Chapter 6 - The Second Key
Jonathan read Celeste's message three times.
Then he handed the phone to Detective Bell, who had returned to the estate.
Bell enlarged the photograph.
"Where was this taken?"
"I don't know."
"Ask her."
Jonathan typed a reply under Bell's direction.
WHERE ARE THEY?
Celeste answered almost immediately.
OLD WHITLOCK PARKING GARAGE ON RIVER STREET.
Bell looked at Paul.
"Send someone."
Paul made the call.
Jonathan typed again.
WHAT DID VICTOR TAKE FROM HAZEL'S ROOM?
No answer came.
One minute passed.
Then two.
Jonathan called.
Celeste rejected the call.
A message appeared.
MEET ME ALONE AND I'LL TELL YOU.
Bell shook his head.
"No."
Jonathan typed back.
POLICE WILL BE THERE.
Celeste responded with three words.
THEN FORGET IT.
Maria entered the security office with Hazel behind her.
Jonathan immediately put the phone down.
Hazel looked annoyed.
"Everyone keeps stopping talking when I come in."
Maria gave Jonathan a pointed look.
He understood.
Secrets had already done enough damage.
"Celeste says Victor took something from your room," Jonathan said.
Hazel's eyes widened.
"What?"
"We don't know."
Jonathan crouched beside her.
"Can you think of anything missing?"
Hazel frowned.
"My music box."
Maria looked at her.
"The white one?"
Hazel nodded.
"Mom's music box."
Jonathan remembered it immediately.
Evelyn's mother had given her a small ivory-colored music box when she was a child.
After Evelyn died, Jonathan placed it on Hazel's dresser.
"When did you notice it was gone?"
"Yesterday."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
Hazel looked frustrated.
"You were in Chicago."
The words landed harder than she intended.
Jonathan accepted them anyway.
"Right."
Maria asked, "Did Celeste say anything about it?"
Hazel nodded.
"She said I probably lost it because I'm careless."
Jonathan closed his eyes for a moment.
"Anything inside it?"
Hazel thought.
"Just the ballerina."
"Nothing hidden?"
"I don't know."
Maria suddenly looked at Jonathan.
"Evelyn hated obvious hiding places."
"What does that mean?"
"The key from the closet was obvious only after Hazel remembered it."
Maria touched the sling at her shoulder.
"Maybe the music box held something else she expected Hazel to keep."
Jonathan stood.
"Victor took it because he knew."
Bell checked his watch.
"Then we need Celeste."
They arranged a controlled meeting at a downtown hotel lounge with officers positioned nearby.
Celeste refused to come to the police station.
She insisted she would speak only to Jonathan.
Bell compromised by placing Jonathan at a table in the center of the lounge while officers watched from adjoining rooms.
Jonathan hated leaving Hazel, but Maria stayed with her at the estate under heavy security.
Celeste arrived wearing oversized sunglasses and a beige coat.
She looked nothing like the polished woman who had stood over Hazel with a golf club the night before.
She looked frightened.
Jonathan did not stand when she approached.
Celeste sat across from him.
"You brought police."
"Yes."
"I told you not to."
"You lost the right to set terms when you raised a golf club over my daughter."
Celeste looked down.
"I didn't mean to hit Maria."
"You meant to swing."
"I was angry."
"At a seven-year-old."
Her jaw tightened.
"Do you want information or a confession?"
"Both would be nice."
Celeste stared at him.
For the first time since their marriage, Jonathan saw no charm in her expression.
Only calculation.
"Victor took the music box," she said.
"Why?"
"Because Evelyn hid a second key inside it."
Jonathan leaned forward.
"A key to what?"
"A storage locker."
"Where?"
"I don't know."
"You're lying."
"I'm not."
"How do you know about the key?"
Celeste glanced around the lounge.
"Victor told me."
"When?"
"Before we married."
Jonathan felt anger rise again.
"Before you married me."
"Yes."
"So you knew about Evelyn's trust before you ever met Hazel."
Celeste looked away.
"Yes."
Jonathan sat back.
The admission was ugly in its simplicity.
"Did Victor introduce us on purpose?"
Celeste nodded.
"Yes."
"Was the marriage part of the plan?"
She hesitated.
"At first."
Jonathan almost laughed.
"At first."
"I didn't expect you to propose."
"But you accepted."
"Yes."
"And you stayed."
Celeste's eyes briefly filled with something that looked almost like shame.
"I liked the life."
"You liked my life."
"Maybe."
Jonathan's voice went cold.
