Chapter 6 - The WatcherSecurity cameras covered most of Hawthorne Ridge.
That should have helped.
Instead, investigators found gaps.
A camera facing the eastern garden had gone offline repeatedly during the previous two months.
Another near Richard’s study recorded intermittent signal loss.
Monica stared at the maintenance logs.
“Mom said the system was old.”
Detective Ward shook her head.
“It was serviced six months ago.”
“By whom?”
“A contractor Beverly hired.”
“Name?”
“Dale Security Systems.”
Ward paused.
“The company exists, but the technician listed on the invoice doesn’t.”
Monica looked toward her.
“Fake?”
“Likely.”
Someone had entered the mansion under the guise of maintenance and manipulated the cameras.
Jasper remembered him.
“A tall guy.”
“Did he talk to Grandma?” Ward asked.
Jasper nodded.
“In the kitchen.”
“Did you hear anything?”
“No.”
“What did he do?”
“He told me cameras were boring.”
Ward smiled gently.
“Anything else?”
Jasper thought.
“He asked which room Grandpa used.”
Monica’s stomach dropped.
“Did you tell him?”
“Yes.”
Jasper’s eyes filled with guilt.
“Mom, I’m sorry.”
“No.”
Monica leaned forward.
“You answered a normal question. You didn’t do anything wrong.”
The phrase mattered.
Jasper looked relieved.
Ward eventually identified the technician through traffic cameras.
His name was Curtis Vale.
Former private investigator.
Occasional security consultant.
He had worked for Edmund Price.
Not Beverly.
That changed the case.
Price was not simply waiting for a land deal.
He was actively monitoring the house.
A search warrant later uncovered invoices from Broadmere Development to Vale’s consulting company.
Payments disguised as due diligence.
Monica asked Aaron:
“What kind of due diligence involves photographing a nine-year-old?”
“The criminal kind.”
For the first time, Aaron sounded angry.
Monica returned to Hawthorne Ridge with police.
Not Jasper.
He remained with a trusted family friend under arrangements approved by investigators.
In Richard’s study, Monica searched for anything her father may have hidden outside the locked drawer.
Richard had been methodical.
Too methodical to rely on one box.
She checked books.
Cabinets.
Old desk calendars.
Then she noticed something on the wall.
A framed photograph of Richard and Jasper in the garden.
Taken four years ago.
Jasper was five.
Richard knelt beside him, pointing toward flowers.
On the back, Richard had written:
Jasper finally found the old marker. Smart boy.
Monica frowned.
“What marker?”
Aaron looked at the photograph.
“I don’t know.”
They searched the garden.
Monica remembered childhood games.
Her father buried small metal labels beside unusual trees and plants.
He called them markers.
Each showed planting date and species.
Jasper loved finding them.
Near an old oak on the eastern parcel, Monica found one.
Not a plant label.
A small brass disk embedded near the roots.
Stamped:
R.H. 17
Aaron stared.
“Richard Hale. Seventeen.”
“Seventeen what?”
They searched Richard’s notebooks.
Entry seventeen referred to a property survey.
A survey that did not appear in the official trust file.
The original map showed something strange.
A narrow strip of land beneath the planned access corridor was not owned solely by the Hale trust.
A recorded easement granted rights to a neighboring conservation entity.
Any commercial development required its approval.
Aaron laughed.
“Price may not know.”
Monica looked at him.
“Know what?”
“Even if he gets the six acres, he may not get legal access.”
The entire deal could become worthless.
“Who controls the conservation entity?”
Aaron checked.
The Hale Family Environmental Foundation.
Richard had created it quietly.
Its controlling directors?
Monica.
And, when he turned eighteen, Jasper.
Richard had built another layer.
Beverly could forge Monica’s signature.
But she could not easily erase the conservation restriction.
Unless she knew about it.
Monica’s phone rang.
Ward.
“Price just contacted us through counsel.”
“What does he want?”
“To cooperate.”
Monica frowned.
“Why now?”
“Because Beverly has been telling investigators the land scheme was his idea.”
“Wasn’t it?”
“Price says he can prove Beverly designed the forged transfer.”
Monica almost laughed.
The alliance was collapsing.
“Let them destroy each other.”
Ward did not laugh.
“One problem.”
“What?”
“Price also says Beverly has another copy of your signature.”
Monica’s expression changed.
“On what?”
“We don’t know.”
Then Aaron found a missing page referenced in Richard’s survey notes.
It concerned not land.
Jasper.
A nomination of guardian.
If Monica became incapacitated, Richard had originally nominated Beverly as Jasper’s temporary financial guardian.
Monica felt the blood leave her face.
“Could Mom use that?”
Aaron immediately shook his head.
“Not automatically. It’s old, limited, and later documents may supersede it.”
“May?”
“We need the full estate file.”
Monica stared toward the mansion.
Beverly had spent years intercepting mail and altering documents.
If she had manipulated more than the land trust, the real target might never have been only property.
May you like
Control of Jasper himself could create leverage over his future inheritance.
And Beverly had already proven exactly how far she would go to control him.
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