For three years I had grieved Ray\u2019s death.<\/p>\n
For thirteen years before that I had lived with the memory of his first heart attack.<\/p>\n
Sudden.<\/p>\n
Terrifying.<\/p>\n
He had collapsed in the garage.<\/p>\n
Doug found him.<\/p>\n
Ambulance.<\/p>\n
Hospital.<\/p>\n
Bypass surgery.<\/p>\n
Recovery that never returned him fully to the man he had been.<\/p>\n
Now Thomas Mercer was telling me that attack had not happened naturally.<\/p>\n
I did not believe him.<\/p>\n
Then I did.<\/p>\n
Then I hated myself for believing him.<\/p>\n
Harris kept his voice controlled.<\/p>\n
\u201cThomas, explain.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI need protection first.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou called a secured police line. That already tells us you want something.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI want Elaine arrested.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe is being sought.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thomas coughed.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don't understand.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat don't we understand?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe has people.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNames.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI have them.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen give them.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSafe passage.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harris looked toward another officer.<\/p>\n
They began tracing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere are you injured?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShoulder.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cGunshot?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWho shot you?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cElaine.\u201d<\/p>\n
Doug stared.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour own sister?\u201d<\/p>\n
Thomas laughed bitterly.<\/p>\n
\u201cFamily.\u201d<\/p>\n
That single word landed badly in the room.<\/p>\n
Harris asked, \u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe thought I took the books.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDid you?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDid Travis?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cGerald?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow do you know?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cElaine found out after she shot me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thomas was losing strength.<\/p>\n
Harris returned to Ray.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat happened to Raymond Whitaker?\u201d<\/p>\n
Silence.<\/p>\n
Then Thomas said, \u201cElaine wanted him scared.\u201d<\/p>\n
My nails dug into my palms.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe had someone tamper with his medication.\u201d<\/p>\n
The room seemed to disappear.<\/p>\n
Ray had taken blood-pressure medication.<\/p>\n
Heart medication later.<\/p>\n
But before the first attack, he took only one prescription regularly.<\/p>\n
A beta blocker.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow?\u201d<\/p>\n
Thomas continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomeone replaced tablets.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWith what?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don't know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWho?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLeonard.\u201d<\/p>\n
The man caught beneath my house.<\/p>\n
My stomach turned.<\/p>\n
Leonard Shaw.<\/p>\n
Hawthorne security.<\/p>\n
Mercer employee.<\/p>\n
Still carrying out Elaine\u2019s orders thirteen years later.<\/p>\n
\u201cDid Elaine tell him to kill Ray?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thomas sounded certain.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe wanted him hospitalized. Frightened.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe wouldn't return the records.\u201d<\/p>\n
Doug stood abruptly.<\/p>\n
His chair hit the wall.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe almost died.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thomas heard him.<\/p>\n
\u201cDoug?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou knew.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI found out later.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou knew and did nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo did you about other things.\u201d<\/p>\n
Doug went white.<\/p>\n
Cruel.<\/p>\n
Effective.<\/p>\n
Thomas continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody thought silence would keep them alive.\u201d<\/p>\n
No one answered.<\/p>\n
Because that sentence applied too broadly.<\/p>\n
Harris interrupted.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere are you?\u201d<\/p>\n
Thomas finally gave directions.<\/p>\n
An abandoned roadside motel fifteen miles from the lake.<\/p>\n
State police moved.<\/p>\n
He remained on the line.<\/p>\n
I took the phone.<\/p>\n
\u201cDid Ray know?\u201d<\/p>\n
Thomas hesitated.<\/p>\n
\u201cKnow what?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat someone caused his heart attack.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don't think so.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDid he ever suspect?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe.\u201d<\/p>\n
My mind went backward.<\/p>\n
Ray after surgery.<\/p>\n
Changing locks.<\/p>\n
Checking pill bottles.<\/p>\n
Refusing prescriptions unless I picked them up personally.<\/p>\n
At the time I thought the attack had made him anxious.<\/p>\n
Maybe he knew something was wrong.<\/p>\n
\u201cWas his death three years ago caused too?\u201d<\/p>\n
Thomas answered immediately.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
I closed my eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow can you know?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cElaine stopped targeting him years earlier.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe moved the evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd somebody convinced her he no longer had it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWho?\u201d<\/p>\n
Thomas coughed.<\/p>\n
\u201cGerald.\u201d<\/p>\n
That surprised me.<\/p>\n
Gerald had protected Ray.<\/p>\n
At least once.<\/p>\n
Why?<\/p>\n
Thomas explained badly.<\/p>\n
Years ago, Gerald became frightened by Elaine\u2019s willingness to hurt people.<\/p>\n
Fraud was one thing.<\/p>\n
Violence changed the stakes.<\/p>\n
He told Elaine the records had been destroyed.<\/p>\n
She believed him.<\/p>\n
Mostly.<\/p>\n
