Chapter 10 - THE MAN WHO ALWAYS STOOD BEHIND THE DOOR
Thomas Reed did not deny switching off the lights.
He denied intending harm.
“There was an electrical smell.”
Richard stared.
“You turned off one corridor.”
“Yes.”
“Not the full wing.”
“That circuit was isolated.”
“Why no maintenance report?”
“I forgot.”
Thomas had worked for the Mercers too long to panic easily.
Serena defended him immediately.
“He raised me.”
Victoria looked at her.
“Howard raised Mark.”
Serena frowned.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
Different family.
Same pattern.
Serena continued:
“Thomas would never hurt anyone.”
Victoria said:
“You don’t know that.”
Serena snapped:
“I know him.”
Elias watched both.
“You keep using love as evidence.”
Silence.
Thomas admitted moving the hallway runner after Victoria fell.
“To clear access.”
That explained why the scene looked altered.
But not why the runner had been loose before.
Then a house camera surfaced.
Not the staircase.
Kitchen hallway.
It showed Thomas receiving a package from Lydia thirty minutes before the lights went out.
Thomas said it contained wine invoices.
Lydia said it contained cash.
Thomas’s face changed.
Only slightly.
Richard noticed.
Police obtained a warrant.
They found $90,000 in a safe in Thomas’s room.
Unexplained.
Serena stared.
“Thomas?”
He looked at her.
“I did not push Victoria.”
“That wasn’t the question.”
He closed his eyes.
Then confessed.
Lydia paid him to create “confusion” in the west wing.
Lights off.
Medication moved.
Doors unlocked.
Small disruptions.
The goal was to make Victoria appear disoriented.
Thomas rationalized it.
No harm.
No theft.
Only appearances.
Then Victoria fell.
He panicked.
Did not call emergency services immediately.
Waited four minutes.
Why?
To restore the breaker.
Serena covered her mouth.
Victoria stared at him.
“You left me on the floor to fix the evidence.”
Thomas cried.
“Yes.”
He had not pushed her.
But he chose the lie before her pain.
That mattered.
Serena whispered:
“Why?”
Thomas looked at her.
“Because Lydia said if Victoria was removed, you would finally control the house.”
Serena looked sick.
He had done it for her.
Or the idea of her.
Another adult turning Serena’s entitlement into justification.
Then Richard received news.
The $38 million trail had reached Robert Mercer’s son’s fund.
Enough for civil action.
Not enough yet for criminal conspiracy.
Robert still denied direct knowledge.
Then Elias asked:
“Where was Charles’s money the night he died?”
Everyone looked at him.
“What do you mean?” Victoria asked.
Elias explained.
Charles told him two days before death:
“If I fail, follow the money before you follow the body.”
Victoria felt cold.
Charles suspected not only theft.
Something around his death.
Doctor records showed cardiac arrest.
Natural.
But Charles’s medication had been changed one week earlier.
By whom?
His cardiologist.
At whose request?
Charles himself.
Why?
No one knew.
Then Richard found the appointment note.
Patient reports someone has been tampering with pill organizer.
Victoria went pale.
May you like
Charles knew someone had access to his medication.
And he told no one at home.
