Chapter 12 - THE TRAP THAT FAILED
Walter Pierce disappeared before police could question him.
His apartment was empty.
His car was found at the airport.
But there was no record of him boarding a flight.
Jessica sat in Ethan’s office studying the payment record.
“Delivery confirmed.”
Colleen paced.
“Robert knew I’d be working that floor.”
Maya frowned.
“But why lure you into the suite?”
Ethan turned his laptop around.
“Because of this.”
Hotel scheduling records showed Colleen had been reassigned to the luxury floor that morning.
She normally cleaned conference rooms.
The reassignment order came directly from Walter.
Jessica whispered, “Robert wanted you there.”
Colleen thought back to the penthouse.
Robert’s shock.
His rage.
The open door.
The scream.
Then Daniel entered, arm in a sling.
“He wasn’t trying to kill you.”
Everyone turned.
“He was testing you.”
Colleen stared.
“What?”
Daniel sat down.
“Robert knew Evelyn raised you without telling you anything.”
“He didn’t know how much you knew.”
“So he staged an assault on his own wife?”
Jessica’s face twisted with disgust.
“It wasn’t staged for me.”
Daniel nodded.
“He was already abusive.”
“He simply made sure Colleen would encounter it.”
“Why?”
“To see whether Evelyn had trained you to investigate the Langfords.”
Colleen laughed bitterly.
“I clean hotel bathrooms.”
“Robert doesn't understand ordinary people.”
Daniel looked at her.
“He assumes everyone is plotting because he is.”
Jessica leaned back.
“But then Colleen attacked him.”
“And his test became a disaster,” Ethan said.
Daniel nodded.
“Exactly.”
Colleen looked at the payment record again.
“Where’s Walter?”
Nobody knew.
That night, Colleen returned to her apartment for the first time since the hotel incident.
Police had cleared it.
Maya insisted on coming.
The apartment had been searched.
Drawers open.
Mattress flipped.
Boxes emptied.
Colleen stood in her mother’s old bedroom.
“She kept almost nothing.”
Maya sat beside a wooden sewing box.
“What about this?”
Inside were needles, buttons, old photographs.
Maya lifted the bottom tray.
Something rattled underneath.
A false panel.
Colleen removed it.
Inside was a small cassette tape.
A key.
And a note in Evelyn’s handwriting.
If Daniel ever comes home, take him to Locker 317.
Maya whispered, “Locker where?”
The key bore a train-station logo.
Grand Central.
An hour later, Colleen, Daniel, Jessica, and Ethan stood before Locker 317.
Daniel inserted the key.
The door opened.
Inside was a single videotape.
And an envelope marked:
FOR THE POLICE — IF ROBERT KILLS ME.
Jessica whispered, “Your mother knew.”
Daniel reached for the envelope.
A voice came from behind them.
“Don’t.”
May you like
Walter Pierce stood ten feet away.
And he was holding a gun.
