Chapter 8 - The Broken Lock
Charles called the sheriff before he called anyone else.
Eleanor noticed.
Good.
A younger Charles might have driven straight to Victor's house.
Deputies photographed the broken lock and open drawers.
Nothing else seemed missing.
Only the Rose Creek sale and donation records.
"Someone knew exactly what to take," Charles said.
"We have bank copies."
"That's not the point."
"It matters."
The farm's security camera covered the main driveway, not the office door.
But a neighbor's trail camera faced the fence line.
At 2:11 a.m., a black SUV crossed the gravel access road.
The driver stepped out near the barn.
Charles recognized the walk before the face appeared.
Isabella watched the clip in silence.
"Call him."
"Let law enforcement do it."
Mason answered deputies that afternoon.
He denied stealing anything.
Then they showed him the video.
"My dad said Eleanor was blackmailing us."
"So you broke into my mother's office?"
"I thought I was getting proof."
"By stealing it?"
Victor told him he would "handle the rest."
"Where is it now?" Rachel asked.
"I don't know."
Mason reached into his jacket.
"But I kept this."
"Why?"
"Because Dad told me to destroy it."
"And that's when I realized maybe I was helping the wrong person."
The drive contained scans of Eleanor's farm documents.
It also contained a folder Mason had copied from Victor's laptop.
One file was titled:
BRIDE RISK.
Inside were private notes about her.
Her medication after a panic episode in college.
Her weak points.
Her own father had been keeping a strategy file on her.
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At the bottom was one line:
IF CHARLES WALKS, MAKE ISABELLA THE REASON.
