Rebecca remained pressed against the wall, one hand covering her mouth.
Daniel stared at her as if waiting for her to correct herself.
"Evelyn?"
Rebecca nodded.
Robert stood so abruptly that his chair scraped across the floor.
"No."
Rebecca looked at him. "I remember her."
"You were twelve."
"I know how old I was."
"Memory changes."
"So does the truth when this family tells it."
Robert stopped.
Mara watched Rebecca's face. Until that moment, Rebecca had seemed exhausted and frightened but certain of the facts she had deliberately preserved. Now certainty had vanished. This memory was different. It was arriving in pieces, and each piece appeared to frighten her more than the last.
Daniel pulled the visitor chair toward his sister.
"Sit."
Rebecca shook her head.
"Please."
She finally sat.
Daniel crouched in front of her.
"Don't try to make it fit Thomas's theory. Tell us only what you actually remember."
Rebecca closed her eyes.
"It was summer."
"What year?"
"The year Elliot died. Maybe July."
"Where?"
"Thomas's garage."
Robert frowned. "Why were you there?"
"I went with Mom."
"Patricia took you?"
Rebecca nodded.
"Thomas was fixing her car."
Daniel asked, "Was Evelyn there?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"I don't know."
Rebecca pressed her fingertips against her forehead.
"There was lemonade. Elliot was working on a motorcycle outside. Thomas and Mom were arguing about something inside the office."
"Where was Evelyn?"
"With me."
"Doing what?"
Rebecca breathed slowly.
"She asked whether I wanted to learn a trick."
Mara felt her attention sharpen.
"What trick?"
"How to tell whether something under a car was leaking."
Robert whispered, "Jesus."
Rebecca opened her eyes.
"She spread newspaper beneath Thomas's old sedan. She told me to crawl underneath."
Daniel asked, "Did you?"
"Yes."
"What did she show you?"
"A metal line."
"The brake line?"
"I didn't know what it was then."
Robert walked toward the window.
Rebecca continued.
"She had grease on her fingers. She put some on mine."
"Why?"
"She said mechanics always had dirty hands."
Daniel glanced toward Mara.
Mara understood his thought.
A twelve-year-old girl's fingerprints in grease beneath a car would mean nothing if she had been deliberately encouraged to crawl under vehicles.
"Did Evelyn ask you to touch anything?"
Rebecca nodded slowly.
"A tube. Maybe the line."
"Did you use a tool?"
"No."
"Anything sharp?"
"I don't remember."
"Think carefully."
Rebecca closed her eyes again.
"She gave me pliers."
Robert turned.
"What?"
"Small ones."
"What did she tell you to do?"
"Hold them."
"That's all?"
"I think."
Mara said, "Did she take a photograph?"
Rebecca's eyes opened.
"Yes."
Everyone became still.
"How do you remember?"
"There was a flash."
Daniel looked toward the cedar box.
"Was that photograph in Thomas's collection?"
Rebecca shook her head.
"I've never seen it."
Mara looked at Robert.
"Could Evelyn have been creating evidence that Rebecca knew how to work beneath a car?"
Robert's face hardened.
"You're assuming Evelyn planned something months in advance."
"I'm asking whether it's possible."
"No."
Rebecca looked at him.
"Why are you protecting her?"
Robert turned toward his daughter.
"I'm not."
"You've defended her every time her name appears."
"Because she was not some monster."
Rebecca's voice sharpened. "Neither was Mom, according to you. Neither were you. Neither was Thomas. Yet somehow an eighteen-year-old ended up dead, evidence disappeared, I was hidden from police, Daniel's mother was erased from his life, and everyone spent seventeen years lying."
Robert fell silent.
Daniel stood.
"We call Evelyn."
Rebecca immediately said, "No."
"Why?"
"Because she'll lie."
"Then we let her lie and compare it with what we know."
Mara looked at the sleeping baby.
"No accusations."
Daniel turned.
"What?"
"Not yet. Ask about the garage without telling her what Rebecca remembered."
Rebecca nodded.
Daniel dialed.
Evelyn answered after four rings.
"Daniel?"
Her voice sounded cautious.
"Where are you?"
"At home."
"Your home?"
"Yes."
Daniel placed the call on speaker.
"I need to ask about the summer before Elliot died."
Silence.
"What about it?"
"Did Rebecca ever visit Thomas's garage?"
A pause.
Robert closed his eyes.
Evelyn said, "Probably."
"With you?"
"I don't remember."
Rebecca looked at Mara.
Daniel continued.
"Did you ever show Rebecca how brake lines worked?"
The silence changed.
Not confusion.
Recognition.
"No."
Rebecca's jaw tightened.
Daniel asked, "Are you sure?"
"Why are you asking me this?"
"Answer."
"I said no."
"Did you ever ask her to crawl underneath a car?"
"No."
Rebecca stood.
