“Timothy seems to think the killer is crazy,” she pointed out. “Plus, we still haven’t figured out the connection between Heidi and Otto. They might have been under the same roof, but Heidi wasn’t like Otto. She wasn’t a lawyer with knowledge of the legal case. Heidi was just a young woman trying to do her job.”
“That’s why we have to keep searching for her family’s contact details. She deserves a better resting place than the castle grounds,” he said. “Feel up to it?”
She wiped at her face again, then smoothed her hands down over her hair. “Yes. We can’t save her, but at least we can find her family.”
They went back to searching through Heidi’s belongings, and Gabriel looked through all the documents he found on the nightstand. Most of the papers looked like old bills or receipts. Nothing with her family’s contact details.
With that pile of paper dealt with, he opened the nightstand drawer and retrieved the stack of papers inside. Receipts, photocopies of Heidi’s IDs, a day planner, prescriptions. It was all so mundane the he started to put the papers back into the drawer when something caught his eye.
His heart started to pound the way it did when he knew he was close to winning a challenging case. “I found it.”
Jane looked up from her search through a handbag. “What? What did you find?”
He held up a pair of documents. “The connection between Heidi and Otto. I found the killer’s motive.”
Jane rushed over to him, her heart hammering. “What’s the motive?”
He handed over a yellowed document. “Start with this.”
She looked at the parchment in her hands. It was old. At least a hundred years old, by the look of it. The very type of document she had come to Germany to look for. “It’s a family tree.”
“Right. With all the von Westens on it.” He pointed lower down on the tree. “The paper is probably centuries old, but each generation gets added as time goes by. In the old days, a castle historian or archive keeper was responsible. My guess is that Otto was in charge of it more recently.”
“This is my name,” she said, staring at her place on the tree.
“Yeah. And this is my client’s name,” he said, pointing to the name ‘Kyle Westen’.
“So that’s the client you were trying to keep secret,” she said wryly.
“I’ve got way bigger problems than letting my client’s name get out,” he said with a sardonic smile. “Anyway, this proves what I feared.”
“Which is?”
“You both have equal claim to the castle,” he said. “You’re both third cousins of von Westen. From the same generation, with legitimate parentage. Neither of you has a stronger claim than the other.”
“So we’re back to square one,” she said, sighing. “Wait, you said Otto was in charge of the family tree. Why would Heidi have this, then?”
“I think this will answer the question.” He handed over another document.
This piece of paper was a lot more recent, though it was crumpled. Jane peered at the German written on it, trying to remember what she had learned of the language over the past few months. “This is a birth certificate. Heidi’s birth certificate.”
“Look who’s written as her father.”
Jane’s eyes went wide with shock. “Oh my goodness. Her father was Friedrich von Westen.”
“The castle’s former owner.”
She was so stunned that she was speechless for several long moments. It was taking her brain forever to accept what she was seeing. “I can’t believe this. Heidi was von Westen’s daughter?”
“His illegitimate daughter,” he pointed out. “Which would have thrown a wrench into everything.”
“Heidi was my cousin,” Jane said, a dull pain spreading through her. “This whole time we’ve been looking for her family while I was her family all along. I didn’t even know.”
“I’m sorry, Jane.”
“Is this why she was killed?”
“That’s my guess.” Sadness settled over his face, his green eyes darkening with it. “As the castle solicitor Otto probably discovered the truth, and the killer got rid of him, too.”
“Oh my goodness.” Her pulse quickened, her heart beating so fast she had to place a trembling hand over her chest to try slowing it down. “Timothy. Oh shit, you were right, Gabriel. Timothy must have done this. He’s upstairs right now. What do we do?”
“We hold on to these documents for the police and get the rest of the servants away from him before it’s too late,” he said, taking the papers back from her.
“We have to go back upstairs now.”
“Right. That means we can’t let Timothy know what we’ve found. We can’t risk tipping him off.” He pocketed the documents and headed for the door. “Stay close.”
She took a deep breath to try to steady her fraying nerves, and then followed Gabriel.
The manservant walked over to them. “So, you are finished with your search? Have you found any contact information?”
“Not yet. We’re going to need an extra pair of hands to help,” Gabriel said.
“Then I will request that Sven and Agnes help us,” the manservant said.
With her heart hammering wildly in her chest they headed upstairs to the bedroom, the manservant bringing up the rear.
When they got into the bedroom, Sven and Agnes were warming themselves by the fire.
“Where’s Timothy?” Jane asked as she approached the servants.
Agnes got to her feet. “We begged him not to go, Fraulein Westen.”
“Go where?” Jane asked in alarm.
“He went up to the tower to try to get better internet service,” Agnes said with a heavy sigh. “We told him it was too dangerous, especially now. But he would not listen to us.”
Jane glanced at Gabriel, too stunned to speak. If Timothy was on the loose in the castle, far away from prying eyes, there was no telling
