“Yes, Mr. Blackwood. I’m just… finishing up,” she replied, forcing calm as her mind raced.
She shined her phone’s flashlight inside the wall.
What she saw froze her in place.
It wasn’t just rot.
It wasn’t just mold.
Something metallic glinted faintly in the darkness.
Richard’s footsteps faded down the marble hallway. Sophia waited until she was sure he was gone.
Then she reached inside the hole.
Her fingers touched something cold and cylindrical. She pulled it out slowly, hardly believing what she was holding.
A pipe.
But not just any pipe.
A lead pipe—completely corroded, leaking a greenish liquid that had been seeping into the walls for years.
“My God,” Sophia whispered. “It’s poisoning him.”
But when she looked further, she discovered something even worse.
The pipes hadn’t been there by accident.
They had been deliberately installed behind the master bedroom—by someone who knew the house perfectly.
Someone who wanted Richard Blackwood to die slowly… and silently.
A door slammed downstairs. Sophia jumped, quickly hiding the evidence in her bag and covering the hole as best she could.
But as she turned to leave the closet, she heard something that made her freeze.