Enough to stop active pressure.<\/p>\n
Ray lived another decade.<\/p>\n
Then died naturally from the damage his heart had carried since that first attack.<\/p>\n
That did not make me feel better.<\/p>\n
It meant Elaine had stolen years.<\/p>\n
Maybe strength.<\/p>\n
Maybe health.<\/p>\n
Maybe ordinary mornings Ray should have had.<\/p>\n
Police reached Thomas.<\/p>\n
The line disconnected.<\/p>\n
I sat without speaking.<\/p>\n
Doug left the room.<\/p>\n
I found him outside behind the safe house.<\/p>\n
He stood beneath the porch light with both hands gripping the railing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI found Dad.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI was twenty-eight.\u201d<\/p>\n
His voice sounded younger.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was on the garage floor.\u201d<\/p>\n
I moved beside him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought he'd dropped something.\u201d<\/p>\n
He swallowed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen I saw his face.\u201d<\/p>\n
I had never heard this part.<\/p>\n
Doug continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was trying to talk.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did he say?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI couldn't understand.\u201d<\/p>\n
He stared into the dark yard.<\/p>\n
\u201cI called 911.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou saved him.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew Gerald was dirty.\u201d<\/p>\n
The connection struck him now with brutal force.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew Hawthorne was wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDoug\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat if Dad was trying to tell me?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou didn't know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI could have.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou could not.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI stayed quiet.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAbout fraud.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAbout people who scared everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
He turned toward me.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I had gone to police earlier\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou think Elaine wouldn't have touched Ray?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou think Gerald would have confessed?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don't know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTravis?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen stop rewriting history with information you only got this week.\u201d<\/p>\n
Doug looked away.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don't get to punish yourself for not knowing what nobody told you.\u201d<\/p>\n
He laughed without humor.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou've been punishing me all week.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI've been angry about what you did know.\u201d<\/p>\n
He looked at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n
A long silence.<\/p>\n
Then he nodded.<\/p>\n
That was the first time I saw him separate guilt from responsibility.<\/p>\n
He had done wrong.<\/p>\n
He had not done everything wrong.<\/p>\n
Inside, Bentley sat at the table.<\/p>\n
He looked at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cWas Mr. Ray murdered?\u201d<\/p>\n
Children.<\/p>\n
Always direct.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDid somebody hurt him?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOn purpose?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
His face tightened.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause he wouldn't give bad people something they wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bentley looked toward Bunny.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike Mom.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLike me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
He frowned.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey want me because I saw.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat makes you a witness.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSame thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
I sat beside him.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo. What happened to Ray is not going to happen to you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Again the dangerous promise.<\/p>\n
But this time I believed systems were finally moving fast enough.<\/p>\n
Police knew.<\/p>\n
Federal investigators knew.<\/p>\n
Evidence existed in multiple locations.<\/p>\n
Silence could no longer erase facts.<\/p>\n
At midnight, Harris returned from Thomas\u2019s hospital interview.<\/p>\n
Thomas was stable.<\/p>\n
Under guard.<\/p>\n
Talking.<\/p>\n
He gave investigators names.<\/p>\n
Bank accounts.<\/p>\n
Properties.<\/p>\n
He confirmed Elaine ordered Leonard to frighten Ray.<\/p>\n
Confirmed she authorized the identity schemes.<\/p>\n
Confirmed Travis\u2019s role.<\/p>\n
Confirmed Gerald had hidden the master ledgers.<\/p>\n
And admitted his own crimes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat about Gerald\u2019s death?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThomas says Travis killed him.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDid he see it?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen how?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTravis told him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harris explained.<\/p>\n
After the storage-unit fight, Travis called Thomas demanding help.<\/p>\n
Gerald had arrived with the brown envelope.<\/p>\n
Marcus confronted him.<\/p>\n
Then Travis arrived.<\/p>\n
Chaos.<\/p>\n
Marcus and Travis fought.<\/p>\n
Marcus escaped wounded.<\/p>\n
Gerald remained.<\/p>\n
Travis demanded to know where the master ledgers were.<\/p>\n
Gerald refused.<\/p>\n
Travis struck him.<\/p>\n
Hard.<\/p>\n
Then again.<\/p>\n
Gerald died later.<\/p>\n
Travis panicked.<\/p>\n
Loaded him into the gray sedan.<\/p>\n
Abandoned the car.<\/p>\n
That fit the evidence.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat about the black truck?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTravis drove it away injured.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd Thomas?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHelped clean the storage unit.\u201d<\/p>\n
