Chapter 6 - The Secret Richard Left Behind
Three weeks later, the mansion had returned to normal.
Almost.
Richard's investigation expanded beyond theft.
His brother's company had fabricated restoration invoices.
Several vendors were involved.
But one question remained.
Why had Richard panicked over three invoices falling from an envelope?
Marco answered that on a cold January afternoon.
He entered Nicholas's study carrying a file.
“We found the missing account.”
Nicholas looked up.
“What missing account?”
“The one Caldwell was moving money into before transferring it to his brother.”
I was delivering coffee.
I started to leave.
Nicholas stopped me.
“Stay.”
Marco opened the file.
“Richard wasn't just stealing.”
“What was he doing?”
“Selling information.”
Nicholas became still.
“What information?”
“Guest schedules. Vehicle movements. Security rotations.”
I nearly dropped the coffee.
Nicholas didn't.
“Who bought it?”
“We're still tracing that.”
Marco placed several printed messages on the desk.
One caught my attention.
“Wait.”
Both men looked at me.
“What?” Nicholas asked.
I pointed.
“That name.”
Northstar Events.
“I've seen it.”
Marco frowned.
“Where?”
I thought.
Then remembered Richard's office.
“The invoices.”
“You said Caldwell Restoration.”
“One was. But another had a star logo.”
Marco pulled out his phone.
“What color?”
“Dark blue.”
His expression changed.
Nicholas noticed.
“You know it?”
“Northstar Events handled the charity gala here in October.”
Nicholas stood.
“They had access to the property.”
“Yes.”
“Security?”
“Temporary credentials.”
Nicholas's jaw tightened.
Marco left immediately.
Two hours later, the answer came.
Northstar was a shell company.
The information had been sold to one of Nicholas's business rivals—not enough to prove plans for violence, but enough to expose private meetings and commercial negotiations.
Richard hadn't simply been stealing money.
He had been selling the household piece by piece.
That evening, federal investigators arrived.
Before leaving, one of them approached me.
“Miss Turner?”
“Yes?”
“Your notebook helped establish the timeline.”
“My notebook?”
“Several entries correspond with meetings Caldwell later reported to outside parties.”
I stared at the small black book.
Something I had kept because I was afraid of being blamed had become evidence against the man blaming me.
After everyone left, I found Nicholas standing near the staircase.
The garland was gone now.
The console table was empty.
I stood beside him.
“Are you going to replace the vase?”
He glanced at me.
“The fake one?”
“Maybe something less breakable.”
“Excellent suggestion.”
We stood quietly.
Then I said, “You know what still bothers me?”
“What?”
“If you hadn't gone outside…”
He understood.
Nicholas had left dinner because one of his guards reported a security sensor malfunction near the property line.
That was why he'd found me.
Pure chance.
“I know,” he said.
“I could have died.”
His expression hardened.
“Yes.”
“Because one person had authority and everyone else was too scared to question him.”
Nicholas looked toward the staff corridor.
“That changes now.”
And it did.
He hired a professional human-resources manager.
Staff complaints could bypass supervisors.
Payroll became independently audited.
Nobody could dismiss an employee from the property during dangerous weather without transportation being arranged.
Mrs. Alvarez called the last rule “Emily's Law.”
I hated the name.
Everyone else loved it.
But Nicholas changed something else too.
Himself.
He started eating breakfast downstairs instead of alone.
He learned employees' names.
He asked questions.
Sometimes people even disagreed with him.
Marco claimed this was evidence civilization was collapsing.
Nicholas threatened to cut his Christmas bonus.
Marco reminded him Christmas was eleven months away.
May you like
For the first time, the enormous mansion occasionally sounded like a home.
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