Chapter 14 - THE WRONG MONSTER
For twenty years, we had blamed Dad.
And he deserved it.
But someone had been watching him too.
Federal agents traced the cameras.
Most led to disconnected accounts.
One did not.
A security company called Northlight Protection.
The owner was Samuel Price.
My mother’s accountant.
The man who supposedly helped fake her death.
Mom went silent when she heard his name.
“What aren’t you telling me?”
She sat at our kitchen table.
“Samuel helped me collect evidence.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
“He knew everything.”
Lily whispered, “How much is everything?”
Mom looked terrified.
“All of it.”
Samuel had handled money for Dad’s network in the early years.
He claimed he wanted out after Uncle David died.
He approached Mom.
Helped her copy records.
Helped stage her death.
Helped hide her.
But he never stopped tracking the operation.
“Why watch us?”
“I don’t know.”
My phone rang.
Unknown number.
I answered.
“William.”
An older man.
Calm.
Polite.
“Samuel?”
“I wondered when you’d reach me.”
“Where are you?”
“Close.”
Police traced the call.
He laughed.
“That won’t work.”
“What do you want?”
“The ledger.”
“The FBI has it.”
“Copies are useless.”
“What?”
“There’s something inside the spine.”
Lily grabbed the ledger photocopy.
Samuel continued.
“Your sister only saw the surface.”
“What’s inside?”
“Account access.”
Hundreds of millions had been moved through shell companies over decades.
Dad and Wallace controlled pieces.
Samuel controlled the structure.
When Dad’s operation started collapsing, Samuel planned to take everything and disappear.
“You used my mother.”
“I kept her alive.”
“You watched my daughter.”
“I protected your daughter.”
“By putting cameras in my house?”
Silence.
Then he said, “Look outside.”
I went to the window.
A black car sat across the street.
Empty.
On the hood was a phone.
Mara’s officers surrounded it.
The phone rang.
Mara answered on speaker.
Samuel’s voice came through.
“Thomas was cruel. Wallace was greedy. Bell enjoyed power.”
“And you?”
Samuel chuckled.
“I understood systems.”
Lily looked disgusted.
“You destroyed lives.”
“No. I documented people destroying themselves.”
I grabbed the phone.
“You could have stopped them.”
“I could have gone to police eighteen years ago.”
“Yes.”
“And Wallace would have buried it.”
“Then federal authorities.”
“Thomas had friends there too.”
“So you did nothing?”
“I waited.”
“For what?”
“For all of them to become expendable.”
That sentence told me exactly what kind of man he was.
He hadn’t saved anyone.
He had managed them.
Mom whispered, “Where are you, Samuel?”
His voice softened.
“Goodbye, Margaret.”
Then a red light appeared on the basement wall.
Mara screamed.
“Everybody out!”
Gas.
Samuel had triggered something beneath the house.
We ran.
I carried Eva.
Clara dragged Mom.
Lily stumbled near the door.
I went back.
“No!”
I grabbed her.
The explosion lifted us off our feet.
Windows blew outward.
Flames ripped through the kitchen.
We landed in the yard.
My ears rang.
Eva screamed.
Clara crawled toward us.
Everybody was alive.
Then Lily looked toward the road.
“There!”
A man stood beside the black car.
Gray suit.
Silver hair.
Watching our house burn.
Samuel Price.
I ran.
He got into the car.
Mara’s cruiser blocked the road.
Samuel reversed.
Another unit trapped him.
He stepped out slowly.
Hands raised.
Smiling.
I reached him before the officers did.
“You think this is funny?”
“No.”
His smile disappeared.
“I think you still haven’t listened to your mother’s tape.”
My blood went cold.
“What’s on it?”
Samuel leaned closer.
“The reason your father chose you.”
Officers dragged him away.
And suddenly I remembered.
The cassette.
The original.
May you like
It had survived because Mara had taken it into evidence.
For the first time, I was afraid to hear the truth.
