Chapter 2 - THE WRONG MAN AT THE DOOR
I opened my eyes.
Elise backed into the staircase.
“Ethan—”
“Don’t touch me.”
My voice sounded rough, but everyone heard it.
Martin pointed at the stranger.
“Hands where I can see them.”
The man raised both hands.
He wore a navy coat over a wrinkled shirt.
There was mud along the edges of his shoes.
“I came to stop her.”
“You just said something very different,” Martin replied.
“That was what she told me earlier.
Those were her words.”
Elise shook her head.
“I’ve never seen him.”
The man looked at her.
“You met me at the west gate twenty minutes before he fell.”
“Who are you?” I asked.
“Daniel Voss.”
He was the name on my phone.
Grace kept the towel against my head while Martin directed one employee to call 911 and the other to stand by the front door.
Daniel reached slowly into his coat.
Martin stopped him.
“Tell me what you’re reaching for.”
“My phone.
There’s a recording.”
“Put it on the floor.”
Daniel obeyed.
Elise moved toward the hallway.
Martin caught the movement.
“Stay here.”
“I need to call my attorney.”
“You can call from here.”
Grace helped me stay still while Daniel unlocked his phone.
A woman’s voice filled the foyer.
Elise’s voice.
“The fall has to look ordinary.
He’s exhausted.
Everyone knows that.”
My stomach tightened.
Daniel’s recorded voice followed.
“You said he would only be hurt.”
“I said you would get your money.”
The recording ended.
Elise stared at the phone.
“That’s edited.”
Daniel’s jaw trembled.
“I sent the photograph because she changed the plan.
I didn’t agree to this.”
“You agreed to hurt me?” I asked.
He lowered his eyes.
“I agreed to bring something through the west gate.
I didn’t know what it was for.”
Sirens sounded beyond the property.
For the first time, Elise looked trapped.
“Ethan, you know me.”
I looked at the woman whose wedding dress was hanging upstairs.
“I’m starting to.”
The paramedics entered moments later.
They checked my neck, my pupils, my shoulder.
I answered their questions while Martin preserved both phones.
A police officer separated Elise and Daniel.
As the paramedics prepared to move me, Daniel called my name.
“There’s one more thing.”
The officer told him to stop talking.
Daniel kept his eyes on me.
“She wasn’t waiting for you to die so she could inherit.”
“What was she waiting for?”
He glanced at Martin.
“For someone to declare you unable to run your company.”
May you like
Martin’s face changed.
And I knew Daniel had said something my security director already understood.
