Chapter 8 - THE CHASE THROUGH THORNE WOODS
Danner was down the attic stairs before I finished saying Vickers' name.
I followed.
Hale stayed with Lily and Rebecca.
That was not a suggestion.
I had spent too many years running toward danger while telling myself the people behind me would be safe.
I would not make that mistake with my daughter again.
By the time Danner and I reached the rear terrace, Vickers had disappeared beyond the tree line.
A deputy moved toward his patrol car.
"Cut him off at Old Mill Road," Danner ordered.
I ran into the woods.
The Thorne property covered more ground than Sarah understood.
She knew the landscaped acres.
The pool.
The gardens.
The view from the balconies.
I knew the deer trails.
The dry creek bed.
The split in the stone wall where my brother and I used to crawl through when we wanted to avoid chores.
Vickers would choose the obvious road.
I chose the hill.
Branches tore at my sleeves as I climbed.
My injured knee reminded me that forty was not twenty.
I ignored it.
At the ridge, I heard someone crashing through leaves below.
Vickers.
He was moving toward the abandoned pump house near the creek.
I cut diagonally.
When I reached the clearing, he was standing beside a blue pickup.
The engine was running.
A woman sat behind the wheel.
Vickers saw me.
His face collapsed.
"Stay back."
"Put the ledger down."
He hugged it to his chest.
"You don't understand."
"Then explain."
"Richard will kill me."
"Richard is in Singapore."
Vickers laughed wildly.
"You still believe that?"
The woman in the truck shouted,
"Martin, get in."
Vickers opened the passenger door.
I moved closer.
"If you leave with that book, you become the easiest person to blame for everything."
He froze.
That landed.
"Think about it," I said.
"Forged deeds. False notarizations. Missing court records. Your name is everywhere. Richard's name is hidden behind companies. Sarah will say she trusted you."
Vickers looked toward the truck.
The woman stopped shouting.
"They'll make you the architect," I continued.
"And if the ledger disappears while you're running, they will say you destroyed the evidence."
His breathing quickened.
"Shut up."
"You know I'm right."
"Shut up."
Danner emerged from the trees behind me.
His weapon remained holstered.
"Martin," he said.
Vickers looked trapped.
"You staged blood in your car."
Danner's voice stayed calm.
"That was stupid, but survivable. Running with evidence is worse."
The driver suddenly accelerated.
Vickers had one foot inside the truck.
The movement threw him backward.
The red ledger flew from his hands.
It landed in the mud.
The pickup fishtailed and vanished down the service road without him.
Vickers stared after it.
"She left me."
I picked up the ledger.
"Who was she?"
He did not answer.
Danner cuffed him.
"Martin Vickers, you are being detained in connection with evidence tampering, suspected forgery, and filing false instruments."
Vickers barely seemed to hear.
He kept looking at the road.
"She left me."
I opened the ledger.
The first pages contained parcel numbers written in my father's hand.
Beside each parcel was a family name.
Some I recognized.
Miller.
Cho.
Ramirez.
Beckett.
Families who had lived in town for generations.
Later pages listed shell companies and transfer dates.
Then I found a column labeled RB.
Rebecca leaned over it when we returned to the manor.
"Richard Bellamy?"
"Probably."
Another column read SB.
Sarah Bellamy.
Dollar amounts appeared beside both sets of initials.
Not small amounts.
Hundreds of thousands.
Then millions.
Lily sat beside Mrs. Kent in the library while we examined the ledger.
I did not want her hearing the details.
But I also would not exile her from rooms anymore because adults decided truth was inconvenient.
Rebecca turned another page.
"Here."
A handwritten note from my father.
SARAH SAYS RICHARD BORROWED AGAINST MANOR WITHOUT HER KNOWLEDGE.
Next line.
NOT POSSIBLE. HER SIGNATURE ON INTERNAL GUARANTEE.
Next.
SHE CRIED. ASKED ME NOT TO TELL ELIAS.
I sat back.
There was the choice my father mentioned.
Sarah had not been fooled from the beginning.
She had known enough to help.
Maybe she regretted it later.
Maybe she did not.
Either way, Lily had paid for it.
Danner returned from questioning Vickers.
"He wants a lawyer."
"Of course."
"But he said one thing before he shut down."
"What?"
"He said Richard is not in Singapore."
I looked at him.
"Where is he?"
"Vickers claims he never left the country."
Rebecca frowned.
"His passport records?"
"Someone used his passport to enter Singapore."
"Someone?"
"Corporate assistant. Similar age. Similar build."
I thought of the two men at the grain depot.
"So Richard staged a trip."
"Looks that way."
"Why?"
Danner nodded toward the ledger.
"Maybe because he knew you'd come home."
I turned to Lily.
She was drawing on a notepad Mrs. Kent had given her.
A house.
A tree.
Two stick figures holding hands.
No pigsty.
I wanted to believe we had taken control.
Then Hale's phone rang.
He answered.
His expression changed almost immediately.
"When?"
He listened.
"Are you sure?"
Another pause.
Then he looked at me.
"That was county dispatch."
"What happened?"
"A private jet landed at the regional airport forty minutes ago."
"And?"
"Richard Bellamy was on it."
Sarah, who had been standing silently near the fireplace, suddenly smiled.
Not with relief.
With confidence.
May you like
"Good," she said.
"Now you can finally meet the man who actually owns this town."
