Chapter 2
I stayed awake beside Noah’s bed, trying to understand what he had meant.
The papers I had signed were supposed to transfer my father’s share of a family trust to me and Vivian. Our lawyer, Martin Shaw, had explained them while Elena sat beside me.
I had read each page.
At least, I thought I had.
Shortly after dawn, Detective Ruiz returned. She told us an officer had found Vivian’s car near the train station. Vivian wasn’t in it.
“She knows people in this city,” I said. “She could be anywhere.”
Ruiz nodded. “We’re looking for her.”
Noah was asleep, so she spoke with Elena and me in the hall. Investigators had found a light switch inside the hidden space. The panel above it could be locked from the living room with the brass latch. They were checking who had installed it and when.
“I didn’t know it was there,” I said.
“I believe you. I still need to ask who had access to the house during the remodel.”
“Vivian supervised the contractors.”
“Can you give me their names?”
I couldn’t. Vivian had handled the bills. At the time, that had seemed like help.
Ruiz wrote it down without comment.
When I returned to the room, Lily was sitting on Elena’s lap. Her eyes followed me.
“Is Aunt Vivian coming back?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “The police are trying to find her.”
“Will she be angry with Noah?”
Elena and I looked at each other.
“No one is going to let her near him,” Elena said.
Lily nodded, but she didn’t let go of her mother.
I called Martin Shaw as soon as his office opened. His assistant said he was in a meeting. I told her my son had been found locked beneath our floor and that I needed copies of everything I had signed.
Martin called back twelve minutes later.
“I heard about Noah,” he said. “How is he?”
“He’s alive. Send me the documents.”
A pause followed.
“I’ll have them prepared.”
“Email them now.”
“Daniel, some of the originals are with the trust office.”
“You have copies.”
He sighed. “I’ll send what I have.”
Elena watched me end the call.
“He sounded nervous,” she said.
“He did.”
Within an hour, a folder arrived by email. I opened it on my phone and compared it with the notes I had taken at the meeting. Most pages were familiar.
One wasn’t.
It gave Vivian authority to sell the mansion on behalf of the trust.
I stared at my signature beneath it.
“I didn’t sign that page.”
Elena leaned in. “Are you sure?”
“The house isn’t in the trust. We bought it ourselves.”
The page described a property transfer I would never have approved. It carried yesterday’s date and a witness signature I couldn’t read.
I called Martin back. He didn’t answer.
I sent the page to Ruiz.
That afternoon, a specialist named Anna spoke with Noah in a quiet room. Elena and I waited outside. She asked us not to question him beforehand, so I sat on my hands and watched the clock.
When she came out, she said Noah had shared enough to help investigators. She would provide his statement through the proper process.
“He keeps asking whether he did something wrong,” she told us.
“He didn’t,” Elena said.
“Tell him that often.”
Noah had seen Vivian in the house the previous evening, before we left for the lawyer’s office. She was speaking with a man near the study. Noah recognized the man from a photograph on Dad’s desk, though he didn’t know his name.
He heard them talking about selling the house.
When Vivian noticed him, she told him it was a surprise for us. The next day, while Elena and I were out, Noah asked her about it again. She led him to the hidden space, claiming there was something to show him.
Then she shut the panel.
My hands shook as Anna spoke. I held them still so Lily, watching from the waiting area, wouldn’t see.
“Was there another man in the house today?” I asked.
“Noah said he didn’t see one.”
Ruiz arrived while Anna was finishing. She identified the man in Dad’s photograph as Conrad Bell, a longtime business partner of my father’s. Conrad had helped manage several trust properties.
“He signed as the witness on your disputed page,” Ruiz said.
I looked again at the blurred name. She was right.
“Where is he?”
“We’ve asked him to come in.”
Noah was discharged the following morning. The doctor told us to keep him warm, make sure he drank plenty of water, and return if anything worried us.
I wanted to take him anywhere but that house.
Elena’s sister offered us her apartment for a few days. We went there first, with both children asleep in the back seat. I had packed only what we could carry from the hospital.
At the apartment, Lily finally handed Noah his hoodie.
“I kept it safe,” she said.
He put it on at once, though the room was warm.
That evening, Ruiz called. Investigators had found the contractor who installed the floor panel. He said he had been told it covered access to old plumbing. Vivian had paid him through a company called Bell Property Holdings.
Conrad Bell’s company.
I thanked Ruiz and went to tell Elena. Before I reached her, a message appeared from Martin Shaw.
He wrote that he had found a second version of the property transfer, signed before our meeting.
I read the attachment.
May you like
The signature on it looked like my father’s.
My father had been dead for three months when the document was dated.
