Chapter 6 - The Burner Phone
I raised my weapon steadily and aimed it directly at the slatted wooden doors of the dark bedroom closet.
"Come out right now with your hands where I can see them," I ordered in a booming, commanding tone.
The closet door slowly creaked open, but absolutely nobody stepped out into the bedroom.
Instead, a large frightened stray cat darted rapidly past my boots and scrambled out the violently broken window.
I slowly lowered my gun, letting out a long, shaky breath as hot adrenaline violently pulsed through my tight veins.
The unknown intruder had apparently already escaped into the neighborhood with my father's locked metal box.
I knelt carefully beside the splintered floorboards to properly inspect the extensive damage left behind by the crowbar.
Tucked carelessly beneath a piece of broken wood was a cheap, disposable black burner phone.
The cracked digital screen was still lit up with a drafted text message that had apparently failed to send due to bad reception.
The ominous message simply read, "Got the box, but the old lady is still alive."
My stomach churned violently as the horrific, undeniable truth finally clicked into place inside my spinning mind.
Evan had not just callously ignored my mother's sudden heart attack out of sheer selfishness.
He had intentionally poisoned her herbal tea yesterday afternoon specifically to get her out of the house.
He desperately needed her dead so he could freely steal my father's journals and illegally sell them to foreign buyers.
The devastating heart attack was actually a severe physical reaction to the toxic chemical he had secretly slipped into her favorite mug.
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I securely grabbed the burner phone just as Arthur ran wildly into the bedroom, completely out of breath and pale.
"Clara, there is a black unmarked van pulling aggressively into the driveway right now," Arthur warned frantically.
