The doorknob turned once.
Stopped.
Then turned again.
The groundskeeper had locked it, but the old wooden door flexed against the frame when Pike pushed.
Anna stood beside me with Voss’s 1996 statement clutched against her chest.
My phone was still connected to Voss.
“Back exit?” I whispered.
The groundskeeper pointed toward a narrow hallway.
“Storage door. Opens behind the maintenance shed.”
Pike knocked.
“Anna.”
She went completely still.
He knew.
Not simply that we were somewhere nearby.
He knew exactly which room held her.
Voss spoke through my phone.
“Do not answer him.”
Anna looked at the screen.
“Why should I believe you?”
“Because if Pike wanted only the documents, he would be at the monument.”
The door shook again.
Pike called, “Voss has been lying to you.”
Anna’s mouth tightened.
“That part could still be true.”
“Yes,” I whispered.
We did not need to make Voss innocent in order to recognize Pike as dangerous.
That distinction had taken our family an astonishingly long time to learn.
People could tell the truth for selfish reasons.
They could protect someone after harming someone else.
They could confess one crime while concealing another.
Nothing required us to choose a hero.
I put Voss on mute.
“Can you walk through the storage area quietly?” I asked the groundskeeper.
“Yes.”
“Where does it come out?”
“Behind the equipment garage.”
“Visible from the parking lot?”
“Not until the last ten feet.”
Anna looked through the window.
Pike had disappeared from view.
That was worse.
“Go,” she said.
The groundskeeper led us down the hall.
We passed shelves of grass seed, cleaning chemicals, replacement plaques, and battered plastic flowerpots.
My phone vibrated in my hand.
Voss was still connected.
I unmuted him.
“Where is Pike?”
“I can’t see him.”
“Then why are you still by the monument?”
A pause.
“I’m trying to keep him looking at me.”
Anna heard.
Her expression did not soften.
“Thirty-one years late.”
Voss answered quietly.
“I know.”
We reached the storage door.
The groundskeeper eased it open.
Sunlight cut across the concrete floor.
No Pike.
He pointed.
“Garage is there. My truck is behind it.”
“Keys?”
“In it.”
I stared.
“You leave your keys in your truck?”
He shrugged.
“Usually my biggest threat is someone stealing mulch.”
Under other circumstances, I might have laughed.
We moved.
Anna first.
Then me.
The groundskeeper behind us.
We had nearly reached the garage when Pike’s voice came from our left.
“You’re making this harder.”
Anna stopped.
Pike stood between two rows of headstones.
He was not holding a gun.
His hands were visible.
That did not reassure me.
“Stay there,” I said.
He ignored me.
“Anna, Voss told you I’ve been hunting you.”
“Yes.”
“He lied.”
“Then explain why you’re here.”
“Because you have something that belongs to me.”
Anna laughed once.
“There it is.”
“Not money.”
“What?”
“Peter’s ledger.”
“It belonged to Peter.”
“He stole part of it from me.”
Anna stared.
“What part?”
“The pages naming federal contacts.”
Margaret.
Jonathan.
Thomas.
Possibly others.
Pike took one careful step forward.
I raised my phone.
“Stop.”
He did.
Anna asked, “Why were you supposed to take Claire from the hospital?”
His face changed.
So Voss had told us something Pike did not expect us to know.
“That isn’t what happened.”
“Then tell me what happened.”
Pike looked toward the cemetery entrance.
Voss remained beside his sedan.
Watching.
“Victor wanted Vincent’s baby.”
“We know.”
“He believed Vincent would eventually come back for his daughter.”
“So he wanted bait.”
Pike’s jaw tightened.
“That was Victor’s plan.”
“And yours?”
“I was supposed to move the infant to a family Victor controlled.”
“Which family?”
“The Mercers.”
Anna stared at him.
“That was me.”
“Yes.”
“But I wasn’t Vincent’s daughter.”
“No.”
“When did you learn?”
“Three days later.”
“How?”
“Voss received the final blood work.”
“And then?”
Pike looked toward Voss.
“He panicked.”
Voss’s voice came faintly from my phone.
“That’s not what happened.”
Pike heard it.
“You have him on the phone?”
“Yes.”
Pike laughed.
“Perfect.”
He raised his voice.
“Tell her, Leonard.”
Voss did not answer.
