Chapter 4 - THE MAN IN THE HALLWAY
David moved toward the hallway.
“Stay behind me,” he told Lily.
Vanessa grabbed his sleeve.
“David, don’t make this worse.”
He pulled free.
“Who’s in the house?”
“No one.”
A shadow passed across the far wall.
David rushed forward.
A man in a dark coat stepped from the hallway and ran toward the rear entrance.
David chased him through the dining room.
The stranger knocked over a chair and shoved open the back door.
David caught the edge of his coat, but the man twisted away and disappeared into the rain.
Something fell onto the floor.
A black key card.
David picked it up.
The name printed across it made his stomach tighten.
NATHAN REED.
His former business partner.
Nathan had supposedly died two years earlier in a boating accident.
David returned to the foyer.
Vanessa stood beside the staircase, watching him.
“You knew he was alive,” David said.
She didn’t answer.
“Where is Nathan?”
“I don’t know.”
“You just watched him run from my house.”
“I thought he was dead.”
David raised the key card.
“Then why does he have access to the private vault?”
Vanessa’s silence answered him.
Lily took a cautious step forward.
“Mr. David, Mrs. Blackwood told me never to enter the west wing. She said it was being renovated.”
David looked toward the locked corridor.
The west wing had been closed since his accident.
No workers had ever been seen there.
He walked to the door and tried the handle.
Locked.
Vanessa moved behind him.
“Don’t.”
David turned.
“What’s inside?”
“Nothing.”
“Then why are you afraid?”
She reached for his arm.
“Because you’re not well enough to handle this.”
David stared at her.
“I was well enough to catch you threatening Lily.”
He forced the door open with his shoulder.
Inside, the hallway was dark and cold.
At the end stood a second door.
A thin line of light glowed beneath it.
David pushed it open.
The room was filled with boxes, financial files, passports, and photographs.
On the desk sat a folder marked with his name.
He opened it.
The first page contained a medical report.
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It stated that his car accident had not been accidental.
CLIFFHANGER: The report named Vanessa as the person who had ordered his brakes to be cut.