"You put newspaper down first."
Evelyn stopped breathing.
Daniel looked at his sister.
Rebecca continued before anyone could stop her.
"You put grease on my hands."
"Rebecca?"
"Yes."
"Oh, God."
Daniel leaned toward the phone.
"So you remember now."
Evelyn's voice became unsteady.
"That wasn't what you think."
"What do I think?"
"I don't know what Thomas put in that box."
"Rebecca's fingerprints were found in grease near the damaged brake line."
Evelyn said nothing.
Daniel's voice lowered.
"Explain the garage."
"It was a game."
Rebecca laughed without humor.
"That's exactly what you called it."
Evelyn began crying.
Robert moved closer to the phone.
"Evelyn."
She heard him.
Her voice hardened immediately.
"Robert."
"Did you damage my car?"
"No."
"Three weeks before Elliot died?"
"No."
"Did you cut the first brake line?"
"No."
"Did you puncture my tire?"
"No."
Robert closed his eyes.
Daniel asked, "Why teach Rebecca to crawl under a car?"
"Because she followed me into the garage."
"That isn't what she remembers."
"She was twelve."
Rebecca's face tightened.
"Stop saying my age as though it makes your version true."
Evelyn exhaled.
"Rebecca, you were curious. You asked what I was doing."
"What were you doing?"
No answer.
"What were you doing underneath Thomas's car?"
"I was looking for a leak."
"Why did you give me pliers?"
Silence.
Daniel stared at the phone.
"Evelyn?"
"I don't remember pliers."
Rebecca whispered, "I do."
Mara watched Robert.
His expression had changed. The instinctive defense of Evelyn was fading.
Daniel asked, "Did you photograph Rebecca?"
"No."
Rebecca shook her head.
"You did."
"I didn't."
"There was a flash."
Evelyn hesitated.
"Thomas may have taken one."
"Thomas was inside."
"Then Elliot."
"Elliot was outside."
"Rebecca, I don't remember every minute from seventeen years ago."
Mara spoke.
"Do you remember confronting Elliot at Robert's office the afternoon he died?"
Evelyn went silent.
Mara continued.
"Patricia overheard you."
"Patricia misunderstood."
"What did she misunderstand?"
"Everything."
"Then explain it."
Evelyn's voice became brittle.
"I was pregnant. I was frightened. Robert had told me he wouldn't leave his wife. Elliot thought I was trying to destroy a family. He was angry with me."
"Did he threaten to tell Patricia?"
"Yes."
"Did you touch Robert's car afterward?"
"No."
"Did you enter the rear parking lot?"
"I don't remember."
Daniel said, "Bank footage places you there."
Another silence.
"Then I must have."
"Doing what?"
"I don't know."
"Did you cut the brake line?"
"No."
"Did you know it had been cut?"
"No."
Daniel looked at Thomas's statement.
"Did Patricia ever accuse you?"
Evelyn answered immediately.
"Yes."
Everyone froze.
Robert whispered, "When?"
"After Elliot's funeral."
"What did she say?"
"She told me she knew I'd been trying to scare Robert."
"Had you?"
Evelyn began crying again.
"I never wanted him dead."
Robert gripped the edge of the table.
"That isn't an answer."
Evelyn's breathing came unevenly through the speaker.
"I loosened things."
Mara felt a chill.
"What things?" Daniel asked.
"On his car."
"When?"
"Months before."
Robert stared at the phone.
"You tampered with my car?"
"Once."
"Why?"
"I was angry."
"What did you do?"
"I don't remember exactly."
"Try."
"I loosened a battery cable. I let air out of a tire."
Robert looked sick.
"Anything involving the brakes?"
"No."
Daniel asked, "Did Patricia know?"
"She saw me once."
"Then that's why she suspected you."
"Probably."
Mara looked toward Rebecca.
The memory beneath the garage car suddenly had a different possible explanation.
"You were teaching Rebecca things you'd already done yourself."
Evelyn said nothing.
Daniel continued.
"Did you ever use Rebecca to make it look as though she'd been underneath Robert's car?"
"No."
"Did you deliberately put her fingerprints on tools?"
"No."
"Did you photograph her?"
"I told you no."
Rebecca whispered, "Then who did?"
No one answered.
Mara looked at Thomas's papers.
"Rebecca, you said Thomas was inside with Patricia."
"Yes."
"And Elliot was outside."
"Yes."
"Could either of them have taken the photograph without you seeing?"
"Maybe."
Daniel looked toward her.
"Why would they?"
Mara did not know.
Then Robert spoke.
"Because Patricia was already collecting evidence."
Everyone looked at him.
"What evidence?" Daniel asked.
Robert sat down.
"Against Evelyn."
Evelyn's voice came sharply through the phone.
"Robert, don't."
He stared at the speaker.
"You knew?"
"Don't do this."
