Chapter 2 - The Photograph From a Christmas Elena Couldn’t Remember
Warren reached the west-wing corridor before Gideon’s security chief,
Caleb Ross, caught him at the locked double doors.
“What are you doing?” Caleb asked.
“Checking a window.”
“In a locked wing?”
“The storm is getting worse.”
Gideon rolled into the corridor behind them. Elena followed, holding
Lucy’s hand.
“Open it,” Gideon said.
Warren turned. “You haven’t entered these rooms since Caroline died.”
“That was my choice.”
“And I’m telling you this is a bad idea.”
Gideon’s voice became quiet. “Open the door.”
Warren had heard that tone before. Everyone had.
He entered the code.
The west wing smelled faintly of cedar and dust. White sheets covered
furniture. At the end of the corridor hung a portrait of Caroline Cross
in a red Christmas dress.
Lucy squeezed Elena’s hand.
“She looks like the lady from the picture.”
“Yes.”
“No.” Lucy pointed. “I mean the other lady.”
Everyone turned.
“What other lady?” Elena asked.
“The lady I saw downstairs.”
Caleb immediately scanned the corridor.
“Where?”
“By the kitchen door. She was watching Mom.”
Warren laughed too quickly. “A six-year-old sees strangers in a house
full of employees. That’s hardly evidence.”
Gideon ignored him.
“Caleb, check the cameras.”
They entered Caroline’s old sitting room. The Christmas photograph had
been taken there. Gideon recognized the fireplace, the antique clock,
even the silver reindeer Caroline had insisted on displaying every
December.
Elena studied the picture again.
“I was never here.”
“Your face says otherwise,” Warren replied.
Elena turned on him. “My husband, Daniel, worked seasonal delivery
routes. He sometimes brought me along when our car was broken. But I
never entered this house.”
Gideon’s eyes narrowed. “Daniel Hale?”
“Yes.”
He looked at Warren.
Warren’s expression did not change.
But Gideon knew his brother too well.
“You knew him.”
“I knew hundreds of drivers.”
“Daniel didn’t work for us.”
“No, but subcontractors came through our terminals.”
Elena stared between them.
“What aren’t you telling me?”
Before Gideon could answer, Caleb returned carrying a tablet.
“The cameras caught someone near the kitchen.”
He showed them the image.
A woman in a gray coat stood partly hidden behind a doorway.
Her face was blurred by motion.
But Lucy pointed immediately.
“That’s her.”
Caleb swiped to the next frame.
The woman had turned.
Gideon gripped his wheelchair armrests.
The resemblance was unmistakable.
Caroline.
His wife.
Dead for five years.
Warren stepped backward.
“No.”
Gideon’s voice came out rough. “Where was this taken?”
“Twenty-three minutes ago.”
“That’s not possible.”
Elena stared at the screen.
“I know her.”
Everyone looked at her.
“She came to Daniel’s funeral.”
“What name?”
“I don’t remember. She stood in the back. She left before I could speak
to her.”
Warren moved toward the door.
Gideon blocked him with the chair.
“Where are you going?”
“To call the police.”
“No. Caleb will do that.”
Warren’s jaw tightened.
Lucy tugged Elena’s sleeve.
“Mom, can I have cocoa?”
The ordinary request broke the tension.
Elena knelt.
“Yes, honey.”
“I want marshmallows.”
“Two.”
“Five.”
“Three.”
“Deal.”
Mrs. Bell took Lucy downstairs.
The moment the child disappeared, Gideon said, “Search the wing.”
Caleb’s team found nothing until an officer noticed fresh scratches on
the floor beneath Caroline’s old writing desk.
They moved it.
Behind the paneling was a narrow steel door.
Gideon had owned the house for nineteen years.
He had never known it existed.
Inside was a small room containing file boxes, a disconnected computer,
and a metal cabinet.
On the desk sat a ceramic Santa covered in dust.
Beside it was a handwritten list.
Seven names.
The fourth was Daniel Hale.
The fifth was Gideon Cross.
The sixth was Caroline Cross.
The seventh had been torn away.
Elena covered her mouth.
“What was Daniel involved in?”
Gideon shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
Warren said, “This could be fabricated.”
“Everything is fabricated when you don’t like it,” Gideon replied.
Caleb opened one box.
Inside were invoices from Cross Freight.
Dozens had red circles around payment amounts.
Gideon recognized the dates.
They covered the year before Caroline died.
Elena found a small digital recorder.
The battery was dead.
Caleb replaced it.
Static filled the room.
Then a man’s voice spoke.
Elena grabbed the desk.
Daniel.
“If anyone hears this, they found out I copied the books.”
A second voice answered.
Caroline.
“Then we stop.”
“We can’t stop. Not after what they did.”
Gideon looked at Warren.
The recording continued.
Daniel sounded frightened.
“Does Gideon know?”
“No,” Caroline said. “And until I know which Cross brother signed the
orders, he can’t.”
Warren’s face went gray.
The recording clicked off.
Elena whispered, “What orders?”
No one answered.
Then Caleb opened the metal cabinet.
Inside were employee files.
Insurance policies.
Death certificates.
Elena pulled out Daniel’s.
The date was correct.
The cause of death was correct.
But stapled behind it was a Cross Freight payment authorization for
$250,000.
Recipient: Warren Cross Consulting.
Payment date: forty-eight hours after Daniel’s funeral.
Elena looked up.
“Why were you paid after my husband died?”
Warren’s voice hardened.
“I can explain.”
Gideon’s eyes became ice.
“Start.”
Warren opened his mouth.
The mansion alarm screamed.
Caleb’s radio exploded with voices.
“Fire in the east garage!”
Everyone turned toward the window.
Orange light flashed against the snow.
Elena’s heart stopped.
“Lucy.”
She ran.
By the time she reached the kitchen, smoke had entered the hallway.
Mrs. Bell was coughing beside an open door.
“Where is she?”
Mrs. Bell looked terrified.
“She was right here.”
Elena screamed her daughter’s name.
May you like
Then, from somewhere inside the smoke, Lucy shouted:
“Mom! I found the Christmas lady!”
