Chapter 5 - THE COAT CLOSET
"No!" Arthur shouted, lunging forward.
But his seventy-one-year-old legs were no match for Rebecca’s adrenaline-fueled panic. She grabbed Leo by the arm, yanking the six-year-old hard enough to make him cry out, and pressed the flat side of the kitchen knife against the boy’s side, hidden from view of the hallway but perfectly visible to us.
"Don't take another step, old man," she hissed, her sweet facade dropping instantly.
Leo started to cry, squirming in her grip. "Sadie! It hurts!"
"Let him go, Rebecca," I pleaded, holding my hands up. "You don't want to hurt him. Dominic will kill you. You know he will."
"Dominic isn't here!" she snapped. "He left an hour ago to track down Marco. He left me! So I'm leaving, too. And I'm taking the boy as insurance."
She dragged Leo toward the mudroom door. Arthur was hyperventilating, clutching his chest. I knew I couldn't fight a woman holding a knife to a child, but I couldn't let her take him.
"Wait!" I yelled. "Take it! Take what your father gave me!"
Rebecca paused, her eyes darting to my hands. "What is it?"
"I don't know. A pawn ticket." I slowly pulled the laminated square from my apron pocket. "Take it. Just leave Leo."
Rebecca sneered. "Slide it across the floor."
I knelt down and slid the plastic square across the smooth hardwood. It stopped right at her designer heels. She bent down slightly, keeping her grip on Leo, and scooped it up.
She squinted at the faded ink under the harsh kitchen lights. As she read the address, her face went completely slack. The knife trembled in her hand.
"Where did you get this?" she demanded, looking at Arthur. "He destroyed this. Marco said he burned it!"
"He lied to you, Becca," Arthur breathed heavily, leaning against the counter. "Marco didn't burn the ledger. He pawned it under a fake name to use as leverage against you. I found the ticket in your mother's belongings. She knew. Margaret knew what you were planning before she died."
Rebecca’s chest heaved. The pawn ticket was the key to a ledger. A ledger that proved she and Marco had conspired to murder her mother and steal Dominic's money. If Dominic found it, she was dead.
She shoved the ticket into her cleavage and shoved Leo roughly away from her. The boy fell to the floor, scrambling backward toward me. I scooped him into my arms, pressing his face into my shoulder.
"You're both dead," Rebecca snarled. "Marco is coming for you."
She punched the code into the back door keypad, tore the door open, and ran into the darkness of the estate grounds.
I didn't wait to see if she was coming back. I locked the deadbolt, rearmed the alarm, and carried Leo over to Arthur. The old man was slumping toward the floor, his face gray, gasping for air.
"Arthur!" I set Leo down and caught the man's shoulders, easing him to the linoleum. "Arthur, look at me. Breathe."
"My heart," he gasped, clutching his chest. "Pills... upstairs..."
"I'll get them!" I yelled. "Leo, stay right here with Grandpa Artie!"
I sprinted out of the kitchen, taking the grand staircase two steps at a time. I burst into the blue guest room and tore through Arthur's packed duffel bag. I found his orange prescription bottle and shook it.
Empty.
I stared at the bottle in horror. I had seen the pharmacist fill it two days ago. It should have been full.
I looked at the label. The prescribing doctor was a Dr. Evans. A private concierge doctor. The same doctor who gave Rebecca her "migraine" medication. Rebecca had emptied his pills. She wanted him to have a heart attack.
I ran back downstairs to the kitchen. Arthur was unconscious on the floor. Leo was sitting beside him, crying quietly, patting his hand.
I pulled out my phone and dialed 911. "Ambulance, please. Estate on Ridge Road. Heart attack."
As I hung up, the kitchen phone rang. It was the heavy, secure landline that only rang when the front gate called the house.
I hesitated, then picked it up. "Hello?"
"Sadie."
It was Dominic’s voice. He sounded strange. Hollow.
"Mr. Falcone! You need to come back! Arthur is having a heart attack, and Rebecca ran off—"
"Sadie, listen to me very carefully," Dominic interrupted. The tone of his voice froze the blood in my veins. "Take Leo. Go down to the wine cellar. Lock the steel door from the inside and do not open it for anyone but me."
"What? Why? The ambulance is coming for Arthur!"
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"There is no ambulance coming, Sadie," Dominic said grimly. "Marco’s men just breached the front gate. They’re coming for the house. And they have orders to leave no witnesses."
Before I could process the words, a massive explosion rocked the front of the house, shattering the kitchen windows and plunging us into total darkness.
