Chapter 14 - THE PRICE OF A DAUGHTER
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Evelyn ordered everyone to leave the chapel through the rear entrance.
The detective refused.
"Nobody goes anywhere until backup arrives."
She regarded him with mild amusement.
"Detective, if you believe those men outside are waiting for a legal conversation, you have misunderstood the situation."
A gunshot shattered one of the chapel windows.
The detective pulled me behind a stone pillar as glass scattered across the floor. Dorian grabbed Catherine's arm and guided her toward the rear corridor.
For the first time, Evelyn's composure cracked.
"Move!" she shouted.
We escaped through a narrow door into a wooded cemetery behind the chapel.
The detective radioed for assistance while Dorian led us toward a waiting vehicle.
I refused to get inside.
"Where is Blythe?"
Dorian's expression tightened.
"We'll find her."
"That isn't enough."
"Audra, people are shooting at us."
"And Blythe is missing because someone knows what she found."
He looked at me with desperate frustration.
"Do you think I don't understand that?"
I stared at him.
"No. I think you've spent your entire life believing that everything can be controlled if you frighten enough people."
He said nothing.
Catherine approached us, pale and shaking.
"Evelyn won't stop. She believes Blythe has a copy of the original recording."
"Does she?" I asked.
Catherine nodded.
"My daughter made several copies. She sent one to me, but I never received it."
I remembered the digital recorder in the blue room.
"Perhaps Blythe hid it somewhere else."
Dorian's phone rang.
A distorted voice spoke through the speaker.
"You have something that belongs to us, Don Kincaid."
Dorian's expression became cold.
"What do you want?"
"The ledger. The original. Bring it to the old shipping terminal by midnight."
"And Blythe?"
A pause.
"Alive. For now."
The call ended.
I looked at Dorian.
"They want the ledger."
"They want more than that," he said. "They want to know whether we've copied it."
I held up my phone.
"Every page has already been sent to the detective."
His eyes widened.
"You sent it to law enforcement?"
"Yes."
"Audra, you don't understand what that means."
"I understand exactly what it means. No more hiding. No more secret arrangements. If they want the ledger, they'll have to explain why they're so frightened of it."
He stared at me, then slowly nodded.
"All right."
It was the first time he had agreed without trying to change my mind.
We reached the vehicle.
Catherine climbed inside, but before I followed, she caught my hand.
"There's something I haven't told you."
I waited.
"Evelyn wasn't acting alone. Someone inside the family has been helping her since she returned."
"Who?"
Catherine glanced toward Dorian.
"I don't know the name. But I know the person has access to the security system, the financial accounts, and the private communications of every senior employee."
I thought of the false messages, the stolen records, the surveillance.
Then Catherine added, "And that person knows everything you and Dorian say when you believe you're alone."
I looked at the mansion's distant silhouette.
May you like
For seventeen years, I had believed the walls protected us.
Now I wondered how many of our secrets had been listening back.
