Chapter 8 - The Man Upstairs
Lily’s statement changed investigation.
She remembered Michael earlier that day.
Not clearly.
She said she saw “Daddy” go toward basement carrying blue folder.
Later, while Hattie questioned her, another man stood near kennel.
She did not see face.
Why call first man Daddy?
Because of navy shirt.
Dark hair.
Build.
Could have been Michael.
Could have been someone similar.
Police checked Michael’s office alibi again.
At 11:42, his badge entered executive floor.
At 12:06, camera showed Michael inside conference room.
At 1:47, another camera captured him cafeteria.
He could not realistically be home during safe opening at 11:42.
So Lily saw someone else resembling him.
Andrew Carter fit.
But phone alibi placed Andrew elsewhere.
Then investigators discovered phone had been left with employee.
Andrew admitted it.
He claimed affair, not Carter conspiracy.
He had given phone to assistant while meeting married woman.
Where?
Hotel seventeen miles from Carter house.
Hotel camera confirmed Andrew entering at noon.
Still unlikely.
Third male relative?
Michael had no brother.
Then Margaret Vale mentioned old Carter Development security director:
Ethan Shaw.
Similar build.
No family relation.
Why would Lily mistake him for father?
She probably wouldn’t.
The mystery shifted again when forensic lab opened Michael’s current watch.
Inside clasp RFID tag was authentic.
But serial number engraved beneath movement belonged to:
THOMAS CARTER.
Michael was not wearing Henry’s watch.
He was wearing Thomas’s.
Michael stared at report.
“That’s impossible.”
Penelope remembered Hattie claiming two identical watches.
Somewhere over years, they had been switched.
Which meant the watch on Michael’s wrist—the one Lily feared—was the supposedly missing evidence watch.
But chip was gone.
Someone had removed it.
Michael insisted he never knew.
Forensic marks showed back plate opened recently.
Within past few months.
Then Lily said something else.
“Grandma cleans Daddy’s watch.”
“How often?”
“When Daddy sleeps.”
Hattie denied touching it.
Police found watch repair kit in her bedroom.
Hattie finally broke.
“Yes, I opened it.”
“Why?”
“I was looking for Henry’s chip.”
“Did you find it?”
“No.”
“Then who did?”
Hattie looked toward Michael.
“I think Henry moved it before he died.”
Margaret had explicitly said Henry placed chip inside Thomas’s watch.
Someone was lying.
Then Penelope received package.
No return address.
Inside was blue memory chip.
And note:
THE WATCH IS ONLY HALF THE PROOF.
ASK HATTIE WHAT SHE DID ON JUNE 18.
June 18.
May you like
Six years earlier.
The day before Henry Carter died.
