[CHAPTER 4]
Hearing Laura’s voice again nearly dropped me to my knees.
Three years had passed since her funeral.
Three years since I had packed away her scarves because Ethan kept sleeping with them.
Three years since I had stopped reaching toward her side of the bed in the middle of the night.
And suddenly she was speaking inside my living room.
“Daniel, if you’re hearing this, something happened before I could tell you. I found the missing money. And Claire knows I found it.”
The recording crackled.
Claire lunged toward the table.
Sheriff Bennett caught her wrist.
“Don’t.”
“That recording is private!”
Bennett stared at her.
“You just said you didn’t know what was on it.”
Claire stopped struggling.
I pressed play again.
Laura’s voice continued.
“The foundation accounts are wrong. I thought I made a mistake, but I didn’t. Someone has been moving money through vendor accounts connected to Blackwood. I traced one of the names.”
She paused.
I could hear her breathing.
“Claire Whitmore.”
Claire’s maiden name.
I looked at her.
She shook her head violently.
“No.”
Laura continued.
“I confronted her this afternoon. She said I had misunderstood. Then she told me I should be careful making accusations when I was already under so much stress.”
I remembered that period.
Laura had been exhausted.
She was running the Blackwood Children’s Riding Foundation while helping me raise Ethan and managing part of the ranch.
I had repeatedly told her to slow down.
Claire had told me the same thing.
Laura’s recording went on.
“I’m hiding copies where only Atlas will keep people away long enough for Daniel to find them. If I’m wrong, I will apologize to Claire myself.”
A tiny laugh came through the speaker.
“But I don’t think I’m wrong.”
Then her voice changed.
Lower.
More frightened.
“My car felt strange tonight. The brake pedal went soft when I moved it near the barn. I’m taking Daniel’s truck tomorrow. I’ll have the car checked.”
My skin turned cold.
Laura had not taken my truck the next morning.
I remembered why.
I had driven it to an early meeting.
I had forgotten she asked for it.
She took her own car.
She died before noon.
I stopped the recording.
“No.”
The word came from me, but I barely recognized my voice.
Claire stared at the floor.
Bennett asked, “Was there anything in the original accident report about the brakes?”
“Yes.”
I struggled to think.
“They failed.”
“Cause?”
“Damage from debris. That’s what they told me.”
Claire finally spoke.
“Exactly.”
I looked at her.
“It was an accident.”
“Laura recorded that her brakes were failing the night before she died.”
“That proves nothing!”
Bennett stepped closer.
“It proves we need to look.”
Claire laughed shakily.
“So now I killed her? Is that what this is becoming?”
I said nothing.
Her eyes filled with tears.
“Daniel, I loved you.”
“You told me you barely knew my wife.”
“I was afraid!”
“Of what?”
“Of this!”
She pointed toward the recorder.
“Laura hated me near the end.”
“Why?”
“She thought I was stealing.”
“Were you?”
“No.”
“Then why lie about knowing her?”
“Because after she died, everyone was grieving. I didn’t want you thinking I was trying to replace her.”
I stared at the woman I had shared a bed with.
The explanation almost sounded reasonable.
That was what frightened me.
Claire had always been excellent at constructing a sentence that could stand upright even when the truth beneath it was rotten.
Bennett picked up the red leather notebook.
“I’m taking these items into evidence.”
I resisted instinctively.
“That belongs to my family.”
“And if it concerns fraud or Laura’s death, I need the chain of custody clean.”
I knew he was right.
Claire stepped backward.
“I want a lawyer.”
Bennett nodded.
“That’s your right.”
“I’m leaving.”
“You may collect essentials while Deputy Ruiz accompanies you.”
Claire turned toward the stairs.
Then she stopped beside me.
Her voice was quiet.
“You’re making a terrible mistake.”
I looked at her.
“My mistake was trusting you more than my son.”
Something flickered behind her eyes.
Hatred.
Pure and immediate.
Then it vanished.
“Ethan has always wanted me gone.”
I moved closer.
“He is six years old.”
“He knows how to manipulate you.”
“You locked him in a shed.”
“I disciplined him.”
“In a thunderstorm.”
“He was covered.”
“Stop.”
My voice broke.
“Just stop making cruelty sound reasonable.”
For once, Claire had no answer.
She went upstairs.
Bennett walked outside to call the county investigator who had handled Laura’s accident.
I stood alone in the living room.
Then Ethan appeared at the top of the stairs.
I forced my face to soften.
“You should be resting.”
“Did Mommy talk?”
I knew he meant Laura.
“Yes.”
“From the box?”
“Yes.”
He walked down slowly.
“Was she scared?”
I hesitated.
“A little.”
“Of Claire?”
I sat beside him.
“I think she was worried about something Claire had done.”
Ethan stared at his hands.
“I knew Claire was bad.”
The words hurt.
“How long?”
He shrugged.
“After you married her.”
My throat closed.
“What happened?”
“At first she was nice.”
I waited.
“Then when you went away, she said I had to stop acting like a baby.”
“What did that mean?”
“She took Mommy’s picture out of my room.”
I had never known.
“Where is it?”
“She said it broke.”
My jaw tightened.
“What else?”
He looked toward the hallway.
“She made me sleep in the little room sometimes.”
“What little room?”
“The laundry room.”
I stared at him.
“Why?”
“If I cried.”
My hands began trembling.
“Ethan, how many times?”
“A lot.”
I stood so quickly the coffee table moved.
He flinched.
I immediately knelt again.
“I’m not mad at you.”
“I know.”
“No. I need you to really know.”
I took his hands.
“You never deserved any of that.”
His eyes filled.
“She said you would send me away if I told.”
I could not speak.
“She said you wanted a new family.”
I pulled him against me.
“No.”
He started sobbing.
“No, Ethan. Never.”
“I thought you believed her.”
“I did believe her too much.”
That was the hardest sentence I had ever admitted.
“And I’m sorry.”
His arms tightened around my neck.
I held him until his breathing slowed.
Deputy Ruiz returned downstairs carrying Claire’s suitcase.
Claire followed.
She did not look at Ethan.
She looked only at me.
“I hope you enjoy being the hero tonight.”
I stood.
“This isn’t about me.”
“It always is with you.”
Bennett entered behind her.
“Claire, let’s go.”
She walked toward the door.
Then Ethan spoke.
“Claire.”
She stopped.
It was the first time I had heard him call her that.
She turned.
He stood beside me, still holding my hand.
“You forgot something.”
Claire frowned.
“What?”
Ethan pointed toward the small decorative bowl beside the staircase.
Inside lay a black key card.
Claire’s face changed.
I picked it up.
“What does this open?”
She said nothing.
Bennett took it from me.
Printed in faded silver letters were three words.
BLACKWOOD STORAGE UNIT.
I had never heard of it.
Bennett looked at Claire.
“Where is this?”
Her silence answered more than any explanation could.
Then my phone rang.
The caller was Martin Hale.
Laura’s old accountant.
I had not spoken with him since shortly after her death.
I answered.
His voice was shaking.
“Daniel, I just heard the sheriff reopened questions about Laura.”
“How?”
“Bennett called me.”
“What is happening?”
Martin took a breath.
“There’s something I should have told you three years ago.”
I looked at Claire.
She was watching me.
“What?”
Martin whispered, “The night before Laura died, she sent me copies of the accounts.”
My heart pounded.
“She also sent me a message.”
“What did it say?”
Martin went silent for several seconds.
May you like
Then he answered.
“She said if anything happened to her, I was supposed to find the box behind Atlas.”
