Chapter 4 - The Empty Telescope CaseThe deputies reached the Mercer home at 7:02 p.m.
The telescope case was empty.
Tessa stood in Elliot’s bedroom staring at the open red case.
Detective Ortiz stood behind her.
“Who has access to the house?”
“Me. Caleb. Elliot.”
“Housekeeper?”
“Twice a week. She wasn’t here today.”
“Security system?”
Tessa grabbed her phone.
The home had exterior cameras and two indoor sensors.
She opened the app.
Then frowned.
“What?”
“Our system went offline for twenty-six minutes.”
“When?”
Tessa checked.
“Between three fourteen and three forty this afternoon.”
Ortiz wrote it down.
“Who knows the alarm code?”
Tessa looked at her.
“Walter.”
Caleb had given it to him years earlier.
Ortiz immediately contacted the patrol deputy searching Walter’s SUV.
Forty minutes later, the detective received a call.
She listened.
“What color?”
Tessa watched her.
Ortiz’s eyes lifted.
“Bag it separately.”
She ended the call.
“What did they find?” Tessa asked.
“A small strip of blue plastic beneath the rear passenger seat.”
Tessa sat slowly on Elliot’s bed.
Ortiz continued.
“No key.”
Caleb came through the doorway.
“Walter says he wants an attorney.”
“He should have one.”
Caleb looked at his wife.
“I don’t understand any of this.”
Tessa stared at him.
“Then maybe it’s time you did.”
Caleb flinched.
“What does that mean?”
“Your mother specifically told Elliot not to give you the envelope.”
“You think I’m part of this?”
“I think Diane believed you couldn’t be trusted with whatever was inside.”
Caleb stepped backward as if she had struck him.
“I’ve spent twenty years fighting my father.”
“Have you?”
His jaw tightened.
“You know I have.”
“No, Caleb. I know you complain about him.”
Tessa stood.
“I know you promise every year that you’ll leave Mercer Ridge Holdings. Then Walter gives you another title, another bonus, another office, and suddenly you need six more months.”
“That isn’t fair.”
“Our son was pushed off a cliff by your father.”
Caleb’s face collapsed.
Neither spoke for several seconds.
Then Caleb sat on the edge of the desk.
“You’re right.”
Tessa had not expected that.
He rubbed both hands across his face.
“He’s controlled me my entire life.”
“Then help me stop him.”
Caleb looked up.
“I will.”
His phone rang.
The display showed MOM.
Caleb answered immediately.
“Mom?”
No response.
Then a whisper.
“Caleb?”
Diane sounded terrified.
“Where are you?”
“At home.”
“No. I mean where are you right now?”
“Elliot’s room. Tessa and Detective Ortiz are here.”
A long silence.
“Put me on speaker.”
He did.
Diane spoke quickly.
“Walter came home.”
Tessa stepped closer.
“When?”
“About thirty minutes ago.”
Ortiz frowned.
Walter was supposed to be at the sheriff’s office with his attorney.
“Are you alone?” Ortiz asked.
“No. Walter has two of his security men downstairs.”
“Mrs. Mercer, are you in danger?”
Another silence.
“I don’t know.”
“Leave the house if you can.”
“I can’t.”
“Why?”
“Because Walter took my car keys.”
Ortiz was already signaling another deputy.
Tessa asked the question that mattered most.
“Diane, what was in the blue envelope?”
Diane’s breath trembled through the speaker.
“The key to a safe-deposit box.”
“At what bank?”
“Frontier National. Aspen branch.”
“What’s inside?”
“Proof.”
“Proof of what?”
Diane began crying.
“Everything.”
A door slammed somewhere on her end.
She gasped.
“Diane?”
“He’s coming upstairs.”
“Lock the door,” Ortiz ordered.
“It won’t matter.”
“Diane, listen to me—”
“Tessa.”
“Yes?”
“If Walter gets that box before you do, your son will never be safe.”
Footsteps sounded through the phone.
Then Walter’s voice.
Distant at first.
“Diane?”
She whispered urgently.
“The box is under my maiden name. Diane Lane. Number 417.”
A doorknob rattled.
“Diane!”
She disconnected.
Ortiz began issuing commands to deputies.
Tessa stared at Caleb.
“What could possibly be in that box?”
Caleb looked toward the empty telescope case.
Then his face changed.
“I may know.”
Tessa waited.
Caleb swallowed.
“My grandfather’s trust.”
“What trust?”
Caleb looked sick.
“The one that transfers Blackstone Ridge…”
May you like
He glanced toward the hospital direction, as if he could see Elliot from miles away.
“…to Elliot on his eleventh birthday.”
Related Stories
