Piper.
Blue hydrangeas.
His skin went cold.
“That wasn’t random.”
Rebecca understood.
“She knew what the key opened.”
“And the flowers were a message.”
“To whom?”
Gideon looked toward the garden.
Perhaps to Victor.
Perhaps to herself.
Perhaps to Elise, dead three years.
Then Detective Morris called again.
“We found Mrs. Dalton.”
Gideon stood.
“Where?”
“She walked into a police station.”
“Why?”
“She says she’ll surrender.”
Relief rushed through him.
Then Morris continued.
“But she has conditions.”
“What conditions?”
“She says she won’t tell us where the blue folder is unless you agree to meet her.”
Gideon’s expression hardened.
“Tell her no.”
“Gideon—”
“She buried my daughter.”
“I know.”
“Then she doesn’t set conditions.”
Morris paused.
“She said you’d say that.”
Gideon stared.
“What else did she say?”
“One sentence.”
“What?”
May you like
Detective Morris lowered her voice.
“She said, ‘Tell Gideon the folder isn’t about money. It’s about who owns the house he thinks belongs to him.’”
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