Chapter 12 - The House Was Listening
Marcus found the first microphone beneath the library desk.
The second was inside a smoke detector.
The third was behind the dining-room sideboard.
Vivian stared at it.
“That thing heard Miles.”
“Yes.”
The dinner question.
The argument.
Everything.
Graham’s anger became physical.
“This is how Colin knew Elias was here.”
Marcus shook his head.
“Maybe.”
“You keep saying maybe.”
“Because professionals don’t decide before evidence.”
Graham disliked him less after that.
The devices transmitted over a short-range network to a receiver.
Marcus traced intermittent connections to a landscaping utility box near the property line.
Someone had been collecting recordings.
For how long, they could not know.
Graham fired the security contractor immediately.
Then he remembered something.
The system had been installed after a burglary two years ago.
Colin had recommended the company.
Vivian sat down slowly.
“He could have been listening for two years.”
Graham looked at her.
“To what?”
She laughed bitterly.
“To whether Sarah Vale ever came back.”
Miles arrived home while technicians searched the walls.
He watched with fascination.
“Are we spies now?”
“No,” Vivian said.
“Good. I have soccer.”
The normality of his concern nearly broke her.
That night, after Miles slept, Vivian went into the basement alone.
She found one final listening device beneath the table where Elias, Nora, and Marcus had been working.
Meaning whoever monitored them had heard every theory.
Every document.
Every plan.
Elias stared at it.
“We gave them everything.”
Nora whispered, “Not everything.”
Everyone turned.
She removed her purple glasses.
“I lied about the scans.”
Vivian’s face hardened.
“Of course you did.”
Nora accepted that.
“When Keene & Larson digitized the Harbor Point records, I made a second copy.”
“Where?”
“With my sister.”
“Why not tell us?”
“Because I did not trust Marcus.”
Marcus frowned.
“Reasonable.”
“Or Graham.”
Also reasonable.
Nora looked at Vivian.
“And I wasn’t sure I trusted Elias.”
Elias lowered his head.
“Still reasonable.”
Vivian almost laughed.
“What changed?”
“Miles.”
They stared at her.
Nora smiled faintly.
“He asked Elias if he had apologized.”
Her expression became serious.
“I am seventy-one years old. I do not want my last act in this story to be another act of fear.”
Her sister lived in Vermont.
The drive containing the scans was inside a safe-deposit box there.
“We leave tomorrow,” Marcus said.
“No,” Graham replied.
Everyone looked at him.
“If Colin is watching us, a group trip will tell him exactly where to look.”
Vivian understood.
“I’ll go alone.”
“No.”
“You can’t disappear from the company right now.”
“Neither can you disappear from Miles.”
Marcus said, “I’ll retrieve it.”
Nora shook her head.
“The bank requires me.”
Eventually they decided Nora and Marcus would go together.
They left before dawn.
At noon, Graham’s board summoned him.
Colin had requested an emergency vote.
The stated reason:
Concerns regarding executive judgment and undisclosed conflicts of interest.
Graham entered the boardroom.
Colin sat at the far end.
“You brought my marriage into the company?”
Colin folded his hands.
“You brought Sarah Vale into our family.”
“You knew before the wedding.”
“I did.”
“Then why now?”
“Because now she is attempting to seize corporate assets.”
“She is investigating fraud.”
“She is manufacturing a claim.”
Graham dropped Richard’s letter onto the table.
Colin’s expression changed.
For the first time, truly changed.
Board members leaned forward.
“What is that?” one asked.
Graham looked at his uncle.
“A confession.”
Colin stood.
“That document is privileged estate material.”
“No,” Graham said.
“It’s evidence.”
The room erupted.
Then Graham’s phone vibrated.
A message from Marcus.
WE HAVE THE DRIVE.
May you like
Another arrived three seconds later.
WE’RE BEING FOLLOWED.
