Aldric Thornwood's Arc

Chapter 9 of 10

Aldric waited in the brush thirty yards from the treehouse. The briefcase sat visible through the window, exactly where he'd left it. He'd been here since dawn, watching. His legs ached from crouching. His hands were cold. But movement came just after noon—a figure climbing the ladder, quick and careful. The rope ladder swayed under the climber's weight. Aldric rose from the brush and moved closer, staying low. The figure reached the platform and stepped inside. Through the window, Aldric saw a young man, maybe twenty-five, reaching for the briefcase. Not the perpetrator. Too young. Too uncertain in his movements. The man opened the case and pulled out a pocket watch—not his father's, but one identical to it. The man turned it over in his hands like he'd seen it before. Aldric climbed the ladder before the man could leave. The platform creaked under his boots. The young man spun around, dropping the watch. His face went pale. Aldric stepped through the doorway and saw the trap door he'd built into the floor—meant to catch someone trying to escape through the back. The man backed toward it without knowing it was there. Aldric raised one hand. "Stop moving," he said. The man froze. "Who sent you?" The young man's voice shook. "My grandfather. He said to get the watch before someone else did." He pointed at the case. "He said it belonged to his brother. Thomas Thornwood." Aldric felt the ground shift under him. His father had a brother. Someone who'd been alive this whole time, watching. Someone who knew what the watch meant and had sent his grandson to retrieve it. The perpetrator wasn't coming for the briefcase. They'd sent an innocent instead, testing whether Aldric would act without knowing the full picture. He'd almost trapped the wrong person. Aldric picked up the fallen watch and handed it back to the young man. "Tell your grandfather I want to meet him," he said. "Tonight. At the stone deer statue." The man nodded and left quickly, the ladder creaking as he descended. Aldric stood alone in the treehouse, staring at the briefcase. His bait had worked—but it had revealed something worse. The perpetrator knew his methods well enough to stay two moves ahead.