Chapter 13 - What Lies in the Canvas
The sound of Susan’s poker splintering the cedar planks of the shed door echoed like gunshots in the enclosed space. Chloe knew the wooden crossbar wouldn't hold for long; the wood was dry and brittle, rotting slightly along the bottom edge where rainwater pooled every spring. She had minutes—maybe less.
Chloe pulled Eleanor's plastic tarp away from the easel. Resting beneath it was a large, rectangular oil painting—a sweeping winter landscape of the frozen mountain lake where Eleanor used to spend her solitary December afternoons. The colors were muted grays, icy blues, and stark white birch trees.
Chloe ran her bleeding, dirt-caked fingers around the heavy wooden stretcher bars on the back of the canvas. In the top left corner, her thumb hit a subtle seam. The wood had been hollowed out with a chisel and sealed with a thin strip of industrial velcro.
With a sharp tug, Chloe pulled the velcro strip free.
Inside the hollow cavity were two items wrapped tightly in waterproof plastic: an external hard drive labeled SECURITY ARCHIVE - OCTOBER, and a thick, blue legal folder stamped with the seal of the Vance Family Trust.
Chloe didn't need to read the legalese to understand what it meant. This was the original, uncorrupted testament. Eleanor had bypassed Arthur entirely, leaving the entire family fortune, the company shares, and the estate deed to Chloe under the guardianship of Judge Miller until her twenty-first birthday.
CRACK!
The top hinge of the shed door snapped forward with a shower of rusted screws. Susan thrust the pointed end of the brass fire poker through the gap, using it as a lever to pry the wooden door apart. Her wild, soot-streaked face appeared through the widening crack, her teeth bared in an animalistic snarl.
""You think you're clever, don't you?"" Susan hissed, her breath coming in ragged, white plumes in the freezing air. ""You think you can play the hero? Your father is dead on the patio, Chloe! Who do you think the police will believe when they find his body and you hiding out here with the evidence? I'll say you set the fire! I'll say you went crazy just like your mother!""
Susan rammed her shoulder against the door again. The wooden crossbar snapped in half with a sickening splintering sound.
The door swung violently inward.
Susan lunged into the shed, the brass poker raised high above her head to strike. But Chloe didn't cower. She grabbed a metal can of liquid lawn fertilizer from the workbench beside her and hurled the chemical mixture directly into Susan’s face.
Susan shrieked in agony as the caustic, stinging liquid splashed into her eyes, dropping the fire poker and clutching her face with clawed, desperate fingers. ""My eyes! God, my eyes!""
Chloe ducked beneath Susan’s flailing arms, clutching the legal folder and the hard drive to her chest, and bolted out of the shed into the pouring rain.
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She sprinted across the dark lawn toward the main gate, but as she cleared the corner of the house, blue and red emergency lights began stroking through the dripping pines along the driveway.
Sirens wailed in the distance, cutting through the storm.
