The police arrived at my house before we did.<\/p>\n
Robert had insisted on calling them from the bank parking garage, and for once I did not argue. By the time Eric drove me home, two patrol cars were angled along the curb, their lights washing red and blue across Dale\u2019s maple tree.<\/p>\n
I remained in the passenger seat.<\/p>\n
From outside, the house looked exactly as it had that morning.<\/p>\n
That frightened me more than broken glass would have.<\/p>\n
Officer Grant met us on the front walk. He was younger than Eric, broad-shouldered and patient, with the careful manner of someone accustomed to people talking too quickly when frightened.<\/p>\n
\u201cMrs. Mercer, please don't go inside yet.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWas anything taken?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe're still checking.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe person sent us a photograph from my kitchen.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw the message your son showed the dispatcher.\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked toward the kitchen window.<\/p>\n
The curtains were exactly where I had left them.<\/p>\n
Robert arrived behind us and handed Grant a printed copy of the photograph.<\/p>\n
The image showed my kitchen table from the doorway leading into the hall. Dale\u2019s letter lay beside the blue notebook and Mr. Dawson\u2019s folder.<\/p>\n
The photograph could only have been taken after we found the notebook.<\/p>\n
Yet the notebook had never been in my house.<\/p>\n
Robert noticed it at the same moment I did.<\/p>\n
\u201cWait.\u201d<\/p>\n
Grant looked at him.<\/p>\n
Robert enlarged the photograph on Eric\u2019s phone.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis wasn't taken today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eric frowned. \u201cIt has to be. That's Dad's notebook.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
Robert pointed at the folder.<\/p>\n
\u201cLook at the corner.\u201d<\/p>\n
The folder in the photograph was gray.<\/p>\n
Mr. Dawson\u2019s current folder was black.<\/p>\n
I stared at the image.<\/p>\n
Then I recognized something else.<\/p>\n
Dale\u2019s coffee mug.<\/p>\n
It sat beside the sink.<\/p>\n
Not merely the same blue mug I had refused to put away.<\/p>\n
It was positioned upside down on a drying towel.<\/p>\n
Dale always dried his mug that way.<\/p>\n
My knees weakened.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis photograph was taken while Dale was alive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eric turned toward me.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou're sure?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe used that towel.\u201d<\/p>\n
The towel in the photograph had yellow stripes. I had thrown it away months before Dale died after it tore along one edge.<\/p>\n
Officer Grant studied the picture.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo somebody had access to your home before your husband died.\u201d<\/p>\n
The thought entered the room like cold air.<\/p>\n
The threatening message had been designed to make us believe someone had entered that afternoon.<\/p>\n
But whoever sent it had made a mistake.<\/p>\n
Or Dale had deliberately arranged the photograph.<\/p>\n
Robert asked the question none of us wanted to ask.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho knew about the notebook while Dale was alive?\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. Dawson shook his head.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnly Dale and me, as far as I know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDid you ever bring it here?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
I answered before Dawson could say anything else.<\/p>\n
\u201cDale did.\u201d<\/p>\n
Everyone looked at me.<\/p>\n
I remembered him sitting at the kitchen table during the last year of his life, writing in a blue notebook while I prepared dinner. I had assumed he was recording medication times or household expenses.<\/p>\n
Once I had teased him about becoming a secret novelist.<\/p>\n
He closed the cover and told me I would hate the ending.<\/p>\n
At the time I thought he was joking.<\/p>\n
Officer Grant finally allowed us inside.<\/p>\n
Nothing appeared disturbed.<\/p>\n
No drawers had been opened. No windows were broken. The back door remained locked. Dale\u2019s papers were where I had left them.<\/p>\n
Grant walked through every room with another officer.<\/p>\n
I stood in the kitchen, looking at the exact place from which the photograph had been taken.<\/p>\n
Eric stayed beside me.<\/p>\n
\u201cMom.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDid Dad ever say anything about Melinda?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNot directly.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy wouldn't he tell me?\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked at him.<\/p>\n
That question had been waiting since we watched Dale\u2019s recording.<\/p>\n
\u201cWould you have believed him?\u201d<\/p>\n
Eric did not answer.<\/p>\n
He lowered his eyes.<\/p>\n
I hated the sadness in his face, but I would not rescue him from the truth.<\/p>\n
A year earlier, if Dale had told Eric that Melinda might be stealing financial information, my son probably would have defended his wife.<\/p>\n
Perhaps Dale knew that.<\/p>\n
Perhaps he had known his son better than either of us wanted to admit.<\/p>\n
Officer Grant returned.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo obvious signs of forced entry.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause nobody entered today,\u201d Robert said.<\/p>\n
\u201cPossibly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Grant asked for the threatening message and unknown number. Eric forwarded everything.<\/p>\n
Then Grant looked at the blue notebook.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat exactly is in there?\u201d<\/p>\n
Robert answered carefully.<\/p>\n
\u201cPotential evidence of financial misconduct involving several businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n
Grant extended his hand.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe'll need it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Robert did not give it to him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI'll provide a copy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Grant\u2019s expression changed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is potentially connected to a threat.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd potentially connected to privileged legal work. I'll cooperate, but we're preserving the original.\u201d<\/p>\n
