The Harper family trust had been created before Linda was born.<\/p>\n
That fact alone would not have meant much.<\/p>\n
Wealthy families created trusts all the time.<\/p>\n
But this one had received payments from the same companies connected to Daniel.<\/p>\n
The first transfer occurred shortly after Richard's death.<\/p>\n
The second came after Linda's settlement.<\/p>\n
The third arrived several years later.<\/p>\n
Linda stared at the records.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy would my uncle receive money from Daniel?\u201d<\/p>\n
The attorney shook his head.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need more evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n
They found it in a tax archive.<\/p>\n
Charles Harper had reported income from consulting work performed for Daniel's companies.<\/p>\n
The amounts were modest compared with the stolen settlement.<\/p>\n
But the timing was not.<\/p>\n
The payments began immediately after Richard started investigating Daniel.<\/p>\n
Linda felt a knot form in her stomach.<\/p>\n
\u201cDad trusted his brother.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cProbably,\u201d the attorney said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen Charles betrayed him.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat's one possibility.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat other possibility is there?\u201d<\/p>\n
The attorney didn't answer.<\/p>\n
The next document changed the question.<\/p>\n
Charles had not merely received money.<\/p>\n
He had also transferred funds into an account controlled by Samuel Hart.<\/p>\n
Then Samuel transferred money to Wayne.<\/p>\n
The circle closed.<\/p>\n
Richard.<\/p>\n
Charles.<\/p>\n
Samuel.<\/p>\n
Daniel.<\/p>\n
Wayne.<\/p>\n
And Linda.<\/p>\n
The attorney traced another transaction.<\/p>\n
A payment from the Harper trust had gone to a medical clinic.<\/p>\n
The date was the month after Linda's accident.<\/p>\n
Linda stared.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat was this?\u201d<\/p>\n
The clinic records were difficult to obtain.<\/p>\n
Eventually, investigators discovered that the payment covered treatment for someone named Frank Dalton.<\/p>\n
Frank had been injured.<\/p>\n
Not in the truck crash.<\/p>\n
Afterward.<\/p>\n
His medical bills had been paid anonymously.<\/p>\n
Linda remembered Frank's tape.<\/p>\n
He had said he was afraid.<\/p>\n
Now she understood why.<\/p>\n
Someone had found him.<\/p>\n
Someone had made sure he understood what silence cost.<\/p>\n
Russell sat quietly while the attorney explained.<\/p>\n
Then he said, \u201cWayne wasn't acting alone.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo,\u201d Linda said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe couldn't have been.\u201d<\/p>\n
Linda looked at him.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did Dad know?\u201d<\/p>\n
Russell shook his head.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don't remember.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou keep saying that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI was four when he died.\u201d<\/p>\n
Linda stopped.<\/p>\n
She had forgotten.<\/p>\n
Russell had been only four.<\/p>\n
She had been two.<\/p>\n
He could not have known anything about Richard's investigation.<\/p>\n
The memory they had carried all these years belonged to someone else.<\/p>\n
Maybe Mama.<\/p>\n
Maybe Daniel.<\/p>\n
Maybe Wayne.<\/p>\n
The attorney found another witness.<\/p>\n
A former employee at Charles Harper's office.<\/p>\n
Her name was June Ellis.<\/p>\n
She was eighty-six.<\/p>\n
June remembered Charles as charming.<\/p>\n
She also remembered that he was terrified of Daniel.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause Daniel had something on him.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
June looked at Linda.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour father.\u201d<\/p>\n
Linda's breath caught.<\/p>\n
June explained that Charles had been involved in a property deal with Daniel years earlier.<\/p>\n
Richard discovered it.<\/p>\n
He threatened to expose Charles.<\/p>\n
Charles begged him not to.<\/p>\n
Then Richard died.<\/p>\n
Linda asked the question she had been avoiding.<\/p>\n
\u201cDid Charles have anything to do with my father's death?\u201d<\/p>\n
June closed her eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don't know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut you suspected.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause the morning after Richard died, Charles came to the office.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did he do?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe asked whether your father's files were still there.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWere they?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWho took them?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDaniel.\u201d<\/p>\n
Linda looked at Russell.<\/p>\n
Another piece.<\/p>\n
Daniel had removed Richard's records immediately after his death.<\/p>\n
But Mama had preserved one thing.<\/p>\n
The letter.<\/p>\n
Except they didn't have it.<\/p>\n
Or so Linda thought.<\/p>\n
She remembered the envelope from the flour tin.<\/p>\n
There had been multiple pages.<\/p>\n
One reference to Dad.<\/p>\n
One reference to Marianne.<\/p>\n
But Mama had never mentioned the letter Richard supposedly left.<\/p>\n
