Chapter 14 - THE ICE WAREHOUSE
Police entered the ice warehouse at 6:40 p.m.
It was empty.
Almost.
In an upstairs office, they found walls covered with photographs.
Nathan.
Grace.
Lily.
Rachel.
Caleb.
Richard.
Paul Clark.
Everyone Marcus had watched.
On a desk sat an open laptop.
A timer counted down from twelve minutes.
Detective Ortiz disconnected the network.
Too late.
Files had already begun uploading to an unknown server.
The folder name was INSURANCE.
Inside were policies.
Richard Cole: ten million.
Paul Clark: two million.
Grace Bennett: five million.
Lily Cole: twenty million.
Nathan's hands went cold.
Beneficiary on Lily's policy: Cole Family Administrative Trust.
Trustee upon Nathan's incapacity: Marcus Hale.
"He couldn't collect unless I was gone too," Nathan said.
Ortiz opened another file.
Nathan Cole: fifty million.
Policy owner: Victoria Vale, effective after marriage.
The wedding was in twelve days.
Grace whispered, "So marriage wasn't the end of the plan."
"It was the trigger."
A camera feed suddenly appeared on the laptop.
Live.
Marcus sat in Nathan's mansion study.
He had gotten inside while everyone searched the warehouse.
Behind him stood Emma.
Her hands were tied.
Marcus smiled at the camera.
"You always run toward the obvious emergency, cousin."
Nathan stepped closer to the screen.
"Let her go."
Marcus shook his head.
"Bring Lily's trust documents home."
Then Emma looked directly at the camera and said one strange sentence.
"Nathan, your father hated red wine."
Marcus struck the laptop closed.
The feed vanished.
Nathan stared at the black screen.
Then he understood.
May you like
Richard had been drinking red wine the night he died.
Someone had staged the entire scene.
