Chapter 7 - THE GREENHOUSE
I don't remember running across the lawn.
I remember mud splashing my shoes.
I remember rain striking my face.
I remember calling Detective Ellis and screaming three words.
"He's got Lucas."
After that, instinct took over.
The old greenhouse stood almost half a mile behind the mansion, beyond an orchard Christopher stopped maintaining years earlier.
Its glass roof had cracked in several places.
Vines covered one wall.
Christopher's wife had once grown orchids there.
After she died, he rarely entered.
The greenhouse became a place forgotten by everyone.
Apparently not Derek.
"Lucas!"
No answer.
I reached the doors.
Locked.
I grabbed a rusted garden chair and smashed a lower pane.
"Lucas!"
"Grandma!"
His voice came from inside.
I reached through broken glass and found the latch.
The door opened.
Lucas stood near the far wall.
He wasn't tied.
He wasn't hurt.
But Derek stood between us.
"Helena."
His calmness scared me more than shouting would have.
"You've created an incredible amount of trouble."
"Get away from him."
Lucas moved toward me.
Derek grabbed his shoulder.
I stopped.
"Don't."
Derek sighed.
"I'm not going to hurt him."
"Then let him go."
"I need something first."
"What?"
"The ledger from Box 417."
My heart hammered.
He knew.
"I don't have it."
"Samuel does."
"Then call Samuel."
"I did."
Derek smiled.
"He isn't as emotionally responsive as you."
Lucas looked at me.
"I'm okay."
"Quiet," Derek said.
Lucas's jaw tightened.
Derek turned back to me.
"Christopher should have left things alone."
"You stole from him."
"I managed liquidity."
"You stole."
"Justin stole. I solved problems."
"By putting my name on an account?"
"You were convenient."
That word cut deeper than maid.
Convenient.
Eighteen years of loyalty reduced to a useful false identity.
"You planted the watch."
"Eventually."
"Why?"
"Because after Christopher changed the will, you became dangerous."
"I didn't even know about the will."
"I knew that."
"Then why me?"
Derek's smile disappeared.
"Because Christopher trusted you."
The greenhouse door opened behind me.
Justin entered.
Wet from the rain.
Breathing hard.
"Derek."
Derek's face changed.
"What are you doing here?"
"Tracking my father's phone."
Justin held up his own device.
"You stupid son of a bitch."
"Leave."
"Let the kid go."
Derek laughed.
"Don't pretend you're suddenly decent."
Justin stepped closer.
"I said let him go."
"She knows you helped."
"Helped what?"
Derek looked at me.
"You want the truth, Helena?"
Justin's face tightened.
"Derek."
"You think he didn't know about the fake account?"
"He admitted he knew."
"After Christopher discovered it."
Derek smiled.
"He knew before."
Justin lunged.
Derek shoved Lucas aside and raised a metal pruning tool.
Everything exploded at once.
Lucas fell against a table.
I screamed.
Justin grabbed Derek's wrist.
The pruning tool clattered to the floor.
The men crashed into a row of rotting wooden shelves.
Glass shattered.
Lucas crawled toward me.
I pulled him behind me.
"Run."
But before we reached the door, Derek kicked Justin backward.
Justin fell.
Derek grabbed a red fuel can from beneath a workbench.
My stomach dropped.
"What are you doing?"
"Cleaning up."
He splashed fuel across a pile of old boxes.
Justin staggered upright.
"Derek, don't."
Derek struck a lighter.
For the first time, he looked afraid.
Not of us.
Of what would happen if the truth survived.
"I spent twelve years fixing your family's mistakes."
Then he dropped the flame.
Fire raced across the floor.
Lucas shouted.
Smoke climbed instantly toward the broken roof.
Derek ran through a side door.
Justin tried to follow but a burning shelf collapsed.
It struck his leg.
He fell.
"Go!" he screamed at us.
Lucas pulled my arm.
"Grandma!"
I looked toward the doorway.
Safety.
Then at Justin.
The man who fired me.
The man who let my identity be used.
The man whose cowardice had nearly destroyed my life.
Flames spread between us.
I could leave him.
Part of me wanted to.
Then I heard Christopher's voice as clearly as if he were standing beside me.
We don't become bad people just because bad people give us permission.
He had said that years earlier when I was angry at someone who cheated Rachel.
I shoved Lucas toward the door.
"Outside!"
"Grandma—"
"Now!"
I grabbed a long wooden bench and pushed it over the burning floor, knocking aside debris.
Smoke burned my lungs.
Justin tried to pull himself up.
Couldn't.
I reached him.
"You came back."
"Don't make me regret it."
I put his arm over my shoulders.
He was heavier than Christopher had ever been.
We staggered.
Something exploded behind us.
The glass roof cracked.
Justin fell again.
I dragged him.
Then Lucas appeared through the smoke.
"I told you to leave!"
"And I ignored you!"
Together we pulled Justin through the doorway seconds before part of the roof collapsed.
We fell onto wet grass.
Sirens sounded in the distance.
Justin coughed until he vomited.
Lucas lay beside me, crying without making a sound.
I pulled him against me.
Police arrived.
Firefighters.
Ambulances.
Detective Ellis found us on the grass.
"Derek?"
I pointed toward the woods.
"He ran."
Police spread across the estate.
They didn't find him.
Justin went to the hospital with a fractured ankle and burns on one hand.
Lucas had a cut above his eyebrow.
I had smoke inhalation.
But we were alive.
At the hospital, Lucas handed Detective Ellis his phone.
"I recorded him."
I stared at him.
"What?"
"When he took my phone, I started voice recording with my watch."
My grandson looked almost apologetic.
"I watch crime shows."
Detective Ellis listened.
Derek's voice came through clearly.
You think he didn't know about the fake account?
Then Justin.
Shut up.
Derek again.
Tell her about the bridge loan. Tell her whose signature we used.
Samuel, standing beside me, went still.
"What bridge loan?"
Justin closed his eyes from the hospital bed.
Caroline Mercer looked horrified.
"Justin?"
He didn't answer.
"Whose signature?" I asked.
Finally he looked at me.
"My father's."
Samuel's face hardened.
"How much?"
Justin swallowed.
"One-point-two million."
"Secured by what?"
Silence.
Samuel already knew.
"The mansion."
Justin nodded.
My heart dropped.
Christopher had left me the house.
But Justin and Derek had apparently borrowed more than a million dollars against it using Christopher's signature.
If the loan was valid, the house could belong to me on paper and still be taken by a bank.
Detective Ellis's phone rang.
She answered.
Listened.
Then looked at us.
"They found Derek's vehicle."
"Where?"
"Bus station parking lot."
"Was he there?"
"No."
"But we found something in the trunk."
She turned toward me.
"A rental agreement for a storage unit."
"Whose name?"
Ellis's expression answered before she spoke.
"Yours."
I felt sick.
Of course.
One more trap.
One more place Derek had arranged to point toward Helena Carter.
May you like
But this time, we knew where to look before he could empty it.
And whatever was inside that storage unit was important enough that Derek had been willing to set a greenhouse on fire to keep it hidden.