Maybe it was hidden somewhere else.<\/p>\n
Linda returned home and searched Mama's bedroom again.<\/p>\n
This time she opened every drawer.<\/p>\n
She removed the lining from the dresser.<\/p>\n
Nothing.<\/p>\n
She searched the sewing basket.<\/p>\n
Nothing.<\/p>\n
Then she noticed the old family Bible.<\/p>\n
It had belonged to her grandmother.<\/p>\n
Mama had never let anyone throw it away.<\/p>\n
Linda opened it.<\/p>\n
Several pages were marked.<\/p>\n
One page contained a handwritten note.<\/p>\n
R.H.<\/p>\n
214.<\/p>\n
Linda's pulse quickened.<\/p>\n
The safety deposit box.<\/p>\n
She had already opened it.<\/p>\n
But perhaps she had missed something.<\/p>\n
She returned to the bank with Carol.<\/p>\n
Carol remembered the box.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was an envelope.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnything else?\u201d<\/p>\n
Carol checked the archived inventory.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
Linda thought.<\/p>\n
Then she remembered the small photograph.<\/p>\n
The one showing Wayne beside the car.<\/p>\n
The one with the unknown driver.<\/p>\n
She turned it over.<\/p>\n
There was a faint indentation beneath the paper.<\/p>\n
She held it against the light.<\/p>\n
Another piece of writing appeared.<\/p>\n
Look behind the lining.<\/p>\n
Linda stared.<\/p>\n
The photograph itself had a hidden compartment.<\/p>\n
She carefully separated the backing.<\/p>\n
A tiny strip of paper fell out.<\/p>\n
It contained an address.<\/p>\n
Not the farmhouse.<\/p>\n
Not Daniel's office.<\/p>\n
The Harper family country club.<\/p>\n
Linda's heart pounded.<\/p>\n
The date was the same date as the meeting between Richard, Daniel, Samuel, and Wayne.<\/p>\n
She called the investigator.<\/p>\n
The building had been renovated years earlier.<\/p>\n
But the old basement remained.<\/p>\n
They obtained permission to search.<\/p>\n
Behind a section of paneling, they found a metal box.<\/p>\n
Inside was Richard's letter.<\/p>\n
Linda could barely unfold it.<\/p>\n
The first line was addressed to Mama.<\/p>\n
Beverly, if you receive this, I am already dead.<\/p>\n
Her hands trembled.<\/p>\n
Richard wrote that Daniel had discovered his investigation.<\/p>\n
He believed Charles had betrayed him.<\/p>\n
But the final revelation was more complicated.<\/p>\n
Charles had not originally joined Daniel willingly.<\/p>\n
Daniel had threatened him.<\/p>\n
He had evidence that could destroy Charles's marriage, business, and reputation.<\/p>\n
Charles became trapped.<\/p>\n
Then Richard wrote the sentence that Linda had been waiting for.<\/p>\n
I believe the person controlling Daniel is not Charles, Samuel, or Wayne.<\/p>\n
Linda stopped.<\/p>\n
The next page had been torn away.<\/p>\n
Only half a sentence remained.<\/p>\n
He answers to\u2014<\/p>\n
Nothing followed.<\/p>\n
The rest was missing.<\/p>\n
Linda stared at the torn edge.<\/p>\n
After all these years, the most important name had been removed.<\/p>\n
But Richard had left another clue.<\/p>\n
At the bottom of the page, he had written three numbers.<\/p>\n
7-4-19.<\/p>\n
The attorney examined them.<\/p>\n
A date?<\/p>\n
An account?<\/p>\n
A code?<\/p>\n
Nobody knew.<\/p>\n
Then Carol called.<\/p>\n
She had found something in the bank's old records.<\/p>\n
A transaction corresponding to those numbers.<\/p>\n
July 4, 1919.<\/p>\n
A trust had been created on that date.<\/p>\n
The trust belonged to a family that had controlled the county for generations.<\/p>\n
Linda recognized the name.<\/p>\n
Hartwell.<\/p>\n
Samuel Hart had been a lawyer.<\/p>\n
Daniel had been a businessman.<\/p>\n
Charles had been a wealthy heir.<\/p>\n
But the Hartwell family had been behind all three.<\/p>\n
The trust had paid Daniel.<\/p>\n
It had paid Samuel.<\/p>\n
It had paid Wayne.<\/p>\n
It had even paid Frank's medical bills.<\/p>\n
Linda looked at Russell.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho was the Hartwell family?\u201d<\/p>\n
He shook his head.<\/p>\n
The attorney answered.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe family that owned the bank before First County acquired it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Linda felt a chill.<\/p>\n
The bank.<\/p>\n
The place where her settlement had been deposited.<\/p>\n
The place where her signatures had been forged.<\/p>\n
The place where Mama had hidden money.<\/p>\n
The institution that had preserved the records.<\/p>\n
Someone had controlled access to all of it.<\/p>\n
The investigation had finally reached the beginning.<\/p>\n
But there was still one person who could explain why the Hartwell trust existed.<\/p>\n
The current trustee.<\/p>\n
A woman named Eleanor Hartwell.<\/p>\n
She was ninety-four.<\/p>\n
And according to the records, she was still alive.<\/p>\n
The Harper family trust had been created before Linda was born. That fact alone would not have meant much. Wealthy families created trusts all the time. But this one had … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7468,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7479","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\/7479","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=7479"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7479\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7499,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7479\/revisions\/7499"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}