Chapter 18 - Back to Vance Hill
The police reached Vance Hill before Ethan.
They found the side door open and Robert's old office torn apart.
The wine cellar box was missing.
So was the original ledger.
Arthur looked at the empty stone alcove and swore for the first time Sarah had ever heard.
"Malcolm."
A motion sensor showed movement in the closed greenhouse behind the east garden.
Officers surrounded it.
Malcolm stepped out holding the ledger and a small gasoline can.
"Stay back," he shouted.
He was not armed.
He looked defeated.
Ethan stood behind the police line.
"Give me the book."
Malcolm laughed. "Your father should have burned it years ago."
"My father should have told the truth years ago."
"Truth destroys families."
"No. People like you do."
Malcolm poured gasoline over the ledger.
Arthur moved before anyone expected him to.
He picked up a garden hose, turned the valve, and soaked Malcolm from ten feet away.
The lighter in Malcolm's hand sputtered uselessly.
For one stunned second, even the police stared.
Arthur said, "Forty years of service does teach a man where the hoses are."
Malcolm dropped the book.
Police arrested him.
The ledger survived, waterlogged but readable.
In custody, Malcolm finally admitted ordering the hospital attack and warehouse gunman.
He denied any role in Catherine or Robert's deaths.
That part belonged to Eleanor and Preston.
The conspiracy was no longer one monster.
It was a chain of people choosing themselves over everyone else.
Then Sarah received one final message from Detective Brooks.
May you like
Eleanor wanted to speak to her.
Alone.
