Chapter 10 - The Blue Trunk
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Detective Ortiz did not waste time debating Victoria's motives.
The tracker was moving, and that was enough to act on.
She called for units to intercept the vehicle carrying the trunk while Marcus shared the live location from Victoria's phone.
Arthur wanted to go.
Ortiz refused.
"You have children upstairs and a court order telling you exactly where you're supposed to be. Stay here."
Arthur hated every word of that sentence.
Victoria remained at the kitchen table while the dot moved across the map.
Caroline came downstairs after putting Maya to sleep.
Ethan was awake and refusing to leave his door unlocked.
Arthur did not blame him.
Caroline saw Victoria and stopped.
"Why is she still here?"
Arthur explained only what was necessary.
Victoria had provided the location of Elena's missing trunk.
Caroline's disgust did not soften.
"So now she wants credit for helping recover something she helped steal?"
Victoria looked down.
"No."
"Good."
Caroline moved beside Arthur.
"How is Ethan?" he asked.
"Trying to be brave for Maya."
Arthur closed his eyes.
"He shouldn't have to be."
Caroline touched his arm.
"Then make sure he doesn't have to tomorrow."
The tracker stopped moving.
Marcus looked at the map.
"Riverside Industrial."
Victoria went rigid.
"That's not the demolition yard."
"What is it?"
"An abandoned packaging plant. Daniel stores old client files there before shredding."
Arthur looked at her.
"How many places does your father keep secrets?"
Victoria's face tightened at the word father.
"Enough that he never has to keep them near himself."
Ortiz called from the road.
"We have the location. Stay on the line."
Arthur put the call on speaker.
Through the phone, he heard distant sirens and tires on gravel.
Ortiz spoke to another officer.
Then there was silence.
"We found a van," she said.
Arthur's heart raced.
"Is Ronan there?"
"Not yet."
A pause.
"The rear doors are open."
Victoria stood.
"Is the trunk inside?"
Ortiz did not answer immediately.
Arthur heard footsteps.
Then Ortiz said, "There's a blue trunk."
Arthur gripped the table.
For the first time that day, something had gone right before Daniel could stop it.
"Don't open it," Victoria said quickly.
Ortiz's voice sharpened.
"Why?"
"Because there may be a dye packet inside."
Everyone stared at Victoria.
"A what?" Arthur asked.
"Elena rigged the lid."
"How would you know?"
"She told me when she tried to get me to help her."
Arthur felt another flash of anger.
Every new fact proved how much life had happened around him without his knowledge.
Victoria continued.
"If the wrong lock is forced, a glass capsule breaks and ruins the papers."
Ortiz muttered something to the officers near her.
"Nobody touches it until evidence technicians arrive."
The line went quiet for several minutes.
Arthur paced.
Victoria watched him.
"Elena did not keep you in the dark because she didn't trust you."
Arthur stopped.
"You don't get to explain her to me."
"I know."
"Then don't."
Victoria looked toward the staircase.
"She kept you out because Daniel had access to your office, your email, and your lawyer."
"Daniel was my lawyer."
"Exactly."
Arthur stared at her.
"Did he read my emails?"
"Some."
"How?"
"He had administrator access through a document-sharing system his firm installed for estate work."
Marcus immediately pulled out his phone and messaged his cybersecurity team.
"We'll preserve logs before changing credentials."
Arthur felt exposed all over again.
His home cameras.
His legal files.
His email.
His children's trust.
Daniel had placed himself everywhere Arthur assumed professionals existed to protect him.
The front door opened.
Officer Lane returned with Melissa Grant.
Melissa had received Rebecca's filing about the forged evaluation.
Her tone toward Arthur was noticeably different.
"We have confirmed Dr. Pike did not conduct the assessment attributed to him."
Victoria looked at the floor.
Melissa continued.
"We are updating the safety review tonight."
Arthur asked the question that mattered.
"Can Victoria be removed from the home?"
"Given Ethan's injury and the inconsistencies in her report, I am recommending she stay elsewhere pending tomorrow's hearing."
Arthur exhaled for what felt like the first time all day.
Victoria did not argue.
That surprised him.
"I'll leave," she said.
Caroline stared at her.
"Just like that?"
Victoria looked toward the stairs.
"I should not be near them tonight."
Arthur heard guilt in the words, but guilt did not erase what happened.
"No, you shouldn't."
Melissa arranged for Victoria to collect essentials while Officer Lane remained present.
Arthur stood in the hallway as she came downstairs with one suitcase.
At the door, Victoria stopped.
"Arthur."
He did not respond.
"When they open the trunk, there will be something in there about me."
"I assumed there would be."
"It's worse than what you know."
Arthur's expression did not change.
"Then you should have told me before my daughter was screaming on the floor."
Victoria's eyes filled.
"I was going to."
"You had years."
She flinched.
"I know."
She left under Lane's supervision.
Arthur locked the door.
Caroline came beside him.
"Do you believe anything she says?"
"Only when evidence forces her to say it."
Marcus's phone rang.
He answered and listened.
"Arthur, the security team found unauthorized remote access to your camera server."
"From where?"
"A law-firm subnet registered to Mercer & Cole."
Arthur felt his anger sharpen into clarity.
Daniel was no longer just a suspicious figure in Elena's notes.
There was a digital trail.
Another call came from Ortiz.
The evidence technicians had arrived at the packaging plant.
They had examined the trunk and confirmed the tamper mechanism Victoria described.
They also found something else.
A man was unconscious in an office near the loading dock.
Not Ronan.
The man was the storage manager, Pete.
Arthur stared at the phone.
"Pete from Ashford?"
"Yes."
"How did he get there?"
"We don't know yet. He is alive and being taken to the hospital."
Arthur remembered Pete preserving the camera footage.
Someone had gone back for him.
Ortiz continued.
"The storage surveillance drive is missing from his office."
Daniel's people were cleaning trails as fast as Arthur found them.
"What about the trunk?"
"We have it secured."
"Can you open it?"
"Not without the key."
Arthur thought of Elena's pattern.
A clue for a child.
Something Victoria would not understand.
He went upstairs to Ethan's room.
Ethan was awake, sitting beside Maya's bed with the red train in his lap.
Arthur sat beside him.
"Buddy, do you remember a blue trunk your mom had?"
Ethan nodded.
"Stars on top."
"Did she ever tell you it had a secret?"
Ethan thought.
"She said the sky opens when the moon finds home."
Arthur frowned.
"What does that mean?"
Ethan shrugged.
Then Maya, half asleep, whispered from the pillow.
"Moon box."
Arthur leaned closer.
"What moon box?"
Maya pointed toward Elena's room.
Arthur, Caroline, and Marcus entered the room together.
They searched carefully without disturbing anything unnecessarily.
On a high shelf sat a small wooden music box painted with a moon and stars.
Arthur remembered Elena using it for jewelry.
He opened it.
The main compartment contained only a dried flower and a broken necklace.
Ethan reached over and turned the tiny moon-shaped knob on the side.
A false bottom lifted.
Inside lay a third key.
This one was black.
Under it was a folded photograph.
Arthur opened the photograph.
It showed Victoria standing beside Daniel Mercer in a hospital corridor on the night Elena died.
Arthur stared at the timestamp.
Victoria had always claimed she first met Daniel years later through mutual clients.
More disturbing was the object in her hand.
May you like
She was holding Elena's blue archive trunk.