Pike continued.
“Tell Anna why you didn’t simply correct the mistake.”
Silence.
Anna looked at my phone.
“Leonard?”
Voss finally spoke.
“Because Victor ordered me to bring you back.”
“And?”
“I refused.”
Anna’s face remained unreadable.
“Why?”
“Because by then I understood what he intended to do with Claire.”
“What?”
Voss hesitated.
Pike answered for him.
“Keep her identity unresolved until Vincent returned.”
Anna looked between the phone and Pike.
Pike continued.
“If Vincent came back, Victor could prove he had the man’s daughter. If Vincent stayed away, Victor could eventually use her inheritance rights.”
Claire had never been a child to him.
She had been leverage waiting to mature.
Anna asked, “Why did that make Leonard protect me?”
Voss answered.
“Because once Victor knew you were Daniel’s child, you had no financial value to him.”
Anna’s expression sharpened.
“So you protected me because I was worthless.”
“No.”
“That is exactly what you said.”
“I protected you because Victor wanted the mistake erased.”
The meaning arrived slowly.
I felt sick.
“Erased how?”
Voss said nothing.
Pike looked almost satisfied.
“Go ahead, Leonard.”
Anna whispered, “He wanted me dead.”
Voss’s silence confirmed it.
The cemetery seemed suddenly too quiet.
Anna looked toward the headstones around us.
“So you hid me.”
“Yes.”
“By falsifying more records.”
“Yes.”
“Moving me through homes.”
“Some placements.”
“Breaking every trail back to Rebecca.”
“Yes.”
“You could have gone to police.”
Pike laughed.
Anna turned on him.
“You don’t get to laugh.”
He stopped.
She looked back toward my phone.
“You could have told Rebecca.”
“I tried.”
“No. You threatened her.”
“I was still working for Victor.”
“There is always a sentence after your confession.”
Voss said nothing.
Anna’s voice trembled now, but she did not stop.
“You want credit because you prevented the murder you helped make necessary.”
“No.”
“Good.”
That single word seemed to wound him more than shouting would have.
Pike stepped forward.
“Anna, whatever Voss thinks he did for you, he kept your existence secret because you could expose him.”
“I know.”
“He didn’t save you out of kindness.”
“I know.”
“He—”
“I said I know.”
Pike stopped.
Anna looked exhausted.
“You both keep talking like I need one of you to be the good man.”
Neither answered.
“I don’t.”
She held up the copied statement.
“I need records.”
Pike’s eyes moved toward it.
There.
The first uncontrolled reaction.
He wanted that document.
I saw it.
So did Anna.
“What’s on the final pages that scares you?” she asked.
“Nothing.”
“You looked at it.”
“I looked because Voss’s statement is unreliable.”
“Then you shouldn’t care whether I have it.”
Pike’s mouth tightened.
Anna turned to me.
“Evan.”
“Yeah?”
“Photograph the last two pages.”
I pulled them out.
Pike moved.
Only one step.
But fast.
The groundskeeper shouted.
I backed away.
“Stay there.”
Pike stopped again.
“Read them first.”
That was not what I expected.
“Why?”
“Because Leonard wants you to think I threatened Anna.”
“You did.”
“No.”
Voss spoke through the phone.
“You told me if I moved her again, you would tell Victor where she was.”
Pike looked toward the device.
“I told you I would expose what you had done.”
“That isn’t what you said.”
“Because you were hiding a child.”
“To keep her alive.”
“So you claim.”
Anna rubbed her forehead.
“Enough.”
Both men fell silent.
“I am not spending another minute listening to two old men argue about which one frightened me more efficiently.”
I nearly smiled.
Pike did not.
Anna continued.
“What happened to Vincent?”
That changed him.
“Why ask me?”
“Because everybody says he disappeared after meeting Voss.”
“I didn’t touch Vincent.”
“Did you know where he went?”
“No.”
“Did Victor?”
“Not after 2004.”
“Leonard?”
Pike glanced toward the sedan.
“Ask him.”
Anna did.
Voss answered.
“I knew until 2005.”
My pulse changed.
“What happened in 2005?”
“He contacted me.”
“From where?”
“Montreal.”
“Why?”
“He wanted Claire.”
Anna went still.
“Not me.”
“No.”
“He knew by then.”
“Yes.”
