Chapter 2 - The Key in Elsie’s Pocket
Nobody moved.
The tiny brass key looked almost ridiculous in Elsie's palm.
It was smaller than Julian's thumb, tarnished around the edges, with a narrow rectangular head and the number 314 engraved into one side.
Yet Thomas stared at it as if the child were holding evidence capable of destroying him.
Julian noticed.
Of course he noticed.
Camille gently took the key from her daughter.
"Where did you get this?"
"Outside."
"Outside where?"
Elsie pointed toward the western garden.
"Where Rex digs."
Julian turned to Thomas.
"You recognize it?"
"No."
Too fast.
Julian had spent his adult life listening to lies.
The most convincing liars usually added detail.
Thomas hadn't.
"Daniel," Julian called.
His security chief appeared from the house with two men.
"Take Mr. Mercer to the library."
Thomas's expression hardened.
"You don't detain me in this house."
Julian looked at him.
"I just did."
Thomas lowered his voice.
"Think carefully about what you're doing."
"I am."
"You've known me twenty-three years."
"And I've known Rex six."
Thomas laughed bitterly.
"That's your standard now?"
"No. My standard is that you've answered three simple questions badly."
Thomas looked toward Camille.
That was his mistake.
Julian stepped between them.
"Don't."
Thomas met his eyes.
Something cold passed between the two men.
Then Thomas followed Daniel inside.
Julian waited until the doors closed.
Camille still held the key.
Her fingers trembled.
Julian looked at her.
"Who's Daddy?"
Camille's eyes lifted.
"My husband."
"You told the employment office you were widowed."
"I am."
"Name?"
"Mateo Rivera."
"When did he die?"
"Fourteen months ago."
Julian remembered reviewing Camille's file when she was hired, though only briefly.
Her husband had died in what police classified as a highway accident outside Franklin.
Julian's mind connected the location instantly.
Thomas had said he came today because of a problem at the Franklin property.
Coincidence was possible.
Julian had simply stopped believing in it years ago.
"What was the blue book?"
Camille shook her head.
"I don't know."
"Elsie thinks Thomas took something belonging to your husband."
"Elsie was barely two when Mateo died."
"Children remember strange things."
Camille looked down at her daughter.
Elsie had become interested in Rex again and was scratching beneath his chin.
"Sweetheart," Camille said carefully, "when did you see that man with Daddy's book?"
Elsie thought.
"At our old house."
Camille's face changed.
"Before Daddy went away?"
Elsie nodded.
Julian felt a chill despite the warm afternoon.
"What happened?"
Elsie looked at him.
"Rex wasn't there."
It was the kind of answer only a child would give.
Camille tried again.
"Did the man talk to Daddy?"
Elsie nodded.
"Was Daddy upset?"
Another nod.
"What did the book look like?"
"Blue."
"Anything on it?"
Elsie drew a circle in the air.
"Bird."
Camille covered her mouth.
Julian noticed immediately.
"You recognize that."
"My husband kept a blue notebook."
"What was on it?"
"A silver eagle."
Julian's pulse slowed.
His father had used notebooks matching that description.
They were custom-made for senior Ashworth managers years ago.
"Why would Mateo have one?"
Camille looked confused.
"He said someone gave it to him at work."
"Where did he work?"
"Logistics. Franklin."
Julian stared at her.
"What company?"
"Southern Crown Freight."
Julian said nothing.
Southern Crown was an Ashworth-controlled company.
Mateo Rivera had worked for him.
And somehow Julian had never known.
An hour later, Daniel entered the study carrying a laptop.
"We found something."
Julian stood behind the desk.
Camille sat across from him with Elsie sleeping against her shoulder. Rex lay beside them, still damp.
Thomas remained in the library under supervision.
Daniel opened the laptop.
"The west-wing camera has been malfunctioning intermittently for six weeks."
"Malfunctioning?"
"Someone has been disabling it manually."
He played footage.
Timestamp: May 17, 2:13 a.m.
A figure crossed the western garden.
Thomas.
He approached Camille's apartment window.
