Chapter 18 - BENEATH THE EAST GARDEN
The court officer knocked the weapon from Benjamin’s hand.
He was restrained and removed from the courtroom.
The judge ordered the estate sealed as a potential crime scene.
Excavation began that evening.
Elena watched from the library window as forensic teams dug beneath the east garden.
Adrian stood several feet behind her.
He had been temporarily released after cooperating with investigators.
“You should not be here.”
Elena did not turn around.
“It is still our house.”
“No.”
“It is mine.”
Adrian accepted the correction.
“I deserved that.”
Elena watched another section of earth removed.
“Did you know about the remains?”
“No.”
“Did Benjamin?”
“He suspected.”
“He believed the original ledger contained the burial location.”
“That is why he needed the missing page.”
Elena finally faced him.
“Catherine had the page.”
“Did she know?”
“No.”
“The payment on the page was made to Ruth.”
Adrian frowned.
“Why?”
“Margaret paid Ruth to keep the garden closed.”
Elena looked outside.
A forensic investigator raised one hand.
Everyone stopped moving.
A black bag emerged from the ground.
Inside it were human bones wrapped in the remains of a blue dress.
A silver locket lay near the body.
The locket contained a photograph of Charles Hartley.
Benjamin had been right.
DNA later confirmed the remains belonged to Anna Cross.
The medical examiner discovered damage to the skull.
Anna had been struck before being buried.
The investigation shifted toward Ruth.
She had been present the night Anna disappeared.
Under pressure, Ruth confessed that Margaret had ordered her to clean the greenhouse.
She denied helping with the burial.
“Charles carried Anna outside.”
“Margaret followed him.”
“Benjamin was only six.”
“He was sleeping upstairs.”
Elena asked the question everyone feared.
“Who struck Anna?”
Ruth looked at Victoria.
Victoria’s face went white.
“I was not alive in 1987.”
Ruth shook her head.
“No.”
“But your mother was.”
Victoria’s mother, Caroline Hartley, had died when Victoria was twelve.
The family believed she had drowned during a boating accident.
Ruth revealed that Caroline had seen Charles attacking Anna.
Caroline struck Anna with a fireplace tool while trying to defend her father.
Anna fell.
Charles and Margaret buried her to protect their daughter.
Years later, Caroline threatened to confess.
Then she drowned.
Ruth looked toward Adrian.
“Your mother did not fall from that boat.”
“Margaret pushed her.”
Adrian staggered backward.
The estate had not protected the family.
It had consumed everyone who entered it.
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Then Mason received a call from the county jail.
Benjamin Cross had escaped.
