Chapter 6 - THE VIDEO
Edward forced the library doors open.
Daniel stood outside with two police officers.
“I told you someone was inside,” Daniel said.
Edward stared at him.
“How did you get past security?”
“I didn't.”
Daniel pointed down the hallway.
“Your security cameras were shut off for eleven minutes.”
Edward immediately looked at his head of security.
The man lowered his eyes.
Edward's expression hardened.
“Who authorized it?”
Nobody answered.
One of the officers stepped forward.
“Mr. Montgomery, we need to talk.”
“Not now.”
“Your wife reopened an old investigation three months before her death.”
Edward froze.
“What investigation?”
The officer looked at Daniel.
Daniel handed him a file.
“This one.”
Edward opened it.
Inside were bank statements.
Photographs.
A list of names.
One name appeared repeatedly.
Richard Montgomery.
Edward's dead father.
But underneath his name was another.
Edward Montgomery.
Edward stared.
“No.”
Daniel said nothing.
“You think I was involved?”
“No.”
“Then why is my name here?”
“Because someone wanted the police to think you were.”
Chloe stepped closer.
“Someone was building a case against you.”
Edward nodded.
“And Laura discovered it.”
The officer said, “Your wife contacted us privately.”
Edward's eyes widened.
“When?”
“Two weeks before her death.”
“Why wasn't I told?”
“She asked us not to tell you.”
Edward looked destroyed.
“Why?”
The officer hesitated.
“She said she didn't know whether she could trust you.”
Edward stepped backward.
Chloe watched him struggle to breathe.
He looked at her.
“You understand now why I fired you.”
“No.”
“I was trying to get you away.”
“You should have told me.”
“I couldn't.”
“Why?”
“Because your name was in the file.”
Chloe froze.
“My name?”
Edward nodded.
“Laura had been investigating you before she died.”
“Why?”
“I don't know.”
Daniel interrupted.
“I do.”
Everyone turned.
Daniel pulled out another document.
“Chloe Harper wasn't randomly hired.”
Chloe felt dizzy.
“What are you saying?”
“Laura knew your family.”
“My family?”
“Your father worked for Richard Montgomery.”
Chloe stared at him.
“My father died when I was six.”
“I know.”
“What did he do?”
Daniel looked at Edward.
“He was the accountant who discovered the missing money.”
Edward whispered:
“And he disappeared.”
Chloe's face went white.
“My father didn't disappear. He died.”
“That's what you were told.”
Daniel handed her a photograph.
It showed three men standing outside a building.
Her father was one of them.
Beside him stood Richard Montgomery.
And beside Richard stood a much younger Edward.
Chloe stared at the photograph.
“That can't be.”
Edward looked at it.
“I was nineteen.”
Daniel nodded.
“You were there when the money was moved.”
Edward shook his head.
“I didn't know what was happening.”
Chloe backed away.
“So Laura hired me because of my father?”
“Yes.”
“Did she know me?”
“She had been watching your life for years.”
Chloe's eyes filled with tears.
“Why?”
Daniel answered quietly.
“Because she believed your father left something behind.”
“What?”
Nobody knew.
Until Isabella spoke.
“Mommy said Chloe had the key.”
Everyone looked at the child.
Chloe whispered:
“What key?”
Isabella pointed at Chloe's necklace.
“You always wear it.”
Chloe touched the small silver pendant.
She had owned it since childhood.
Her father had given it to her before he died.
Edward stared at it.
“Open it.”
Chloe frowned.
“It doesn't open.”
Daniel took it.
He pressed a hidden latch.
The pendant clicked.
A tiny compartment opened.
Inside was a miniature memory card.
Nobody breathed.
Edward whispered:
“My God.”
Then every light in the house went out again.
May you like
And someone outside shouted:
“THE GIRLS ARE GONE!”
