Chapter 7 - UNDER THE HOUSE
The box hadn’t vanished during a robbery.
That would have been easier.
Arthur Blackwood had died eighteen months earlier after a stroke. In the confusion afterward, Grant handled his papers.
When Olivia asked about the blue lockbox, her uncle said Arthur had stopped using it years before.
She believed him.
Now she stood in her father’s study, staring at the cabinet where it used to sit.
Ethan entered behind her.
“Rachel says detectives will be here in the morning with the financial-crimes investigator.”
“That’s a long time for people who know the house better than we do.”
“Margaret’s access has been disabled. Noah has the archive covered.”
Olivia turned.
“She has been here twelve years, Ethan. She knows which windows don’t latch.”
Downstairs, Maya sat at the kitchen table with Rosa, the cook.
Rosa placed another bowl of soup in front of her.
“You don’t have to feed me every hour.”
“I wasted three days thinking you weren’t eating because you were rude. Let me be useful.”
Maya put down her spoon.
“She told you that?”
“She said you didn’t want staff meals.”
Maya stared at her.
Margaret had been controlling more than schedules.
Rosa folded her arms.
“What else did she say?”
By the time Ethan entered, two housekeepers and the groundskeeper had joined them.
A missing overtime payment. A threatened reference. A complaint supposedly withdrawn.
Small pieces of damage, kept separate.
Ethan listened without interrupting.
Then Rosa mentioned the laundry lift.
“Margaret used it Tuesday. Sent something down to the old linen room.”
Maya looked up.
“The blue box?”
“I saw blue metal under a blanket.”
The old linen room sat beneath the west wing. Most of the house no longer used it.
Ethan called Noah and Rachel before going downstairs.
Maya stayed in the kitchen.
She had earned the right to sit still.
Ten minutes later, Ethan returned with dust on his sleeve and his phone in his hand.
Behind a shelf, they had found the lockbox.
Its latch was broken.
Inside were bank statements, handwritten notes, and a sealed envelope addressed to Ethan and Olivia.
Rachel told them to photograph everything where it lay before moving it.
May you like
On the envelope, their father had written one sentence.
IF GRANT SAYS I APPROVED THIS, HE IS LYING.
