The Man in the Service Passage
Chapter 08 - The Man in the Service Passage
Marcus and police entered the passage from opposite sides.
Nathan stood inside the archive holding the aircraft recorder.
He had removed the Sterling signet ring before the gala, but the chandelier camera captured the pale band around his finger.
“You were beneath the stairs,” Ryan said.
Nathan shook his head.
“I pulled the wire. I did not move it.”
“Who did?”
Nathan looked toward Eleanor.
“Ask the woman who taught this family that inconvenient heirs disappear.”
Eleanor denied entering the passage.
Nathan offered another explanation.
Vanessa had discovered the pension theft and planned to reveal it during the gala. Nathan was ordered to create a scandal linking her to Grace.
The loose railing would make Vanessa look reckless.
But someone adjusted the mechanism to cause serious harm.
Nathan claimed that person was Thomas Sterling, Ryan’s uncle and board chairman.
Thomas would inherit temporary control if Ryan lost his wife and unborn child while facing a public scandal.
Police searched Thomas’s home.
They found the missing signet ring, wire cutters, and copies of Grace’s medical schedule.
Thomas was arrested at the private airport.
He denied touching the railing.
“The tools were planted.”
Nathan smiled.
For the first time, Ryan understood.
Nathan had created evidence against everyone.
He forged Ryan’s signature.
Used Eleanor’s stationery.
Placed Thomas’s tools.
Imitated Vanessa’s handwriting.
The only fact not controlled by Nathan was the hidden chandelier camera.
Nathan reached for the recorder’s emergency release.
Grace pressed her brass key into the archive console.
Metal shutters sealed the cabinets.
The recorder locked inside the wall.
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Samuel had designed the archive to recognize his heir.
Nathan was trapped with evidence he could no longer remove.