Daniel looked between the phone and his father.
"Knew what?"
Robert's voice became heavy.
"Patricia had been documenting Evelyn's behavior for months."
Mara felt the story change again.
"Why?"
"Because Patricia suspected the pregnancy before Elliot told her."
Daniel frowned.
"You said she learned that night."
"She learned it was mine that night."
"So she knew Evelyn was pregnant."
"She suspected."
"How?"
Robert looked ashamed.
"She found a receipt."
"For what?"
"A prenatal clinic."
"Where?"
"In my car."
Evelyn whispered, "You said she never found that."
Robert closed his eyes.
Daniel heard it.
"You knew about the receipt?"
Evelyn said nothing.
Daniel's expression hardened.
"What else did Mom document?"
Robert rubbed his forehead.
"Phone calls. Notes Evelyn left me. Photographs."
"Photographs of what?"
"Evelyn near our house. Near the office."
"Under cars?"
Robert looked at Rebecca.
"Possibly."
Rebecca whispered, "Then the garage photograph…"
Mara understood.
"Patricia may have taken it."
Robert nodded.
"But why photograph Rebecca?"
No one knew.
Then Rebecca suddenly stood.
"My backpack."
Daniel frowned.
"What?"
"The day at the garage. Mom kept asking where my backpack was."
"Why?"
"I thought she was angry because I'd left it in Thomas's office."
Mara leaned forward despite the pain.
"Did you?"
"Yes."
"What was inside?"
"School things. A disposable camera."
Robert stared.
Rebecca's eyes widened.
"I had gotten it at summer camp."
Daniel understood first.
"The flash."
Rebecca looked at him.
"It might have been my camera."
"Who had access to your backpack?"
"Everyone."
Mara looked toward the cedar box.
"Thomas kept photographs for seventeen years."
Daniel began searching through them.
He spread image after image across the rolling table: properties, vehicles, invoices, family gatherings, the office parking lot.
Then he stopped.
A small envelope was tucked beneath the stack.
Across the front, in Thomas's handwriting:
REBECCA'S CAMERA — JULY.
Rebecca covered her mouth.
Daniel opened it.
There were nine photographs.
The first showed Elliot beside his motorcycle.
The second showed Thomas holding a wrench and making a face at the camera.
The third showed Robert's old office.
Then came the garage.
Rebecca was visible lying on newspaper beneath a sedan.
Evelyn knelt beside her.
In the fifth photograph, Rebecca held pliers.
In the sixth, Evelyn pointed toward the underside of the car.
Daniel reached the seventh.
He stopped.
"What?"
He turned it around.
The photograph had been taken through the open garage doorway.
Rebecca was no longer beneath the car.
Evelyn stood alone.
Behind her, partially reflected in the chrome bumper, another person held the disposable camera.
Patricia.
Robert whispered, "She took them."
Daniel examined the next image.
Patricia had apparently set the camera down or handed it back. The photograph showed Rebecca smiling beside Elliot.
The final picture seemed accidental: pavement, half a shoe, the lower edge of a vehicle.
Mara stared at it.
"Wait."
Daniel looked at her.
"The car."
"What?"
"Which car is that?"
Robert leaned closer.
His face changed.
"Mine."
Daniel rotated the photograph.
Only the lower section of Robert's car appeared, but someone was crouched beside the rear wheel.
Their face was outside the frame.
Rebecca whispered, "Who took this?"
Daniel turned the photograph over.
Nothing.
Mara looked at the visible shoe.
Small.
White.
A woman's sneaker.
Then she looked toward the speakerphone.
"Evelyn, what shoes were you wearing that day?"
No answer.
Daniel picked up the phone.
"Evelyn?"
The call had ended.
He immediately dialed again.
Straight to voicemail.
Robert moved toward the door.
"Where are you going?"
"To her house."
Daniel blocked him.
"No."
"She just disconnected."
"Which is exactly why you're not going alone."
Mara looked at the photograph again.
Something bothered her.
The person crouching beside Robert's car wore white shoes, but Evelyn in the earlier garage pictures wore dark sandals.
Mara pulled the images together.
"Daniel."
He turned.
"That's not Evelyn."
Robert stared.
Mara placed the two photographs side by side.
"Different shoes."
Rebecca leaned over them.
Then her expression changed.
"Those aren't Mom's either."
Daniel frowned.
"Whose are they?"
Rebecca looked at the final photograph.
"I know those sneakers."
"From seventeen years ago?"
"Yes."
"How?"
Her face drained of color.
"Because they were mine."
Click here to continue reading: PART 10: A Photograph Showing Rebecca Beside Robert’s Car Forced Her to Recover the Missing Hour Patricia Had Spent Seventeen Years Helping Her Forget
I Woke After the Delivery to Discover My Husband Had Made One Permanent Decision While I Was Still Unconscious
Part 9 of 20
