[CHAPTER 3]
My hands went numb.
I read the sentence twice.
Then a third time.
If I’m gone, don’t trust her.
Laura’s handwriting was unmistakable.
She had always pressed too hard with a pen. The letters leaned slightly forward, as if even her handwriting was in a hurry.
I turned the photograph over again.
Laura smiled beside Atlas.
Claire stood next to her.
Younger.
Longer hair.
But unmistakably Claire.
My wife had told me she barely knew Laura.
According to Claire, they had met only a handful of times through a charity committee.
The photograph showed something very different.
They were standing shoulder to shoulder like old friends.
Ethan reached for my sleeve.
“Is that Mommy?”
“Yes.”
His eyes moved to Claire.
“She knew Mommy?”
I swallowed.
“Apparently.”
Deputy Ruiz stepped closer.
“Mr. Mercer, I think you should let Sheriff Bennett see that before touching anything else.”
She was right.
I placed the photograph back inside.
Outside, Claire had stopped shouting.
That worried me more.
Sheriff Bennett returned a minute later.
His expression was serious.
“Claire says Ethan wandered outside after she told him not to.”
“That’s a lie.”
Bennett looked toward my son.
“I know you believe that.”
“I found the shed latched from the outside.”
“I saw it.”
“And the camera was disconnected manually.”
“I’ve noted that too.”
I pointed toward the box.
“Now look at this.”
He pulled on gloves before examining the photograph.
His eyebrows lifted when he read the back.
“Is this Laura’s handwriting?”
“Yes.”
“You’re certain?”
“Completely.”
Bennett looked toward the door.
“Claire told me she hardly knew Laura.”
“That is what she told me too.”
Ethan whispered, “She lies a lot.”
I knelt beside him.
“You don’t have to talk anymore tonight.”
“I want to.”
His eyes filled.
“I tried to tell you before.”
The sentence broke something inside me.
“When?”
“A lot.”
I could barely speak.
“How?”
“When you called.”
“What happened?”
“She stood close.”
I understood immediately.
Claire had never allowed Ethan to speak freely when I called from work.
She always answered first.
She always said he was busy, sleeping, bathing, watching television.
I had accepted those explanations because they were ordinary.
That was how her deception worked.
Nothing sounded dramatic enough to question.
I touched his shoulder.
“I should have listened better.”
He stared at the floor.
“You were working.”
I hated hearing him defend me.
Bennett crouched beside us.
“Ethan, Deputy Ruiz is going to take you and your dad to the house for a little while. I need to speak with Claire again.”
Ethan looked toward the barn entrance.
“Is she coming inside?”
“No.”
“Promise?”
Bennett nodded.
“I promise.”
Only then did Ethan stand.
That one small reaction told Bennett everything my son was not yet able to explain.
We walked toward the house.
I carried the metal box after Bennett photographed where it had been found.
Claire sat in the back of the patrol vehicle.
She had not been arrested.
Not yet.
Bennett had separated her while he investigated.
She watched us cross the yard.
Her face was expressionless.
Ethan pressed closer to me.
Inside, Deputy Ruiz made hot chocolate while I found dry clothes.
Ethan changed in my bedroom because he refused to go upstairs alone.
When he returned, he sat beside me on the couch under two blankets.
The metal box rested on the coffee table.
“You okay?” I asked.
He nodded.
Then shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
“That’s okay.”
“Are you mad?”
“At you? Never.”
“At Mom.”
I looked toward the window.
“At Claire, yes.”
He lowered his voice.
“Is she still my mom?”
The question nearly destroyed me.
“You don’t have to call her anything that makes you scared.”
He nodded slowly.
“I want to call her Claire.”
“Then that’s what you’ll call her.”
Deputy Ruiz placed the mug in front of him.
He wrapped both hands around it.
“Thank you.”
I realized I had not heard him say thank you so carefully before.
As if every act of kindness required permission.
I looked away before he saw my face.
Sheriff Bennett entered twenty minutes later.
“Daniel, Claire is leaving tonight.”
My head snapped up.
“You’re letting her go?”
“I don’t have enough to hold her right now. Ethan has no obvious serious injury, and we are still documenting his statement. But I have advised her not to return to the house tonight.”
“Advised?”
“She agreed to stay with her sister.”
I laughed without humor.
“Claire doesn’t agree to things unless they benefit her.”
Bennett lowered his voice.
“I’m also opening an investigation.”
Claire appeared behind him at the doorway.
Ethan stiffened.
Bennett immediately stepped between them.
Claire looked at me.
“I need my overnight bag.”
“I’ll get it.”
“I can get my own things.”
“No.”
Her eyes moved to the box.
“Daniel, that belonged to Laura.”
“Yes.”
“You shouldn’t dig through a dead woman’s private things.”
I stared at her.
“You seem very concerned about Laura’s privacy.”
Pain flashed across her face.
Or anger.
Maybe both.
“I loved Laura.”
The room went still.
“You told me you barely knew her.”
Claire realized the mistake immediately.
“I meant I respected her.”
“That isn’t what you said.”
She swallowed.
“Daniel, Laura was not well toward the end.”
My chest tightened.
“What does that mean?”
“She was grieving things. She was paranoid.”
“About you?”
“I don’t know what she wrote.”
“You just told me not to read it.”
“Because she was confused!”
Ethan covered his ears.
I pointed upstairs.
“Ruiz, please take him to my room.”
The deputy guided him away.
Once they were gone, I stepped closer to Claire.
“You have one chance.”
Her face hardened.
“To do what?”
“Tell me the truth.”
“I have been telling you the truth.”
“How did you know Laura?”
Claire looked at Bennett.
Then back at me.
“We volunteered together.”
“For how long?”
“A year.”
“You told me you met her a few times.”
“I didn’t think it mattered.”
“Why did she hide a photograph of you with a warning?”
“I don’t know!”
“What’s on the recorder?”
Her eyes shifted.
There.
One second.
One tiny shift toward the metal box.
She knew.
“What’s on it, Claire?”
“I have no idea.”
I took the recorder from the box.
Bennett stopped me.
“Let me document it first.”
He photographed it carefully.
Then he turned it over.
The battery compartment had been taped shut.
A date was written on the tape.
October 14.
The day before Laura died.
My knees nearly failed me.
Claire whispered, “Daniel.”
I looked at her.
“You know that date.”
“Of course I know it.”
Laura had died October 15.
A rain-slick highway.
A failed brake system.
A crash investigators called a tragic accident.
I had spent three years forcing myself to believe that word.
Accident.
Bennett pressed play.
Static crackled.
Then Laura’s voice filled the room.
Weak.
Breathless.
Terrified.
“Daniel, if you’re hearing this, something happened before I could tell you.”
I stopped breathing.
Laura continued.
“I found the missing money.”
May you like
Claire’s face went gray.
“And Claire knows I found it.”