Then disappeared beneath the camera.
Three minutes later, the recording cut out.
When it returned, Thomas was gone.
Julian's jaw tightened.
"Again."
Daniel played another date.
Thomas.
Another.
Thomas.
Always after midnight.
Always near Camille's quarters.
Camille looked sick.
"Why?"
Julian didn't answer.
"Check the key."
Daniel took it.
"Three-fourteen."
He frowned.
"Could be a deposit box."
"Or a locker."
Julian looked toward Rex.
The dog lifted his head.
"Where exactly did Elsie find it?"
They walked outside.
Elsie woke as Camille carried her across the lawn.
The toddler pointed toward an old magnolia near the western garden.
"Rex digs there."
Rex immediately trotted ahead.
At the base of the tree, he began pawing at the soil.
Daniel crouched and dug with his hands.
Within a minute, his fingers struck metal.
They uncovered a weatherproof tin.
Inside was an old photograph.
Mateo Rivera stood beside Julian's father.
On the back, handwritten words read:
If anything happens to me, Julian needs the ledger. Trust the dog. Not Mercer.
Julian read it twice.
Camille stared.
"That's Mateo's handwriting."
Julian looked at the date.
It had been written sixteen months ago.
Two months before Mateo died.
Beneath the photograph was a storage receipt.
Unit 314.
Downtown Nashville.
The brass key suddenly made sense.
Daniel looked at Julian.
"You want me to bring Mercer?"
"No."
Julian slipped the key into his pocket.
"Let him think we don't understand it."
Camille looked frightened.
"What was Mateo involved in?"
"I intend to find out."
"What does 'trust the dog' mean?"
Julian looked at Rex.
He had no answer.
Not yet.
They reached the storage facility shortly before sunset.
Julian brought Daniel, Camille and Rex. Elsie remained at the estate with a trusted older housekeeper.
Unit 314 was located at the end of a narrow corridor.
Julian inserted the key.
The lock opened.
Inside was almost nothing.
A folding chair.
A cardboard box.
And a small locked case.
Daniel opened the cardboard box.
Financial documents.
Photographs.
Shipping records.
Names.
Dates.
Julian recognized several immediately.
They were Ashworth accounts.
Someone had been quietly diverting money for years.
Millions.
Possibly more.
At the bottom was a digital recorder.
Julian pressed play.
Static.
Then Mateo Rivera's voice.
"If you're hearing this, I probably didn't get the chance to explain."
Camille closed her eyes.
Julian continued listening.
"I work nights at Southern Crown. Six months ago I noticed freight manifests being altered after approval. I thought it was clerical. It wasn't."
Paper rustled on the recording.
"Thomas Mercer has been moving money through Ashworth companies without Julian knowing."
Daniel cursed quietly.
Mateo continued.
"I confronted him. Biggest mistake I ever made."
Camille's eyes filled with tears.
"He told me nobody would believe a warehouse supervisor over the man who practically raised Julian."
Julian's expression became stone.
"But there's something bigger," Mateo's recording said.
Julian leaned closer.
"Mercer isn't working alone."
The recording stopped.
Daniel checked the device.
"Battery?"
"No."
Julian pressed buttons.
Nothing.
Camille looked inside the case.
"There's another compartment."
Daniel opened it.
Empty.
Except for a handwritten note.
Julian picked it up.
The second recording is where Julian's father told me to hide it. Rex knows the place.
Daniel looked at him.
"Your father?"
Julian's thoughts raced backward.
His father had been sick during the final two years of his life.
Rex had been a puppy then.
There had been one place his father took Rex almost every afternoon.
The old hunting cabin.
Forty miles east.
Julian turned toward the door.
Then Rex growled.
Everyone froze.
Footsteps sounded in the corridor.
Daniel reached for the door.
Julian held up a hand.
The footsteps stopped outside.
A shadow appeared beneath the door.
Then a familiar voice spoke calmly from the other side.
"Julian."
May you like
Thomas Mercer.
"I think we should finally talk about what your father really died knowing."
