Chapter 6: Karen’s Real Motive
Daniel expected Karen to return.
He didn’t expect her to come alone at night.
At nearly eight, someone knocked on the door.
Daniel looked through the window.
Karen stood on the porch.
No red jacket.
No smug expression.
Just a tired woman staring at the door.
Daniel opened it but kept the security chain engaged.
“What do you want?”
Karen swallowed.
“I need to talk to you.”
“About my Christmas decorations?”
“No.”
Her voice was quieter than he’d ever heard it.
“About Harold.”
Daniel opened the door.
Karen stepped inside.
She looked around the house.
Her eyes lingered on the staircase.
Then the hallway.
It was clear she remembered something.
“I was twenty-eight when I started working for the development company,” she said.
Daniel said nothing.
“I thought I was helping people sell their homes. I thought it was business.”
“And then?”
“Then I realized they weren’t simply buying property.”
Karen looked at him.
“They wanted control of the entire block.”
She admitted she had pressured homeowners.
She admitted she had helped create fear.
But she insisted she hadn’t known how far things would go.
Harold had refused to sell.
Then he discovered that the company had misrepresented the intended use of the land.
He threatened to expose them.
Karen said she left the company shortly afterward.
Daniel didn’t forgive her.
Leaving didn’t erase what she’d done.
But then she explained why she’d been destroying his decorations.
She had seen someone entering Daniel’s backyard at night.
She believed they were searching for the old records.
“I thought if I scared you into leaving, they’d lose interest in the property.”
Daniel stared at her.
“You thought vandalizing my house would protect me?”
“I panicked.”
“You broke something my wife bought twenty years ago.”
Karen looked down.
“I know.”
Her voice cracked.
“I knew it was wrong.”
Daniel’s anger remained.
But now another question mattered.
“Who is looking for the records?”
Karen didn’t answer.
Instead, she reached into her coat and placed a photograph on the table.
It showed a man standing beside the old shed.
Daniel recognized him.
Martin Hale.
But the photograph was dated three days before Martin had first visited Daniel.
“He’s been here before,” Karen said.
Daniel felt the room become colder.
Karen continued.
“There’s one more thing.”
She looked toward the hallway.
“The records aren’t in the shed.”
“Where are they?”
Karen pointed upward.
“The house.”
Daniel thought about the attic.
The old boxes.
Margaret’s belongings.
Then Karen said something that changed everything.
“Harold told me your wife knew where they were.”
Daniel’s heart stopped.
“Margaret?”
Karen nodded.
“She was the only person he trusted.”
Daniel suddenly remembered something Margaret had once said, years ago.
A sentence he hadn’t understood.
Some things are safer when nobody knows you have them.
At the time, he’d thought she was talking about money.
Now he wondered.
