Empire Of Secrets

Written for Sunday Whirl Wordle.
Here are Brenda’s prompt words:

wild ~ cross ~ left ~ staff ~ last ~ split
burial ~ grind ~ space ~ land ~ room ~ hood

Detective Nadine Harrow pulled her hood up against the rain as she stood at the edge of the old burial ground. The last person to see Thomas Kade alive had been his own staff ….three employees who all gave conflicting stories.

She’d have to cross the property line onto Kade’s private fifteen acres of land to find answers. Inside the Kade mansion, one room stood locked: his study …. cold and untouched, an empty space in the corner where a safe once sat.

Kade’s business partnership with Harold Winston had split years ago, though few knew it. His accountant claimed the books were clean; Winston said otherwise, describing how Kade would grind every rival down, paranoid to the point of wild accusations.

Harrow found the safe’s combination left behind in the false bottom of a drawer …. child’s play for anyone patient enough to look.

She smiled. Some men build empires on secrets. Kade had buried his in plain sight.

NAR©2026
#Wordle

This is “Fake Empire” by The National

Wordle 767

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