The blood belonged to Melinda.<\/p>\n
That was the first thing Officer Grant told us the next morning.<\/p>\n
Not enough to indicate a fatal injury, he added.<\/p>\n
I hated that he needed to say it.<\/p>\n
Eric had not slept.<\/p>\n
He sat in the police station waiting room with his hands clasped between his knees, staring at a vending machine without seeing it.<\/p>\n
I sat beside him.<\/p>\n
Neither of us spoke.<\/p>\n
At seven fifteen, Grant brought us into an interview room.<\/p>\n
They had recovered security footage from a gas station three miles from the marina.<\/p>\n
Melinda\u2019s car passed at 8:42 p.m.<\/p>\n
A black sedan followed less than one minute later.<\/p>\n
Charles Voss\u2019s vehicle.<\/p>\n
At 9:06, another camera captured both vehicles near the marina.<\/p>\n
No camera showed them leaving.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat about Thomas?\u201d Eric asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo confirmed sighting.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMelinda said Thomas found her.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou think she lied?\u201d<\/p>\n
Grant chose his words carefully.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don't know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eric stood.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou keep saying that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause guessing won't help your wife.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eric looked ready to argue.<\/p>\n
I touched his sleeve.<\/p>\n
He sat.<\/p>\n
Grant continued.<\/p>\n
A small amount of blood had been found on Melinda\u2019s passenger door and on the gravel nearby.<\/p>\n
Her handbag contained her wallet and identification.<\/p>\n
Her phone was missing.<\/p>\n
There were no obvious signs of a prolonged struggle.<\/p>\n
Robert arrived during the briefing.<\/p>\n
He had been working through the corporate records all night.<\/p>\n
He placed a file on the table.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere's another company.\u201d<\/p>\n
Grant looked at him.<\/p>\n
\u201cConnected to whom?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMelinda.\u201d<\/p>\n
The company was called Northbridge Holdings.<\/p>\n
It had been created eighteen months before Thomas Reed\u2019s disappearance.<\/p>\n
Its listed manager was not Melinda.<\/p>\n
It was Eric.<\/p>\n
Eric stared at the document.<\/p>\n
\u201cI've never heard of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Robert believed him.<\/p>\n
Northbridge had purchased two parcels adjoining Hawthorne.<\/p>\n
The money came from commercial loans.<\/p>\n
Several were guaranteed by Eric\u2019s identity.<\/p>\n
Then money began moving through Northbridge into other accounts.<\/p>\n
One belonged to Charles Voss.<\/p>\n
Another was associated with Thomas Reed under a different name.<\/p>\n
Grant leaned forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat name?\u201d<\/p>\n
Robert turned the page.<\/p>\n
Daniel Ross.<\/p>\n
A photograph attached to a business filing showed a man with a beard and darker hair.<\/p>\n
Eric stared at it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat's Thomas.\u201d<\/p>\n
So Thomas had not merely survived.<\/p>\n
He had built another identity.<\/p>\n
The question was why Melinda had continued cooperating with him.<\/p>\n
Grant asked for access to Melinda\u2019s office.<\/p>\n
Eric gave permission.<\/p>\n
Her home office was on the second floor of the house he shared with her.<\/p>\n
I had been inside only once.<\/p>\n
Melinda disliked people entering it.<\/p>\n
Now I understood why.<\/p>\n
The room looked immaculate.<\/p>\n
Desk.<\/p>\n
Laptop.<\/p>\n
Two filing cabinets.<\/p>\n
Books arranged by height.<\/p>\n
Grant\u2019s team began documenting everything.<\/p>\n
Robert noticed the printer.<\/p>\n
Its memory contained recently printed documents.<\/p>\n
One was a purchase agreement.<\/p>\n
Buyer: Northbridge Holdings.<\/p>\n
Seller: Margaret Mercer.<\/p>\n
Property: Hawthorne.<\/p>\n
My name appeared at the bottom.<\/p>\n
So did my signature.<\/p>\n
I had never seen it.<\/p>\n
I felt something inside me become very still.<\/p>\n
Eric read the document.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe forged Mom\u2019s signature.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPossibly,\u201d Grant said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo. She did.\u201d<\/p>\n
The purchase price was $850,000.<\/p>\n
Hawthorne was worth approximately $4.8 million.<\/p>\n
The agreement would have transferred it for less than one-fifth of its estimated value.<\/p>\n
Robert examined the date.<\/p>\n
It was scheduled to close three weeks later.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut this wouldn't survive verification,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnless somebody inside the process helped.\u201d<\/p>\n
Charles Voss.<\/p>\n
The name did not need saying.<\/p>\n
Grant\u2019s team opened the locked filing cabinet.<\/p>\n
Inside were ordinary tax records.<\/p>\n
Then one officer removed a false bottom.<\/p>\n
Beneath it were photographs.<\/p>\n
Dale.<\/p>\n
Mr. Dawson.<\/p>\n
Me.<\/p>\n
Eric.<\/p>\n
The bank.<\/p>\n
Hawthorne.<\/p>\n
Susan\u2019s farmhouse.<\/p>\n