“Knew Claire was his daughter.”
“Yes.”
“Did Claire know?”
“No.”
“What did you tell Vincent?”
Voss took a long time.
“That Claire was safe.”
“Was she?”
“With Marlene and Daniel.”
Anna’s expression hardened.
“You knew Daniel had custody.”
“Yes.”
“And you knew what Daniel had done.”
“Yes.”
“So why tell Vincent she was safe?”
“Because Pike was monitoring Vincent’s contacts.”
Pike shouted, “That’s a lie.”
Voss ignored him.
“If Vincent came back, Victor would find Claire.”
“So you kept her father away from her.”
“Yes.”
“Did Vincent agree?”
“No.”
“What happened?”
“He came back anyway.”
Every sound seemed to disappear.
Claire’s father had returned.
“When?”
“March 2005.”
“Where?”
“Millbrook.”
“Did Thomas see him?”
“Yes.”
That explained the 2004–2006 records.
I asked, “What happened after that?”
Voss’s answer was almost inaudible.
“Vincent disappeared for real.”
Pike stared toward the sedan.
“You never told me that.”
Voss did not respond.
Anna asked, “Did you kill him?”
“No.”
“Did Victor?”
“I don’t know.”
“Pike?”
“I don’t know.”
Pike swore.
Then my phone buzzed with an incoming message.
Jonathan.
One line.
PIKE’S CAR IS REGISTERED TO SHAW LEGACY MANAGEMENT.
I showed Anna.
She looked toward Pike.
“You told Evan you were running from Voss.”
Pike’s face changed.
Anna held up the phone.
“You arrived in his company car.”
Pike looked toward the cemetery gate.
That was enough.
He ran.
Not toward us.
Toward the trees.
The groundskeeper shouted, but I did not chase him.
Neither did Anna.
For once, nobody confused pursuit with courage.
I called emergency services and reported exactly where Pike had gone.
Voss remained by the monument.
Anna walked toward him.
I stayed beside her.
“Why was Pike using your car?”
Voss looked genuinely confused.
“He wasn’t.”
“It’s registered to your company.”
“We sold that vehicle.”
“To who?”
“I don’t know.”
“When?”
“Three years ago.”
Anna laughed without humor.
“Of course.”
Voss looked at the documents in her hands.
“You found my statement.”
“Yes.”
“Then you know I tried to expose Victor.”
“You also withdrew it.”
“Yes.”
“You falsified our records.”
“Yes.”
“You helped Victor.”
“Yes.”
“You helped hide me.”
“Yes.”
“And now you want us to believe you.”
“No.”
That stopped her.
Voss looked older than he had from a distance.
“I want you to verify me.”
Anna studied him.
“Good answer.”
“It’s the only one left.”
Police arrived seven minutes later.
Pike was gone.
Voss agreed to remain.
He gave a statement.
He also voluntarily surrendered his phone.
That surprised everyone.
Before officers took him away for further questioning, he looked at Anna.
“Ask Margaret about March eighteenth, 2005.”
“What happened?”
“Vincent came home.”
Then he looked at me.
“And Thomas made the worst decision of his life.”
My stomach tightened.
“What decision?”
Voss glanced toward the officers.
“I won’t say without counsel.”
Then he left.
We returned to the cemetery office.
Anna spread the documents across the groundskeeper’s desk.
We found March 18, 2005, in Thomas’s notes.
One sentence.
VINCENT RETURNED. I SENT HIM AWAY.
Beneath it:
I CHOSE EVAN.
I stared at the words.
Anna read them twice.
“What does that mean?”
I did not know.
Then I noticed another line pressed faintly into the paper beneath it, written hard enough on a missing page to leave an impression.
We shaded the indentation lightly with the side of a pencil.
The words appeared.
IF VINCENT STAYS, VICTOR TAKES CLAIRE.
IF HE LEAVES, EVAN LIVES.
Anna looked at me.
My father had not simply helped Vincent disappear.
Someone had forced him to choose.
Claire’s father.
Or me.
Click here to continue reading: PART 22: Thomas Chose My Life Over Vincent’s Return, and Margaret Finally Told Us What Happened on the Night Claire’s Father Vanished
Four Hours After Surgery, One Ordinary Question Made My Wife Look at Me Like a Stranger
Part 21 of 28