"Did you ever care about Hazel?"
Celeste did not answer.
That was answer enough.
"Tell me about the storage locker."
She lowered her voice.
"Victor thinks Evelyn kept original financial records there."
"Why would he think that?"
"Because he found a note in her old desk."
"When?"
"Years ago."
"And he waited until now?"
"He didn't have the key."
Jonathan understood.
Hazel had hidden the first key in her closet.
The second had apparently been concealed inside the music box.
Victor needed access to Hazel's room to search for it.
That explained the blue folder only partly.
"What was in the folder he took into her room?"
Celeste's eyes shifted.
"Medication records."
Jonathan went still.
"What medication?"
"Nothing dangerous."
His voice dropped.
"What did you give my daughter?"
Celeste immediately shook her head.
"I didn't give her anything."
"Then why were there medication records?"
"Victor wanted it to look like she had already been prescribed anxiety medication."
Jonathan's hands clenched under the table.
"Forged records?"
"Yes."
"By Dr. Rook?"
Celeste nodded.
"He was going to place a bottle in Hazel's room."
Jonathan stared at her.
"A bottle of what?"
"Something mild."
"Name it."
"I don't know."
"You expect me to believe that?"
"I never saw the label."
Jonathan stood halfway out of his chair.
Celeste flinched.
He sat back down because he refused to become another adult Hazel had to fear.
"Was anything placed in her room?"
Celeste swallowed.
"I think so."
Jonathan immediately called Paul.
"Do not let anyone into Hazel's bedroom."
Paul responded, "Already sealed."
"Have police search it for medication or planted evidence."
"Understood."
Jonathan returned his attention to Celeste.
"Why are you telling me this now?"
"Because Victor is going to leave me holding everything."
"That's your concern?"
"It's one of them."
"Not Hazel?"
Celeste stared at the table.
"I went too far."
"You crossed that line weeks ago."
Her face tightened.
"You think I don't know that?"
Jonathan felt no sympathy.
"What happened to Evelyn?"
Celeste looked up sharply.
"I don't know."
"Did Victor talk about her crash?"
"Once."
Jonathan leaned forward.
"What did he say?"
Celeste's fingers began to tremble.
"He said Evelyn nearly destroyed everything because she couldn't mind her own business."
"Those exact words?"
"Yes."
"Anything about the brakes?"
Celeste shook her head.
"No."
Then she paused.
Jonathan saw it.
"What?"
"He kept an old mechanic's invoice in his office."
"Why?"
"I don't know."
"Where is it?"
"In a black ledger inside his desk at the foundation office."
Jonathan glanced toward the hidden officers.
Bell would have heard everything through the microphone.
Celeste reached across the table.
Jonathan pulled his hand away.
"There's more," she said.
"Then talk."
"Victor isn't leaving tonight."
Jonathan frowned.
"Your message said he was."
"That was what he told Dr. Rook."
"You think he's lying?"
"I know he is."
"How?"
Celeste looked straight at him.
"Because he still needs Hazel."
Jonathan's blood went cold.
"For what?"
"The storage locker is in her name."
"You said you didn't know where it was."
"I don't."
"Then how do you know it's in her name?"
"Victor said Evelyn designed it so only Hazel could access it after a certain date."
Jonathan frowned.
"What date?"
Celeste whispered the answer.
"Her eighth birthday."
Jonathan stared at her.
Hazel would turn eight in six weeks.
The entire plan had been moving toward that deadline.
The evaluation.
The trust petition.
The fake records.
The attempt to remove Jonathan.
Victor did not merely want Hazel sent away.
He wanted legal control over her before her birthday unlocked whatever Evelyn had hidden.
Jonathan's phone rang.
It was Paul.
He answered immediately.
"What did you find?"
Paul's voice was tight.
"A prescription bottle behind the dresser."
Jonathan closed his eyes.
"Anything else?"
"Yes."
"What?"
"A second phone."
Jonathan opened his eyes.
"Whose?"
"We turned it on."
Paul paused.
"It's full of messages that look like they came from Hazel."
Jonathan felt the room shrink around him.
"Hazel doesn't have a phone."
"We know."
Paul continued.
"Someone created months of fake messages to make it look like she was threatening Celeste."
Celeste went pale across the table.
Jonathan looked at her.
"Did you know?"
She whispered, "No."
For the first time, he believed her.
Because the fear on her face was not for Hazel.
May you like
It was the fear of someone realizing she had never been Victor's partner.
She had been evidence he planned to sacrifice.
