Hearing Trapped Cries Inside Her Husband's Public Statue, She Uncovers a Fatal Political Secret
The call came just before dawn. “Ms. Kincaid, it’s Detective Dempsey. We intercepted them.”
“Intercepted who?” Maya asked, pulling herself upright in bed, heart racing.
“Julian’s security detail. They were attempting to move ‘The Sentinel of Justice’ from the museum, under the cover of darkness. Said it was for ‘private conservation’ at a remote estate.” Dempsey’s voice was grim. “I served an emergency hold order. The judge signed off.”
Maya let out a shaky breath. “Thank God.”
“There’s more,” Dempsey continued, her voice softening slightly. “About Ethan Cross. We’ve been digging into his background, following your lead on the industrial studio. He wasn’t just an auditor, Ms. Kincaid.”
“What do you mean?”
“Ethan Cross was an assumed surname,” Dempsey revealed, a beat of silence emphasizing the gravity of her words. “We found his original birth certificate. Registered under a different name. And listed his biological mother.”
Maya held her breath. “And the mother?”
“A woman named Angela Reed,” Dempsey said. “Twenty-four years ago, Julian Kincaid paid her a $350,000 non-disclosure settlement. For a college relationship, she claimed. She disappeared from public record shortly after.”
The revelation hit Maya like a physical blow. Her mind flashed back to Julian’s careful, almost casual, dismissals of Ethan Cross when the auditor was first mentioned. The depth of his secret, and his depravity, solidified.
“Julian paid her to keep silent about his son,” Maya whispered, the words tasting like ash in her mouth. “Ethan wasn’t just an auditor who found embezzlement. He was Julian’s son.”
“It appears so,” Dempsey confirmed. “Ethan Cross was living under a legal name change. And Julian Kincaid knew exactly who he was.”
“He killed his own son,” Maya said, the truth twisting in her gut. She pictured the faint, rhythmic tapping from inside the statue, the choked-off word, “Julian.” A son, tapping for his father, and that father had sealed his fate. The betrayal was staggering.
“We have the evidence now, Ms. Kincaid,” Dempsey stated, her voice firm. “We have the physical location, the timeline, the motive. And we have the victim.”
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