Chapter 13 - Eliza’s Treasure HuntSadie remembered the first clue exactly.
Where Grandpa keeps the stories he never reads.
Leonard frowned.
“I read.”
Sadie almost smiled.
“Mom said you bought expensive books because they made your office look smart.”
Nora laughed despite herself.
“That sounds like Eliza.”
Leonard sighed.
“The library.”
They returned to the mansion under police-approved access while Dolores remained barred from contacting Sadie.
Leonard had changed the locks.
Security stayed nearby.
Sadie stopped at the library doorway.
The house felt different.
She had lived there since she was little.
Now every room contained a question.
The first clue had once been taped inside a copy of Treasure Island.
It was gone.
Sadie remembered the words.
Where Grandma hides what she says she never eats.
Leonard looked confused.
Maribel knew.
“Chocolate.”
Dolores kept expensive dark chocolate behind the tea tins in the butler’s pantry.
They searched.
Nothing.
Sadie closed her eyes.
“The next clue said something about cold.”
Everyone went silent.
Leonard hated the coincidence.
“Try to remember.”
Sadie whispered,
“Where winter lives even in July.”
Maribel looked toward the basement.
“The freezer.”
Leonard’s face tightened.
The same freezer.
They went downstairs.
Sadie stopped halfway down.
Her breathing changed.
Leonard noticed.
“We can stop.”
“No.”
“We don't need to do this today.”
“I want to.”
He let her decide.
At the freezer, Sadie did not go inside.
She pointed toward a shelf beside the door.
“Mom put the clue near there.”
Maribel searched.
Nothing.
Then Leonard saw scratches behind the shelf bracket.
He removed two screws.
A folded piece of laminated paper slid out.
Nora stared.
“It survived.”
Sadie unfolded it.
Eliza’s handwriting.
Good. Now find the place where my music went quiet.
Sadie’s eyes filled.
“Mom’s piano.”
The grand piano stood in Eliza’s old sitting room.
After her death, nobody played it.
Sadie lifted the bench.
Nothing.
Maribel checked underneath.
Tape residue.
The clue had been removed.
“Dolores?” Leonard asked.
“Maybe.”
Sadie walked around the piano.
She touched the pedals.
Then remembered.
“Mom taught me a trick.”
“What?”
Sadie pressed the soft pedal and middle pedal together.
A faint click sounded.
Leonard stared.
Eliza had once complained the pedal housing rattled.
Apparently it had been modified.
Maribel knelt.
Inside was a narrow compartment.
A single brass token fell out.
Stamped with the number 27.
Nora examined it.
“Locker?”
“Maybe.”
On the reverse side were three letters.
30S
Leonard whispered, “Thirtieth Street Station.”
Philadelphia’s major rail station.
Sadie looked excited despite everything.
“Mom made a real treasure hunt.”
Leonard smiled painfully.
“She knew you’d remember games better than legal instructions.”
They went to the station.
Old storage lockers no longer operated publicly the way they once had.
But Nora discovered the token belonged not to a station locker, but to a private luggage-storage service that had operated nearby at the time.
The business had since relocated.
Its records still existed.
Locker 27 had been prepaid for five years under Eliza’s name.
At the storage office, they found a sealed gray case.
Nora photographed everything before opening it.
Inside was a phone.
An old smartphone.
Powered off.
Wrapped in plastic.
And a handwritten note.
Dad — if you are opening this, I ran out of time.
Leonard sat down.
Sadie touched his arm.
The phone was transferred to investigators for forensic extraction.
The note continued.
Eliza explained that the phone contained original recordings, photographs, and copies of communications.
She warned Leonard not to confront Dolores until the data was preserved.
She also wrote something unexpected.
Mom is not working only with Gavin. Someone is feeding her information from inside Ashcroft Hospitality. I don't know who.
Leonard looked at Nora.
“Inside the company.”
Nora nodded.
Eliza had included one clue.
Follow the vendor called Alder North.
Leonard knew most major vendors.
He had never heard of Alder North.
Nora searched corporate databases.
Alder North Consulting had received payments from Ashcroft Hospitality for four years.
Total:
$1.7 million.
Authorized through executive discretionary budgets.
Leonard stared at the screen.
“Who approved them?”
Nora found the records.
Not Franklin.
Not Dolores.
Not Gavin.
The approvals carried the credentials of Leonard’s longtime chief financial officer.
Martin Vale.
Leonard’s closest business adviser for twenty-two years.
The man who had sat beside him through Eliza’s funeral.
The man currently running Ashcroft Hospitality while Leonard dealt with the crisis.
Leonard stared at the name.
His phone rang.
Martin.
Leonard answered slowly.
“Martin.”
“Leonard, thank God. Where are you?”
Leonard looked at the gray evidence case.
“Why?”
“Something happened at the company.”
“What?”
“A transfer request came through.”
“How much?”
“Fourteen million.”
Leonard stood.
“To whom?”
“Alder North.”
The room went silent.
Martin continued.
“I stopped it.”
Leonard looked at Nora.
“Did you?”
A pause.
“What does that mean?”
Leonard’s voice became cold.
“It means I want you to tell me why Eliza believed Alder North was connected to my wife.”
May you like
Martin said nothing.
Then the call disconnected.
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