CHAPTER 23 — THE MAN IN THE GARDEN
Evelyn shouted into the radio.
“Leah, move!”
Leah turned just as the man reached her.
It was Michael Crane.
The former driver grabbed her arm, but Leah struck him with the metal flashlight and pulled away.
Security officers rushed across the garden.
Crane ran toward the greenhouse.
He almost reached the hidden staircase before Rosa stepped into his path holding a heavy garden shovel.
He stopped.
Rosa’s voice was steady.
“You always were a coward, Michael.”
Crane glanced toward the approaching guards.
Then he smiled.
“You still think this is Adrian’s house.”
He reached inside his jacket.
Officers forced him to the ground before he could remove anything.
They found no weapon.
Only a small remote control.
A red button sat at its center.
Crane laughed when Evelyn saw it.
“What does it activate?”
“You’ll know soon.”
The underground corridor shook.
A controlled explosion collapsed the service tunnel beyond the estate wall.
Dust poured through the chamber.
The escape route disappeared beneath concrete and soil.
Crane had destroyed the only obvious path Mara’s captors could have used.
During questioning, he refused to explain where Mara had been taken.
He only answered questions about Katherine.
“She was closer than anyone realized,” he said.
“Closer to what?” Evelyn asked.
“To understanding that the Covenant wasn’t protecting powerful families.”
“What was it protecting?”
“A succession.”
Crane looked through the observation window toward Gabriel.
“The Ninth Covenant has spent forty years preparing one person to inherit everything.”
Gabriel remained expressionless.
“Is it him?” Evelyn asked.
Crane smiled.
“Ask Caroline what she signed.”
Caroline’s face changed.
Evelyn turned toward her.
“What does he mean?”
Caroline walked away from the table.
Months earlier, during the seizure of Adrian’s assets, she had signed dozens of emergency property documents.
One transferred the Vale mansion into a temporary holding trust before it became the foundation.
“I believed it was a standard protective arrangement,” she said.
“Who controlled the trust?” Victor asked.
“A firm called North Passage Fiduciary.”
Gabriel closed his eyes.
“That firm belongs to the Ninth Covenant.”
Caroline stared at him.
“The property was transferred to Evelyn afterward.”
“Was it?”
They reviewed the documents.
The mansion belonged to the foundation.
But the land beneath it was controlled by North Passage for ninety-nine years.
Hidden inside the agreement was a clause allowing the trust to reclaim the estate if the property contained “protected hereditary material.”
“What does that mean?” Leah asked.
Gabriel looked toward the floor.
“The Registry.”
Victor slammed the papers onto the table.
“They believe it is still here.”
Crane began laughing again.
“You opened the house for them. You invited their witnesses inside. You signed over the ground beneath your feet.”
Evelyn stepped closer to him.
“Where is Mara?”
Crane’s laughter stopped.
“She is where Katherine spent her final night.”
“And where was that?”
May you like
Crane looked directly at Victor.
“In the room he ordered sealed before sunrise.”
