CHAPTER 9 — The Final Betrayal
The courthouse immediately went into lockdown.
No one was allowed to leave.
Federal agents searched every hallway.
Every office.
Every vehicle.
The priceless patent had vanished.
Judge Whitmore ordered every person inside the building to remain seated.
Hours passed.
Nothing.
Finally, Marcus stood.
"I think we're looking in the wrong place."
The prosecutor frowned.
"What do you mean?"
Marcus walked directly toward Julian.
"You didn't steal it."
Julian looked confused.
"I've been in handcuffs all day."
Marcus nodded.
"I know."
He turned toward Victor.
"You did."
Victor smiled.
"I'm chained to the floor."
Marcus smiled back.
"Exactly."
He picked up Victor's polished wooden cane.
"The one object no one searched."
Victor's expression changed.
For the first time...
He looked worried.
Marcus twisted the silver handle.
Click.
The cane split open.
Inside...
A tightly rolled waterproof document.
The original Ashcroft patent.
The courtroom exploded into applause.
Victor laughed bitterly.
"Congratulations."
"You found it."
Marcus carefully unrolled the document.
Then...
His smile disappeared.
"This..."
He whispered.
"...isn't the patent."
Everyone stared.
It was only a copy.
The real patent was still missing.
Victor slowly leaned back in his chair.
"I told you."
"You've never understood Richard."
Marcus frowned.
"What are you talking about?"
Victor looked directly at Iris and Lily.
"Your father never trusted paper."
"He hid the real invention somewhere no thief could ever steal it."
Silence filled the courtroom.
Victor smiled one final time.
"The real patent isn't in a vault."
"It isn't in a bank."
"It isn't even in this country."
He leaned closer.
"It's hidden inside something your father left to both of you."
Iris suddenly remembered something.
A small wooden music box.
The one her father had given them as children.
The box she had kept for twenty years.
The same box...
Still sitting untouched in the attic of the Ashcroft mansion.
She looked at Marcus.
Marcus looked back at her.
Neither of them spoke.
Because they were thinking the exact same thing.
If the music box truly contained Richard Ashcroft's final secret...
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Then someone else was already on the way to find it.
And they had very little time left.