Someone had been watching us.<\/p>\n
Eric picked up a photograph of Dale entering Dawson\u2019s office.<\/p>\n
The date was two weeks before Dale died.<\/p>\n
On the back, Melinda had written:<\/p>\n
HE MOVED SOMETHING.<\/p>\n
I watched Eric read it.<\/p>\n
His face collapsed.<\/p>\n
\u201cMom.\u201d<\/p>\n
I could not comfort him.<\/p>\n
Not yet.<\/p>\n
Another folder contained correspondence between Melinda and Thomas.<\/p>\n
Most messages used initials.<\/p>\n
But the meaning was clear.<\/p>\n
Thomas wanted Hawthorne.<\/p>\n
Melinda promised she could obtain access through Eric.<\/p>\n
Then Dale became suspicious.<\/p>\n
The plan slowed.<\/p>\n
After Thomas staged his death, communication continued.<\/p>\n
Melinda repeatedly demanded that Thomas release her from their arrangement.<\/p>\n
He refused.<\/p>\n
One message stood apart.<\/p>\n
If Dale dies before transfer, widow becomes obstacle.<\/p>\n
I read it twice.<\/p>\n
My stomach turned.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen was this written?\u201d<\/p>\n
Robert checked.<\/p>\n
Four months before Dale died.<\/p>\n
Eric\u2019s voice changed.<\/p>\n
\u201cAre you saying they killed Dad?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo,\u201d Grant said immediately.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have no evidence of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the question had entered the room.<\/p>\n
Dale died from heart failure after years of illness.<\/p>\n
There had been nothing suspicious.<\/p>\n
At least nothing we had recognized.<\/p>\n
I forced myself to keep reading.<\/p>\n
Later messages suggested Melinda had become frightened of Thomas.<\/p>\n
She threatened to expose him.<\/p>\n
Thomas threatened Eric.<\/p>\n
Then the grandchildren.<\/p>\n
The financial withdrawals from my account began after Dale died.<\/p>\n
At first, small amounts.<\/p>\n
Then larger ones.<\/p>\n
Melinda had apparently been sending money to Thomas.<\/p>\n
That did not excuse what she had done.<\/p>\n
But it changed its shape.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was paying him,\u201d Eric said.<\/p>\n
Robert nodded.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat about the rest?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPersonal debts. Business losses. Credit cards.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eric looked disgusted.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo she was stealing for him and herself.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Grant found a handwritten page inside the folder.<\/p>\n
It described a meeting.<\/p>\n
Marina.<\/p>\n
Ledger exchange.<\/p>\n
Thomas leaves family alone.<\/p>\n
Eric stared at it.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe went there to give him the ledger.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut she didn't have it,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n
Robert understood first.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe planned to bluff him.\u201d<\/p>\n
That explained the message demanding the notebook.<\/p>\n
Thomas believed Melinda could obtain it from us.<\/p>\n
When she failed, she arranged the marina meeting anyway.<\/p>\n
Grant\u2019s phone rang.<\/p>\n
He listened.<\/p>\n
Then stood.<\/p>\n
A vehicle had been found six miles north of the marina.<\/p>\n
Black sedan.<\/p>\n
Charles Voss\u2019s.<\/p>\n
Abandoned.<\/p>\n
Blood in the trunk.<\/p>\n
We drove nowhere this time.<\/p>\n
Grant refused to let us.<\/p>\n
Two hours passed.<\/p>\n
Then three.<\/p>\n
At noon, he returned.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe blood isn't Melinda\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eric stared at him.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhose?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don't know yet.\u201d<\/p>\n
They had found something else.<\/p>\n
A wallet beneath the driver\u2019s seat.<\/p>\n
Charles Voss.<\/p>\n
And in the trunk, a torn piece of clothing.<\/p>\n
A man\u2019s shirt.<\/p>\n
Blood-soaked.<\/p>\n
Robert asked the obvious question.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere is Voss?\u201d<\/p>\n
Grant shook his head.<\/p>\n
\u201cMissing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now three people had disappeared around the same investigation.<\/p>\n
Melinda.<\/p>\n
Thomas.<\/p>\n
Charles.<\/p>\n
But only two were officially missing.<\/p>\n
Thomas Reed was legally dead.<\/p>\n
That afternoon, Robert received the insurance file.<\/p>\n
Thomas\u2019s policy contained an unusual amendment made six months before his disappearance.<\/p>\n
If he died, Melinda received $300,000.<\/p>\n
If she died first, the beneficiary changed.<\/p>\n
To Charles Voss.<\/p>\n
Robert stared at the page.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is not normal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eric laughed without humor.<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing about this is normal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then I noticed a handwritten notation on the copy.<\/p>\n
The witness to the amendment was Dale Mercer.<\/p>\n
My husband.<\/p>\n
I pointed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy is Dale\u2019s name there?\u201d<\/p>\n
Dawson, reached by telephone, denied knowing anything about it.<\/p>\n
