I Have Five Kick-Ass Brothers – Episode 37
The photograph remained sealed inside an evidence sleeve, but its message followed Raina from the abandoned workshop. The star had once represented a life saved. Someone had turned it into a tracking device and a signature for crimes aimed at both families.
The jeweler, Benedict Shaw, had worked for the Jones household since Theo was a child. Mr. Jones described him as discreet and loyal, yet loyalty had become the least reliable word in Brookfield. Financial searches revealed Benedict recently paid off debts far beyond his income.
The payments came from the same medical-data trust behind Project Star. That connection proved the acquisition scheme and altered necklace belonged to one operation. It still did not identify the beneficiary.
Raina asked where Benedict might go if frightened. Theo remembered a lakeside cabin where the jeweler restored antiques away from the city. Police found his vehicle there, but the cabin appeared empty.
Inside, dust covered the furniture except for a clear path to the fireplace. Behind a loose stone, investigators recovered molds of the star charm and several counterfeit copies. One copy contained a miniature storage chip rather than a tracker.
The chip held photographs of handwritten medical ledgers, including delivery-room notes omitted from every official archive. A nurse had documented the wristbands being correct thirty minutes before Walter entered the restricted floor.
Another image showed a visitor log signed by Benedict Shaw. He had been at the hospital on the night of the switch, despite claiming he met the Jones family years later.
Theo struggled to reconcile the evidence with memory. Benedict had repaired the star charm after the childhood accident and encouraged him to search for the girl who saved him. The man had known more about Raina’s history than he ever admitted.
A floorboard creaked above them. Joshua ordered everyone back while officers climbed to the loft. They found Benedict injured and dehydrated, his hands bound with the same wire used for jewelry work.
At the hospital, Benedict explained that Walter hired him decades earlier to create replacement identification clasps for the infants. He believed the work supported a custody dispute and learned the truth only after the switch.
Guilt drove him to preserve copies of the records. When Theo brought him the broken star years later, Benedict recognized Raina’s necklace and began quietly guiding the Jones search toward the Smith household.
He never confessed because Walter threatened the nurse who helped him. After Walter’s arrest, an unknown person demanded the records and forced Benedict to place the tracker in the necklace. He obeyed long enough to hide the storage chip.
Raina asked who bound him at the cabin. Benedict described a woman who concealed her face but spoke with the authority of someone accustomed to the Lincoln estate. She knew the family’s schedules, security codes, and private names.
The description implicated household staff, yet Benedict remembered one detail: the woman wore perfume with orange blossom and cedar. Mrs. Lincoln recognized the custom scent she gave senior employees each Christmas.
Only four current staff members had received it. Security interviews cleared three through location records. The fourth, house manager Melody Grant, had disappeared that morning.
Raina remembered Melody welcoming her into the real estate after the hotel. The woman had anticipated every preference, including foods Raina never mentioned. At the time, Raina assumed her mother had provided the details.
Mrs. Lincoln admitted Melody managed the old search files and corresponded with investigators for years. She possessed exactly the knowledge needed to redirect leads, monitor Raina, and manipulate the inheritance response.
Luke accessed Melody’s office computer and found encrypted drafts addressed to Walter, Carlisle, and Renee. She had not served any one conspirator. She had coordinated them while preserving distance from every crime.
One draft revealed her motive: Melody believed the Lincoln daughter should control the family and had engineered Project Star to force Raina into power. Her obsession was not with destroying Raina, but shaping her into an heiress dependent on Melody’s guidance.
A live security alert interrupted the discovery. Melody had entered the Lincoln estate using an old master code. Mrs. Lincoln was home alone, and the cameras inside the house had just gone dark.