Chapter 7 - Midnight at the Ashby Estate
For a moment, I couldn't hear anything except my own heartbeat.
Eli was in my kitchen.
A stranger was standing behind him.
And Victor Ashby was watching through a phone.
I reached for my own phone, but Victor raised the pistol.
“Don't.”
Nora stepped forward.
“You said Eli would be safe.”
“I said no harm would come to him if Caleb cooperated.”
“You threatened a child!”
Victor looked at her with contempt.
“Don't pretend your hands are clean, Nora. Your company has profited from decisions you never bothered to question.”
“Then I'll give it all away.”
He laughed.
“You'd lose everything.”
“I'd rather lose everything than become you.”
For the first time, Victor looked genuinely angry.
He lowered the phone.
“Midnight, Caleb. The original recording. No police, no tricks. If you fail, your son pays the price.”
He returned to the SUV and drove away.
Elizabeth collapsed onto a wooden pew.
Nora knelt beside her mother, but her own face had gone white.
I turned to Daniel.
“Call the sheriff.”
“Victor said—”
“I don't care what he said. My son is in danger.”
Daniel called immediately. He gave the sheriff the location of my house and the description of the man in the video. Then he contacted his security team.
Within minutes, we were moving.
The original accident recording was still at the storage facility, but the authorities had taken custody of the cassette. We had only a digitized copy.
Victor wanted the original because he believed it contained evidence that could destroy him.
But I had another question.
Why had he waited twenty-three years?
At the estate outside Nashville, we found the answer.
Daniel had traced several old payments to a private security company. The same company had employed the men who guarded Richard Ashby during his recovery. Its former director had recently died, leaving behind a sealed deposition.
The deposition described a plan to seize control of Ashby Holdings after Richard's death. Victor had been working with two board members and a senior executive to make sure Nora inherited the company under his supervision.
But Richard had changed his will.
He had left Nora controlling shares and named an independent trustee. If Victor couldn't gain control before Richard died, he would lose his influence over the company.
That explained the urgency.
It didn't explain Lily.
I called Mrs. Dorsey.
She answered on the second ring.
“Caleb? Thank goodness. Eli's fine.”
I closed my eyes.
“Is he with you?”
“He's here with the sheriff's deputy. They arrived before anyone got inside.”
I almost fell to my knees.
The man in Victor's video had been recorded earlier. It was a deliberate attempt to make us believe Eli was still in danger.
“Don't let him out of your sight,” I said. “I'm coming home as soon as I can.”
“You do what you need to do, Caleb. We'll keep him safe.”
Nora stood beside me.
“Victor wants the original recording. We can use that to get close enough to Lily.”
“Or we can hand it to the sheriff and let them arrest him.”
Daniel shook his head.
“The sheriff has probable cause to investigate, but Victor's lawyers will argue that the recording is incomplete. We need Lily, the original tape, and the medical records to establish the full pattern.”
“Then we get Lily,” I said.
Elizabeth knew where Victor kept a private residence outside Nashville. She had been there once, years earlier, when she tried to reach Richard before the accident investigation was closed.
The estate was surrounded by stone walls and security cameras. Daniel arranged for the sheriff to position officers nearby, while Nora insisted on going to the front entrance.
I refused to let her walk in alone.
“You're not my bodyguard,” she said.
“No. I'm the man whose son Victor threatened.”
She looked at me for a long moment, then nodded.
We approached the gate at 11:35 p.m.
Victor's security guards opened it after seeing Nora.
Inside, the house was brightly lit. A grand staircase rose through the foyer, and portraits of the Ashby family lined the walls.
Victor waited at the top.
“Where is the tape?” he asked.
I held up the small metal case Daniel had prepared.
“Where is Lily?”
Victor smiled.
“She's upstairs.”
Nora took a step forward.
“Bring her down.”
“First, the recording.”
I placed the case on the table.
Victor opened it.
Inside was a cassette.
He looked at me, satisfied.
“You should have stayed in your little farmhouse.”
Then he pressed a button on a remote.
A large screen lit up.
The video showed an emergency-room hallway on the night of the accident. Richard was lying on a gurney. Elizabeth was being wheeled in behind him. A nurse carried a newborn infant through a side door.
Victor leaned toward the screen.
“Now you'll understand why I couldn't let your family survive.”
The recording continued.
A man in a hospital uniform entered the nursery.
He lifted the infant from a bassinet and carried her away.
Then the camera caught his face.
May you like
I recognized him.
It was me.
