Chapter 7
Julian denied opening it.
I believed him.
Not because I trusted him.
Because his fear looked different.
“You knew someone did.”
Silence.
“Who?”
He sat slowly.
Daniel had confronted him three weeks before his death.
Not about the shadow payments.
About the coalition behind them.
Five families.
The Langs were only facilitators.
Julian brought introductions.
Then lost control of the arrangement when the coalition realized it could function without him.
That was the problem with selling access.
Eventually buyers decide they can own the door.
Daniel discovered three Voss captains were secretly feeding him information about coalition meetings.
The coalition demanded their names.
He refused.
Julian begged him to compromise.
Daniel refused him too.
Then Daniel told his brother something strange.
“If they ever go into my grave, Marina will know.”
Julian thought it was metaphor.
It wasn’t.
“Did he tell you about the ring?”
“No.”
I believed that too.
Then why did Julian come tonight?
Because Edmund called him.
After I left the casino.
Of course.
The Langs were panicking.
They told Julian the ring had resurfaced and Samuel had bowed to me.
Julian understood Daniel’s contingency had activated.
He came to determine what I knew.
“Now you know,” I said.
He laughed bitterly.
“No, Marina.”
Then looked at the wedding band.
“None of us know.”
That mattered.
The hollow insert was still missing.
The black panel remained locked.
Daniel had built a chain of information that required several pieces.
Someone opened his coffin before Edmund.
Someone removed the insert.
Someone left the ring behind.
Why?
If the first intruder wanted the vault, taking the ring would make sense.
Unless the ring itself was useless without me.
Or unless they wanted Edmund to retrieve it later.
A trail.
Daniel had anticipated grave robbers.
Could he have arranged the first opening himself?
Impossible.
Dead men do not open coffins.
But living allies do.
Samuel looked at me.
“Mrs. Voss.”
He hesitated.
“There was one person Daniel trusted with burial arrangements more than Julian.”
I knew before he said the name.
My mother-in-law.
Eleanor Voss.
Daniel and Julian’s mother.
May you like
Seventy-three.
The woman who had personally placed the braided ring back onto her son’s finger before the coffin closed.
