Chapter 18 - THE FALSE VICTORY
Victor was arrested before the concert ever happened.
Federal agents found him at a private airfield.
The rare violin sat inside his vehicle.
So did Grace’s missing master index.
At least they believed it was the master index.
Victor smiled when Torres handcuffed him.
“You think this ends because you caught me?”
Daniel stepped forward.
“Did you kill Grace?”
Victor looked at Emily.
“No.”
“Did you order the crash?”
“Yes.”
Daniel lunged.
Agents restrained him.
Victor continued calmly.
“The crash was meant to scare her.”
Raymond had told the truth.
Grace survived.
Victor followed her to the hospital because he wanted the index.
“She wouldn’t tell me where it was.”
“So you killed her,” Daniel said.
Victor shook his head.
“She was alive when I left.”
Daniel stared.
“Who came after you?”
Victor smiled.
“You did.”
Emily looked at her father.
Daniel’s face hardened.
“I was there the entire time.”
“No.”
Victor’s attorney placed hospital access records on the table.
At 1:18 a.m., Daniel’s badge entered Grace’s restricted room.
At 1:24, medication alarms activated.
At 1:31, Grace died.
Daniel had always claimed nurses forced him out at 1:10.
The records contradicted him.
Torres looked at Daniel.
“Could your badge have been cloned?”
“Yes.”
Victor laughed.
“That excuse again.”
Daniel turned on him.
“You cloned my credentials for years.”
“Sometimes.”
“Then this proves nothing.”
Victor leaned back.
“It proves Grace was right to fear you.”
Emily closed her eyes.
No.
Grace had left clues.
Not Caroline.
Not money.
The person who betrayed me is someone you love.
She had never said Daniel.
Victor wanted them circling Daniel again.
Why?
Because he still wanted something.
Emily looked at the recovered violin.
She asked Samuel to examine it.
Ten minutes later he said the words she expected.
“This isn’t Grace’s rare violin.”
Everyone froze.
“It’s an excellent copy.”
Victor had given them a fake.
The master index was fake too.
He had allowed himself to be arrested.
Why?
Emily understood.
“Because we stopped looking.”
Torres turned.
“What?”
“He wanted us to think we won.”
Victor’s smile disappeared.
Emily stepped closer.
“You aren’t Crown Black.”
Silence.
“You work for Crown Black.”
Victor leaned back.
Emily continued.
“You staged everything so we would arrest you.”
Daniel looked at Victor.
“Who are you protecting?”
Victor said nothing.
Emily thought of all the people who had been present from the beginning.
Preston.
Evelyn.
Raymond.
Lydia.
Victor.
Daniel.
Torres.
Jonah.
Samuel.
Thomas.
Charles.
One person had always seemed outside the mystery.
One person everyone trusted because he repaired instruments instead of running companies.
Emily slowly turned.
Samuel Price was gone.
His shop was empty when agents arrived.
So were forty years of records.
Charles stared at the empty workbench.
“No.”
Daniel looked at him.
“You know something.”
Charles sat.
“Samuel repaired Caroline’s violin.”
“What?”
“He knew our family before Grace.”
Samuel had introduced Grace to Charles.
Samuel helped create the musical cipher.
Samuel knew every instrument.
Every hiding place.
Every clue.
The kindly old luthier had guided Emily toward discoveries from the beginning.
Not because he was helping her solve Grace’s mystery.
Because he was checking how much Grace had taught her.
Emily felt sick.
Then her phone rang.
Samuel.
She answered.
His voice remained gentle.
“You always were quicker than the adults.”
Emily’s hands shook.
“Where is my mother’s violin?”
“Where it belongs.”
“Did you kill her?”
A long silence.
“No.”
“Who did?”
Samuel sighed.
“That question has ruined three generations of your family.”
“Answer me.”
“You want the truth?”
“Yes.”
“Come to the conservatory.”
“No.”
“Midnight.”
“Why?”
“Because that is where Grace intended this to end.”
The line went dead.
Daniel looked at Emily.
The abandoned Commonwealth Conservatory waited across the city.
May you like
And this time the man waiting inside knew every move they were likely to make.
Because he had been teaching them how to follow clues from the very beginning.
