Chapter 11 - The Reporter Who Recognized Margaret
Television vans lined both sides of the street.
Microphones.
Camera operators.
Live broadcasts.
Everyone wanted to know why dozens of luxury vehicles, detectives, lawyers, and private security teams had surrounded an ordinary suburban home.
Among the reporters stood veteran journalist Olivia Grant.
She stared at Margaret through her camera lens.
Something about the elderly woman's face felt strangely familiar.
Then she froze.
"No..."
She hurried back to her news van.
Minutes later she returned carrying a yellowed newspaper from twenty-eight years earlier.
The front page showed a photograph of Richard Collins receiving a national innovation award.
Standing beside him...
much younger...
was Margaret.
Olivia compared the picture with the woman standing quietly behind detectives.
"It really is her."
Her producer frowned.
"Who?"
Olivia pointed at the article.
"After Richard Collins supposedly lost everything, Margaret completely disappeared from public life."
The producer looked confused.
"I thought Collins Industries went bankrupt."
Olivia slowly smiled.
"That's the story everyone believed."
She lifted the newspaper.
"But this article mentions something almost nobody remembers."
"What?"
"Richard Collins once said that every fortune should be tested before it is inherited."
Across the street...
Michael's phone vibrated.
He answered.
"Yes?"
After listening for several seconds, his expression hardened.
"We've located another vault."
Rebecca looked up immediately.
"Where?"
Michael glanced toward Margaret.
"Under the old Collins manufacturing plant."
Edward slowly closed Richard's journal.
"The Blue Ledger..."
Rebecca nodded.
"I think Richard never kept it inside this house."
Michael looked toward the gathering reporters.
"Unfortunately..."
He watched several unfamiliar faces standing among the journalists.
"...I don't believe we're the only ones looking for it."
One man wearing a photographer's vest quietly lowered his camera.
Hidden inside the camera bag...
was a compact radio.
He whispered only four words.
"They've found the vault."
May you like
Somewhere across the city...
another unknown figure received the message and smiled.
