Chapter 6 - The Golden Egg
By Monday morning, every national news network had placed the Whitmore scandal at the top of its broadcast.
Chief Holloway remained in federal custody.
Dr. Voss had been arrested at the hospital.
The nurse who helped remove Lily agreed to cooperate.
Judge Samuel Bell disappeared before agents reached his home.
Margaret Whitmore remained inside her estate with six attorneys and the expression of a woman attending someone else’s funeral.
Richard was missing.
Lily returned to the hospital under federal protection.
She refused sedatives until Arthur promised he would not leave without saying goodbye.
“I’m not ten,” she told him.
“No.”
“But part of you still thinks I am.”
“Every father remembers all the ages his child has been.”
Lily looked toward the bruises on her arms.
“I don’t feel like that girl anymore.”
“You don’t have to become her again.”
“What do I become?”
“Whoever you choose.”
Evelyn entered carrying a laptop.
“The bank card from Clara’s compartment unlocked an encrypted storage account. We recovered payment schedules, property transfers, and communications going back eighteen years.”
“Enough to charge Margaret?” Lily asked.
“Enough to charge half the people who attended her Easter dinner.”
Arthur looked at the screen.
“What about Richard’s current records?”
“Most of the files he used were deleted from Whitmore servers yesterday.”
Lily slowly sat up.
“They aren’t deleted.”
Evelyn turned.
“I copied them.”
“We know about the hidden folder.”
“That was only the backup.”
“Where is the original?”
Lily looked almost embarrassed.
“Inside an Easter egg.”
Arthur stared at her.
“You hid financial evidence in a plastic egg?”
“I knew Richard searched my bags and my car. He never paid attention to the children’s decorations.”
“Where is it?”
“The Whitmore garden. Near the stone fountain. It was gold with a blue stripe.”
Federal agents returned to the estate with a search warrant.
Margaret stood on the front steps as they entered.
“You are turning a private family disagreement into public theater,” she told Evelyn.
“Your son abducted an injured woman from a hospital.”
“Lily has always been dramatic.”
Arthur walked past her.
Margaret blocked his way.
“You were not invited.”
Arthur looked at the hand she placed against his chest.
She removed it.
“My wife warned you,” he said.
“Clara was a bookkeeper who overestimated her importance.”
“She recorded your voice.”
For the first time, Margaret’s perfect expression cracked.
Only for a second.
Then she smiled.
“Recordings can be misunderstood.”
“Threatening a mother with her child is difficult to misunderstand.”
Margaret lowered her voice.
“You failed to protect Clara. Now you are using Lily to repair your pride.”
Arthur felt the words strike the wound she intended.
But he did not react.
“You still think pain makes everyone controllable.”
“It usually does.”
“Not anymore.”
Agents searched the garden.
Hundreds of plastic eggs had been scattered across the lawn during the Easter hunt. Most had been collected by children.
The gold egg with the blue stripe was gone.
Margaret watched from the terrace.
“You appear to have lost something.”
Evelyn turned toward her.
“How did you know what we were searching for?”
Margaret’s smile vanished.
At that moment, smoke rose from the garden pavilion.
Flames burst through the windows.
Someone had set fire to boxes of Easter decorations stored inside.
Agents ran toward the building.
Margaret stepped backward into the house.
By the time they realized she was escaping, a hidden service passage stood open behind the kitchen pantry.
Her car was gone.
The pavilion burned to the ground.
No drive was found.
Arthur returned to the hospital with empty hands.
Lily stared at the ceiling.
“I should have chosen a better hiding place.”
“You chose one Richard did not find.”
“Someone did.”
A knock sounded at the door.
A nervous woman entered with a small boy.
Arthur recognized her from the Easter gathering. She had stood outside with the children while Lily lay injured inside.
“My name is Hannah Cole,” she said. “This is my son, Ben.”
The boy held a plastic basket.
“I took something from the party,” he whispered.
His mother placed an object on Lily’s blanket.
A gold plastic egg with a blue stripe.
“I saw the news,” Hannah said. “Ben told me Mrs. Whitmore tried to take it from him after the police arrived. He hid it inside his jacket.”
Lily opened the egg.
A small black drive fell into her palm.
Evelyn connected it to a protected computer.
The files appeared immediately.
Videos.
Spreadsheets.
Recorded calls.
One video showed Richard and Margaret inside the Whitmore study.
Richard paced near the fireplace.
“She found the transfers,” he said.
Margaret poured tea.
“Then control your wife.”
“I tried.”
“You are bruising her face. People notice faces.”
“What do you want me to do?”
Margaret looked directly toward the hidden camera Lily had placed on a bookshelf.
“Clara Miller refused to understand the cost of disobedience.”
Richard stopped pacing.
“You promised Lily would not end the same way.”
“That depends entirely on Lily.”
The video ended.
No one spoke.
Arthur looked at his daughter.
Lily held his hand.
“We have them.”
Evelyn nodded.
“We have enough to dismantle the entire network.”
Her phone rang.
She answered, listened, and became pale.
“What happened?” Arthur asked.
“Margaret’s attorneys arranged a private aircraft under another name.”
“Where?”
“Whitmore airfield.”
Arthur moved toward the door.
Evelyn stopped him.
“There’s more.”
“What?”
“The flight plan lists two passengers.”
“Margaret and Richard?”
“No.”
She turned the screen toward him.
May you like
The second passenger was Judge Samuel Bell.
And the aircraft was scheduled to land in a country without an extradition treaty.
