Chapter 7 - THE SERVICE TUNNEL
A search of Owen’s office uncovered a second set of gate logs and a key to an old service tunnel beneath the grounds. The tunnel connected the garage to a maintenance shed beyond the garden wall.
Owen had used it to let visitors in without recording them at the front gate.
Leo wanted to search it himself. Dana argued against it. “The police are already on their way. Give them room to do their work.”
“I know that property.”
“Then tell them what they need to know.”
Leo stayed beside Dana as the officers entered the tunnel. Twenty minutes later, they found Owen hiding in the maintenance shed with a backpack full of cash.
He asked for a lawyer.
An hour after that, one of Elena’s missing notebook pages turned up in the backpack. It listed dates, account numbers, and the initials G.K.
Mateo read a photograph of the page on Dana’s phone. “Elena had it.”
“She knew more than you thought,” Leo said.
“I think she was gathering enough to come to you.”
The officers also found a recent photograph of Beatrice and Lily walking in the garden. On the back, someone had written a time and date: the previous Tuesday at 4:30.
Beatrice remembered the walk. Lily had stopped to show her a bird’s nest.
“She had an appointment with her therapist that day,” Beatrice said. “Victoria canceled it and told me to take her outside.”
Leo looked again at the photograph. Victoria had arranged for Lily to be in the garden at an exact time.
“Why would Graham want a picture of them?” he asked.
May you like
Lily, who had been coloring beside Beatrice, put down her pencil.
“Because I saw the man by the shed,” she said.
