CHAPTER 5 – THE SAFE DEPOSIT BOX
CHAPTER 5 – THE SAFE DEPOSIT BOX
Heritage Trust Bank opened at nine.
Daniel, Emily, Thomas, and two private security officers arrived at eight forty.
The streets were still wet from the night's storm.
Emily carried Sarah's brass key in her closed fist.
The bank manager confirmed that Sarah Bennett had rented a safe deposit box under her maiden name.
Then the front doors exploded inward.
The blast threw glass across the marble lobby.
Smoke filled the entrance.
Daniel pulled Emily behind a stone column.
Security alarms screamed.
A masked intruder crossed the lobby toward the vault corridor.
Thomas tackled him before he reached the stairs.
The man carried no identification.
Inside his coat was a remote detonator.
The bank manager stared at the smoking hallway.
"The safe deposit level has been damaged."
Emily refused to leave.
The fire department cleared the corridor twenty minutes later.
Box 417 had been destroyed.
Nothing remained except melted metal.
Then a phone rang inside the manager's office.
Daniel answered.
Vanessa's voice filled the room.
"Sarah knew the bank was compromised."
Emily stepped closer.
"Where is the real box?"
"There were two."
"The one in the bank was bait."
Daniel's expression hardened.
"Why help us now?"
Vanessa ignored him.
"The real evidence never left Ashford Manor."
A photograph appeared on Emily's phone.
It showed an old wooden music box carved with the Ashford crest.
Margaret recognized it immediately when Daniel sent the image.
"It belonged to the twins."
"Where is it?" Emily asked.
Margaret's answer came through the speaker.
"The west nursery."
A security radio crackled.
An officer stationed at the manor shouted that intruders had breached the third floor.
The transmission ended with a scream.
Daniel grabbed Emily's hand.
"We go back now."
As they ran from the bank, Vanessa sent one final message.
May you like
You are not racing to find the truth.
You are racing the person who has spent twenty-eight years hiding it.