For several seconds the two men regarded each other.<\/p>\n
Then Grant nodded.<\/p>\n
\u201cCopy tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou'll have it.\u201d<\/p>\n
After the police left, Robert told me not to stay alone.<\/p>\n
Eric immediately said I would come home with him.<\/p>\n
I almost laughed.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo the house Melinda lives in?\u201d<\/p>\n
He looked embarrassed.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe isn't there.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow do you know?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe texted me. She said she's staying with a friend.\u201d<\/p>\n
Robert asked to see the message.<\/p>\n
Melinda had written only three sentences.<\/p>\n
She needed space.<\/p>\n
She was sorry everything had become ugly.<\/p>\n
She would contact Eric when she was ready.<\/p>\n
Robert read it twice.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe doesn't mention the loan?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe withdrawals?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe property?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
He handed the phone back.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo not respond.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eric stared at him. \u201cShe's my wife.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the moment, she's also someone whose financial activities are under investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n
The sentence visibly hurt him.<\/p>\n
I touched Eric\u2019s arm.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can love someone and still need the truth about them.\u201d<\/p>\n
He looked toward the window.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don't know what the truth is anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n
We spent the night at a hotel Robert recommended.<\/p>\n
Mr. Dawson arranged for the blue notebook and USB drive to be placed in secure storage. Robert made digital copies of everything.<\/p>\n
At eleven thirty, while Eric slept in the adjoining room, Robert called me.<\/p>\n
\u201cI found something.\u201d<\/p>\n
I sat upright.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe payments to Thomas Reed continued after his reported death.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow long?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEighteen months.\u201d<\/p>\n
I switched on the bedside lamp.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat doesn't make sense.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo. It doesn't.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thomas Reed had supposedly died in a boating accident two years earlier.<\/p>\n
Robert had pulled public records.<\/p>\n
There had been a memorial.<\/p>\n
There had been an obituary.<\/p>\n
There had even been a life-insurance payout.<\/p>\n
But there was one problem.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo body was recovered,\u201d Robert said.<\/p>\n
I closed my eyes.<\/p>\n
The accident occurred on a lake during bad weather. Thomas\u2019s boat had been found damaged near the northern shoreline.<\/p>\n
Authorities eventually presumed him dead.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd Melinda received the insurance money?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThree hundred thousand dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n
I thought about her telling me they were struggling.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere did it go?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI'm working on that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The next morning, Eric looked twenty years older.<\/p>\n
Robert arrived with coffee and a stack of documents.<\/p>\n
We sat around the small hotel table.<\/p>\n
Thomas Reed and Melinda had established a property-development company almost six years earlier.<\/p>\n
Their business model involved purchasing land outside the city and reselling it to developers.<\/p>\n
Hawthorne sat directly between two parcels the company had acquired.<\/p>\n
Eric stared at the map.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo they needed Dad\u2019s land.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNeeded may be too strong,\u201d Robert said. \u201cBut owning Hawthorne would dramatically increase the value of the surrounding parcels.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow much?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPotentially millions.\u201d<\/p>\n
I remembered Melinda\u2019s questions over the years.<\/p>\n
How much had we paid for the house?<\/p>\n
What investments did Dale own?<\/p>\n
Did we still have land his father had once discussed?<\/p>\n
She had not been making conversation.<\/p>\n
She had been mapping us.<\/p>\n
Robert opened Dale\u2019s notebook.<\/p>\n
Several pages contained dates followed by initials.<\/p>\n
T.R.<\/p>\n
M.M.<\/p>\n
Then another set.<\/p>\n
C.V.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho is C.V.?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don't know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eric leaned closer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI might.\u201d<\/p>\n
He searched his phone.<\/p>\n
\u201cCharles Voss.\u201d<\/p>\n
The name meant nothing to me.<\/p>\n
Eric explained that Voss had been a financial adviser associated with Melinda\u2019s company. Eric had met him twice at business dinners.<\/p>\n
\u201cIs he still involved?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought he left after Thomas died.\u201d<\/p>\n
Robert wrote down the name.<\/p>\n
An hour later he found Charles Voss.<\/p>\n
Not physically.<\/p>\n
On paper.<\/p>\n
Voss had been investigated three years earlier for questionable commercial lending practices.<\/p>\n
No criminal charges had resulted.<\/p>\n
But his name appeared in lawsuits involving falsified valuations and disputed signatures.<\/p>\n
One plaintiff had accused him of creating loans through shell companies.<\/p>\n
The case had been settled privately.<\/p>\n
I looked at Eric.<\/p>\n
\u201cCould he have created your loan?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Robert shook his head.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot alone.\u201d<\/p>\n
That distinction mattered.<\/p>\n
Someone had supplied Eric\u2019s documents.<\/p>\n
