Chapter 11 - ELEANOR’S WATCH STOPPED AT 1:42They reached the lake house before police.
Victor drove.
Garrett sat beside him.
Evelyn had refused to remain at the hospital despite every medical warning.
Her incision burned with each bump in the road.
She didn’t care.
Her son was somewhere ahead.
The lake house appeared through trees.
Front door open.
No lights.
Victor ordered Evelyn to stay inside the SUV.
She ignored him.
Garrett entered first.
“Mother?”
Silence.
A lamp lay smashed beside the hallway.
Blood streaked the hardwood.
Evelyn’s heart pounded.
“Baby?”
Nothing.
Then Garrett shouted from the study.
Victor ran.
Evelyn followed.
Eleanor lay beside the desk.
Her silver hair was stained dark with blood.
Her designer handbag rested several feet away.
Her cashmere sweater was torn.
And the platinum watch she had checked while Evelyn begged for help was cracked across its face.
Garrett dropped beside her.
“Mother.”
Victor checked her neck.
Nothing.
Eleanor Blackwood was dead.
Evelyn stared.
She had imagined confronting Eleanor.
Exposing her.
Watching her lose everything.
She had never imagined this.
Then a cry came from upstairs.
Evelyn ran.
“Wait!” Victor shouted.
She climbed despite the pain.
A bedroom door stood open.
Inside was a portable crib.
Empty.
But the blanket belonged to the hospital.
Her son had been there.
Garrett appeared behind her.
“Where is he?”
Evelyn turned.
“You tell me.”
“I don’t know.”
“You brought Laura into our lives.”
“I didn’t know she’d do this.”
“You knew enough to use her against me.”
Garrett looked destroyed.
Police arrived minutes later.
Detective Marcus Reed took control.
Eleanor’s watch had stopped at 1:42 a.m.
Garrett’s GPS showed him leaving the hospital before that.
But a twenty-minute gap existed because he had disabled location sharing.
Reed noticed.
“Where were you?”
Garrett hesitated.
“At the lake house.”
Evelyn stared.
“What?”
Garrett closed his eyes.
“I came here before you.”
“When?”
“About one-thirty.”
“You told us you didn’t know where your mother was.”
“I lied.”
Evelyn laughed bitterly.
“Of course.”
“Why?” Reed asked.
Garrett looked toward Eleanor’s body.
“Because I argued with her.”
“About?”
“My son.”
He explained.
He came to confront Eleanor after learning Laura had taken the baby.
Eleanor admitted arranging it.
“She said she needed leverage.”
“Against Evelyn?”
“Against everyone.”
“Did you touch your mother?”
Garrett swallowed.
“I grabbed her.”
“Hit her?”
“No.”
“Push her?”
“Yes.”
Evelyn stared.
Garrett continued.
“She slapped me. I pushed her away. She fell against the desk.”
“Was she alive?”
“Yes.”
“When you left?”
“Yes.”
Victor said:
“Her watch stopped twelve minutes later.”
Garrett looked at him.
“I didn’t kill her.”
Reed asked:
“Who else was here?”
“Laura.”
Everyone turned.
“She arrived while we were arguing.”
“What happened?”
“She told Mother she was finished.”
“Finished with what?”
“I don’t know.”
“Where was the baby?”
“Upstairs.”
“And you left?”
Garrett’s voice cracked.
“Laura had a gun.”
Evelyn stared.
“You left our newborn son with armed women?”
“I went to get help.”
“You have a phone!”
“She took it.”
Garrett held up a second phone.
“I drove until I found signal on the car system.”
It was possible.
Still unforgivable.
A forensic technician called Reed.
They found security footage from an exterior camera.
Garrett left at 1:35.
Laura remained.
At 1:39, another vehicle arrived.
A dark SUV.
Thomas Vale stepped out.
Victor went rigid.
Footage showed Vale entering.
At 1:46, he emerged carrying a bundled infant.
Laura followed.
Eleanor never came out.
Evelyn’s legs weakened.
“My son is alive.”
Victor zoomed in.
The baby moved.
“Yes.”
Reed issued alerts.
Then Victor noticed something.
“Go back.”
The technician replayed the footage.
At 1:44, before Vale emerged, a third figure left through the side entrance.
Face hidden.
Tall.
Male.
Garrett stared.
“Who is that?”
Victor focused on the man’s right hand.
A gold ring.
Black stone.
Victor looked like he had seen a ghost.
“What?”
Evelyn asked.
Victor whispered:
“Richard wore that ring every day for twenty years.”
Garrett laughed.
“My father is dead.”
Victor pointed at the screen.
“The ring was buried with him.”
The hidden man climbed into a car.
Before the door closed, the camera caught part of his face.
Scarred.
Older.
But recognizable.
Garrett stopped breathing.
“My God.”
Evelyn stared.
May you like
Richard Blackwood had supposedly been dead for seven years.
Yet at 1:44 that morning, he had walked out of the lake house where his wife had just been murdered.
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