My stomach turned.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo Thomas protected Travis after murder.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen Travis turned on him.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Crime had a remarkably poor retirement plan.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat about Elaine?\u201d<\/p>\n
Harris\u2019s expression changed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThomas says she is more dangerous than Travis.\u201d<\/p>\n
That seemed almost impossible.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTravis is impulsive.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd Elaine?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPlans.\u201d<\/p>\n
We already knew.<\/p>\n
Thirteen years of planning.<\/p>\n
People threatened quietly.<\/p>\n
Identities used.<\/p>\n
Documents moved.<\/p>\n
Evidence buried.<\/p>\n
Hearts tampered with.<\/p>\n
Harris continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cThomas gave us a location she might use.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA private medical clinic outside Fort Wayne.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy there?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of Mercer Urban Holdings\u2019 subsidiaries owns it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Police went.<\/p>\n
Empty.<\/p>\n
But surveillance showed Elaine had been there that afternoon.<\/p>\n
She left with Leonard\u2019s replacement.<\/p>\n
Another security man.<\/p>\n
Name: Peter Vane.<\/p>\n
Former police officer.<\/p>\n
No current warrant before that day.<\/p>\n
Now very much wanted.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat direction?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSouth.\u201d<\/p>\n
Toward us.<\/p>\n
Again.<\/p>\n
Then investigators traced a phone tied to Vane.<\/p>\n
It pinged near the rehabilitation center.<\/p>\n
Amber had already been moved.<\/p>\n
Good.<\/p>\n
Then near Bentley\u2019s school.<\/p>\n
Empty.<\/p>\n
Better.<\/p>\n
Then near my duplex.<\/p>\n
That stopped my heart.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat do they want there?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEvidence?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey know police removed it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe something else.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ray\u2019s hidden office had been emptied by investigators.<\/p>\n
The basement compartment was empty.<\/p>\n
The cedar chest contained nothing useful.<\/p>\n
Then Bentley whispered, \u201cMom\u2019s room.\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked at him.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey never found everything Travis took out.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat do you mean?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe black bag.\u201d<\/p>\n
The day of the assault.<\/p>\n
Travis laid out papers.<\/p>\n
Pictures.<\/p>\n
Phone.<\/p>\n
But when he left?<\/p>\n
Bentley\u2019s eyes widened.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe left the bag.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don't know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou saw it afterward?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen maybe Carl took it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Bentley shook his head.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMom had another hiding place.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course she did.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere?\u201d<\/p>\n
He looked toward me.<\/p>\n
\u201cFloor vent.\u201d<\/p>\n
I called Amber immediately.<\/p>\n
She closed her eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI forgot.\u201d<\/p>\n
That phrase again.<\/p>\n
Trauma had scattered her memories.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn my bedroom,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnder the radiator cover. Loose floorboard.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is inside?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCopies.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat copies?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEmails.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhose?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTravis and Elaine.\u201d<\/p>\n
My pulse quickened.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy didn't you put them with the ledger?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn't trust one hiding place.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smart.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnything else?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA flash card.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s on it?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don't know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAmber.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTravis dropped it years ago. I kept it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause after I left, he came looking for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
There it was.<\/p>\n
Possibly another data archive.<\/p>\n
Elaine might know.<\/p>\n
Travis might know.<\/p>\n
Thomas might know.<\/p>\n
And the house stood temporarily empty under police watch.<\/p>\n
Harris dispatched officers.<\/p>\n
They entered Amber\u2019s bedroom.<\/p>\n
Found the loose board.<\/p>\n
Empty.<\/p>\n
My stomach sank.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen?\u201d<\/p>\n
No forced entry.<\/p>\n
No disturbed locks.<\/p>\n
But the underground corridor existed.<\/p>\n
Someone had reached the hiding place.<\/p>\n
Then police found mud.<\/p>\n
Fresh.<\/p>\n
On the bedroom floor.<\/p>\n
Boot prints.<\/p>\n
One set.<\/p>\n
Leading from the basement.<\/p>\n
Leaving the same way.<\/p>\n
Whoever entered knew exactly where to look.<\/p>\n
A neighbor\u2019s camera caught someone emerging from behind the duplex twenty minutes earlier.<\/p>\n
Tall.<\/p>\n
Dark jacket.<\/p>\n
Baseball cap.<\/p>\n
Not Elaine.<\/p>\n
Not Peter Vane.<\/p>\n
Travis.<\/p>\n
He had beaten police again.<\/p>\n
And now he possessed the missing emails and flash card Amber had hidden for years.<\/p>\n
For three years I had grieved Ray\u2019s death. For thirteen years before that I had lived with the memory of his first heart attack. Sudden. Terrifying. He had collapsed in … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23686,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23705","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\/23705","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=23705"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23740,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23705\/revisions\/23740"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}