Robert compared the signature.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt looks like Dale\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo did mine on the Hawthorne sale.\u201d<\/p>\n
That changed the room.<\/p>\n
Perhaps Dale had never witnessed the insurance amendment.<\/p>\n
Perhaps someone had been using our family\u2019s signatures for years.<\/p>\n
Robert requested the original.<\/p>\n
While we waited, I went home with Eric.<\/p>\n
The police had finished searching.<\/p>\n
I stood in Dale\u2019s study.<\/p>\n
His desk remained almost untouched since his death.<\/p>\n
For months I had avoided it because sitting there made the absence too sharp.<\/p>\n
Now I opened every drawer.<\/p>\n
Receipts.<\/p>\n
Pens.<\/p>\n
Old birthday cards.<\/p>\n
A photograph of Eric at twelve holding his first fish.<\/p>\n
Then, taped beneath the center drawer, I found an envelope.<\/p>\n
Dale had written one word.<\/p>\n
SIGNATURES.<\/p>\n
Inside were photocopies of documents.<\/p>\n
His signature appeared repeatedly.<\/p>\n
Beside each, he had marked differences.<\/p>\n
Angle.<\/p>\n
Pressure.<\/p>\n
Spacing.<\/p>\n
Dale had known someone was forging his name.<\/p>\n
The final sheet contained Melinda\u2019s signature.<\/p>\n
Beside it was Thomas Reed\u2019s.<\/p>\n
And beneath both was a third handwriting sample.<\/p>\n
Charles Voss.<\/p>\n
Dale had circled several letters.<\/p>\n
The forged signatures were not Melinda\u2019s work.<\/p>\n
They were Charles\u2019s.<\/p>\n
I called Robert.<\/p>\n
He arrived twenty minutes later.<\/p>\n
After examining the pages, he said, \u201cDale was building a handwriting comparison.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo Charles created the documents?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPossibly.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen what was Melinda doing?\u201d<\/p>\n
Eric answered.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiving him what he needed.\u201d<\/p>\n
The sentence sounded painful.<\/p>\n
But accurate.<\/p>\n
That evening, Grant called.<\/p>\n
They had identified the blood in Charles Voss\u2019s trunk.<\/p>\n
Thomas Reed.<\/p>\n
Eric stood beside me as Grant spoke.<\/p>\n
The amount suggested a serious injury.<\/p>\n
But there was still no body.<\/p>\n
Then Grant gave us another piece of information.<\/p>\n
A traffic camera had captured Charles\u2019s sedan leaving the marina.<\/p>\n
There were two people inside.<\/p>\n
The driver was Charles.<\/p>\n
The passenger was Melinda.<\/p>\n
She did not appear restrained.<\/p>\n
Eric closed his eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo she wasn't kidnapped.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can't conclude that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut she left with him willingly.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt appears so.\u201d<\/p>\n
After the call, Eric walked into the kitchen.<\/p>\n
He stared at the chair where Melinda had sat days earlier demanding access to my money.<\/p>\n
\u201cI kept trying to find the version where she was innocent.\u201d<\/p>\n
I joined him.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere may not be one.\u201d<\/p>\n
He nodded.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n
His phone vibrated.<\/p>\n
A new email.<\/p>\n
No sender name.<\/p>\n
Attached was an audio file.<\/p>\n
We played it.<\/p>\n
Thomas\u2019s voice came first.<\/p>\n
He sounded furious.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou promised me Hawthorne.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then Melinda.<\/p>\n
\u201cI promised you access. Dale changed everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thomas said, \u201cThen fix it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI can't.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have Eric.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLeave him out of this.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was always in this.\u201d<\/p>\n
A chair scraped.<\/p>\n
Then Charles spoke.<\/p>\n
Calm.<\/p>\n
Almost bored.<\/p>\n
\u201cEnough. Both of you.\u201d<\/p>\n
The recording ended with Thomas saying something we had to replay three times.<\/p>\n
\u201cDale should have died twenty-one years ago with Raymond.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eric looked at me.<\/p>\n
I could not move.<\/p>\n
The implication was unmistakable.<\/p>\n
Whatever happened to Raymond had not ended with his death.<\/p>\n
Dale had been a target too.<\/p>\n
And the fire at Hawthorne might not have been intended merely to destroy documents.<\/p>\n
The blood belonged to Melinda. That was the first thing Officer Grant told us the next morning. Not enough to indicate a fatal injury, he added. I hated that he … <\/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-10284","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\/10284","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=10284"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10284\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10304,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10284\/revisions\/10304"}],"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=10284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}