CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 4
The Greenhouse
The Brooks greenhouse stood at the edge of the western garden, hidden behind rows of cypress trees.
No one had used it since Margaret disappeared.
As a child, Daniel had believed the building was haunted. Its cracked glass walls reflected distorted images at night, and the plants inside had died years ago, leaving behind dry vines that clung to the iron frame like bones.
Daniel and Natalie entered shortly after midnight.
Daniel carried a flashlight. Natalie carried the photograph from the hospital.
“You think Victor took this?” she asked.
“Or someone working for him.”
“Why threaten Dad now?”
“Because he recorded something.”
The greenhouse smelled of dust and damp soil.
Daniel moved toward the glass door he had broken twenty-seven years earlier. The damaged panel had been replaced, but the lower frame still contained a small brown stain.
His blood.
He remembered running through the garden after hearing his mother scream. Richard had caught him near the greenhouse and carried him inside.
Daniel always believed Richard had been stopping him from following Margaret.
Now he wondered whether Richard had been hiding him.
Natalie pointed toward an old stone planter.
“There.”
Someone had carved the letter M into its side.
Daniel knelt.
Beneath the planter, a loose floor tile concealed a metal box.
Inside was the original USB drive, a small key, and a cassette tape labeled DANIEL.
They returned to the mansion’s private library and disconnected the computer from the internet before opening the drive.
There was no password.
The second video file showed Emily sitting in her car.
The timestamp was from the night she died.
She looked frightened.
“Daniel,” she said, “I need you to understand why I didn’t tell you about the investigation.”
Her eyes moved toward the rearview mirror.
“Your father knows someone is following me. He sent his driver because he believes Victor Hale’s people are close.”
Daniel leaned toward the screen.
Emily continued.
“Richard didn’t kill your mother. He helped her disappear.”
Daniel looked at Natalie.
The video shifted as Emily adjusted the phone.
“Margaret discovered Victor was using Brooks Foundation accounts to finance illegal surveillance operations. She wanted to go to the FBI. Richard arranged a safe house.”
Emily swallowed.
“But Victor found it.”
The video ended abruptly.
Daniel opened the next file.
It contained security footage from a motel in Nevada.
The date was two months after Margaret supposedly left the family.
Richard appeared on screen, entering a room.
A woman opened the door.
Margaret.
She looked alive, frightened, and thin.
Richard embraced her.
Daniel’s chest tightened.
For twenty-seven years, he had believed she never looked back.
The footage had no sound.
Richard handed Margaret documents. She shook her head. They argued. Finally, she touched his face and closed the door.
The next clip showed two men arriving one hour later.
One was Daniel’s uncle Thomas.
The other was Samuel Levin.
Natalie gasped.
“Dad’s lawyer?”
The footage ended.
Daniel opened the fourth file.
Richard appeared again.
“If you have reached this recording, then you know Margaret survived after leaving the mansion.”
He looked exhausted.
“I arranged for her to testify against Victor. Samuel Levin was the only attorney I trusted. Thomas was supposed to transport her to a federal contact.”
Richard paused.
“They betrayed us.”
Daniel felt anger rise.
“Samuel gave her location to Victor. Thomas helped remove her from the motel.”
Natalie covered her mouth.
Richard continued.
“I spent years searching for her. Victor sent photographs proving she was alive, then threatened to kill her if I contacted authorities.”
A photograph appeared on screen.
Margaret sat in a room with no windows. She held a newspaper dated three years after her disappearance.
Then another.
Five years.
Eight years.
The last photograph was dated twelve years earlier.
“Why didn’t he save her?” Natalie whispered.
Daniel had no answer.
The video continued.
“Emily discovered that Margaret was being held at a private medical facility registered under a Brooks subsidiary. I ordered the payment to Emily’s mechanic because we believed her car had been tracked.”
The bank statement.
The payment Daniel thought proved murder had actually funded protection.
“My driver followed her because she had arranged to meet a former employee of Victor’s. Emily refused to tell me where.”
Richard’s face tightened.
“She believed I might be compromised.”
A final image appeared.
The remains of Emily’s car.
“Her brakes failed on Mulholland Drive. The mechanic I paid had replaced them with a secure system six days earlier.”
Daniel stared at the screen.
Richard said, “Someone replaced them again.”
The file ended.
Natalie stood.
“So Emily was murdered.”
“Yes.”
“And Dad knew.”
“He suspected.”
Daniel opened the next file.
It contained a list of people with access to Emily’s car after the mechanic completed the work.
Richard Brooks.
The mechanic.
Emily.
Samuel Levin.
Eleanor Brooks.
Daniel read the final name twice.
“Aunt Eleanor?”
Natalie shook her head.
“She loved Emily.”
“Maybe.”
A sound came from the library entrance.
Eleanor stood in the doorway.
She held a gun.
“I did love her,” she said.
Daniel rose slowly.
“Put it down.”
“You should have left the USB hidden.”
“You changed the brakes.”
Eleanor’s expression remained calm.
“No.”
“Then why are you holding a gun?”
“Because Victor has Natalie.”
Natalie froze.
Eleanor looked at her.
“Not you. The other Natalie.”
Daniel turned toward his sister.
Eleanor’s eyes filled with pity.
“The woman standing beside you is not Richard’s daughter.”
Natalie’s face went white.
“What are you talking about?”
Eleanor raised the gun.
“Her real name is Anna Hale.”
Daniel looked at Natalie.
She stared back at him in terror.
Eleanor continued.
“She is Victor’s daughter.”
Before anyone could move, the library lights went out.
A gunshot exploded in the darkness.