Someone had benefited from the money.<\/p>\n
Someone had known about Hawthorne.<\/p>\n
At noon, my phone rang.<\/p>\n
Melinda.<\/p>\n
Robert motioned for me to answer on speaker.<\/p>\n
\u201cHello?\u201d<\/p>\n
Her voice was strained.<\/p>\n
\u201cMargaret, please listen before you say anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI'm listening.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn't send that message to Eric.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nobody moved.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow do you know about it?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause he called me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eric shook his head violently.<\/p>\n
He had not.<\/p>\n
Robert wrote something on a hotel notepad.<\/p>\n
KEEP HER TALKING.<\/p>\n
\u201cEric hasn't spoken to you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Silence.<\/p>\n
Then Melinda said, \u201cSomeone told me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWho?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI can't say.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, Margaret. I really can't.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen there's nothing to discuss.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWait.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her voice broke.<\/p>\n
For the first time, she sounded frightened rather than angry.<\/p>\n
\u201cThomas is alive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eric stood.<\/p>\n
Robert motioned sharply for him to remain quiet.<\/p>\n
I gripped the phone.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou collected his life insurance.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDid you know he was alive?\u201d<\/p>\n
Another silence.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot at first.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eric covered his face.<\/p>\n
I asked, \u201cWhen did you find out?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAbout six months after the accident.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd you told no one?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe threatened me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWith what?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything.\u201d<\/p>\n
She began crying.<\/p>\n
Not loudly.<\/p>\n
I had heard Melinda cry before, usually during family arguments when anger became too exhausting to sustain. This sounded different.<\/p>\n
She told us Thomas had staged his disappearance because their company was collapsing beneath hidden debts.<\/p>\n
He had borrowed money without telling her.<\/p>\n
He had falsified documents.<\/p>\n
When he disappeared, she believed he was dead.<\/p>\n
Then he contacted her.<\/p>\n
He wanted the insurance money.<\/p>\n
She refused.<\/p>\n
So he showed her documents carrying her signature.<\/p>\n
Documents she claimed she had never signed.<\/p>\n
Robert leaned toward the phone.<\/p>\n
\u201cMelinda, this is Robert Lane. Where are you?\u201d<\/p>\n
She stopped speaking.<\/p>\n
\u201cMelinda?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou shouldn't be involved.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere are you?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI can't tell you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAre you in immediate danger?\u201d<\/p>\n
The line went dead.<\/p>\n
Eric grabbed his jacket.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to find her.\u201d<\/p>\n
Robert blocked the door.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe's my wife.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd if Thomas Reed is alive, we have no idea what we're walking into.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eric\u2019s fists clenched.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe may have stolen from Mom because someone was threatening her.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPossibly.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don't believe her?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n
That answer sounded exactly like something Dale would have said.<\/p>\n
My phone vibrated.<\/p>\n
A photograph arrived from Melinda\u2019s number.<\/p>\n
It showed a motel room.<\/p>\n
On the bed lay a folded newspaper.<\/p>\n
Beside it was a handwritten note.<\/p>\n
I enlarged the image.<\/p>\n
The note contained an address and four words.<\/p>\n
ASK DALE ABOUT THE FIRE.<\/p>\n
I stared at it.<\/p>\n
Eric read over my shoulder.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat fire?\u201d<\/p>\n
I knew.<\/p>\n
I had simply not thought about it in years.<\/p>\n
Twenty-one years earlier, a storage building on the Hawthorne property had burned to the ground.<\/p>\n
Dale told me lightning caused it.<\/p>\n
Insurance paid for the damage.<\/p>\n
Nobody was hurt.<\/p>\n
Or so I had believed.<\/p>\n
I called Mr. Dawson.<\/p>\n
His reaction told me immediately that the fire mattered.<\/p>\n
\u201cMargaret.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat happened at Hawthorne twenty-one years ago?\u201d<\/p>\n
He exhaled slowly.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou need to read the last pages of Dale\u2019s notebook.\u201d<\/p>\n
Robert opened the copy.<\/p>\n
The final pages had been stuck together.<\/p>\n
Not accidentally.<\/p>\n
A thin strip of adhesive held them closed.<\/p>\n
Robert separated them carefully.<\/p>\n
Inside was a photograph.<\/p>\n
Three men stood in front of the Hawthorne storage building.<\/p>\n
One was Dale.<\/p>\n
The second was a much younger Thomas Reed.<\/p>\n
And the third was Charles Voss.<\/p>\n
On the back, Dale had written a date.<\/p>\n
The night before the fire.<\/p>\n
Below it was one sentence.<\/p>\n
Thomas Reed did not discover Hawthorne through Melinda.<\/p>\n
He had known about it for decades.<\/p>\n
And whatever began there had started long before my daughter-in-law entered our family.<\/p>\n
The police arrived at my house before we did. Robert had insisted on calling them from the bank parking garage, and for once I did not argue. By the time … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10277,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-insightdrama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10282"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10282\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10302,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10282\/revisions\/10302"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}