Chapter 11 - The Woman Who Was Supposed to Be Dead
The name on Dominic Russo's phone was Evelyn Mercer.
He read it twice, standing beneath the porch light while Emily laughed inside the Carter house. Evelyn had been his father's executive secretary for twenty-seven years. She had attended Arthur Russo's funeral in a black coat and dark glasses. Three months afterward, Samuel had told Dominic that Evelyn had died while visiting family in Vermont.
Now Samuel was telling him she had witnessed Thomas Carter's last meeting with Arthur.
Dominic called immediately.
“Tell me this is a mistake.”
“I wish it were,” Samuel said. “The second page was folded into the backing of the original document. It names Evelyn as the witness and gives an address in New Hampshire. Her death certificate was issued under another name. The woman we buried wasn't Evelyn.”
“Who was she?”
“Someone who had no family to ask questions.”
Dominic felt sick. “Does Emily know?”
“Not yet.”
“Then I'm telling her.”
He went inside. Ben was washing dishes with exaggerated resentment. Emily saw Dominic's expression and put down a towel.
“What happened?”
“A woman who knew my father witnessed his last meeting with yours. We thought she was dead. She isn't.”
Emily held the edge of the counter. “Does she know what happened on the road?”
“We don't know. But she might know why your father was there.”
“Then I want to meet her.”
Dominic shook his head. “Not until we confirm the address and involve the investigators.”
Emily's eyes narrowed. “You don't get to decide what I'm allowed to hear.”
“I know. I'm asking you to be careful.”
She studied him for a moment. Months ago he would have issued an order. Tonight he waited for her answer.
“Fine,” she said. “We do it together. With Nora and the attorney.”
By morning, Nora Bennett had confirmed that Evelyn Mercer was living under the name Helen Marsh in a lakeside town north of Concord. Federal investigators already had an interest in her because Caroline Price's files included payments to a security company that had arranged new identities. Evelyn's supposed death was part of a carefully manufactured disappearance.
The meeting took place in a county office, not a secluded house. Emily insisted on that. She was finished being summoned to mysterious rooms by people who claimed to know the truth.
Evelyn arrived with a cane and a faded leather purse. She was seventy-three, small and straight-backed, with silver hair pulled into a neat knot. When she saw Dominic, she stopped walking.
“You look like Arthur when he was frightened,” she said.
Dominic did not offer his hand. “You let me bury you.”
Evelyn's face crumpled. “I know.”
“You let me stand at a grave and believe another person was you.”
“I know.”
Emily stepped forward. “My father was Thomas Carter.”
Evelyn turned toward her. Whatever apology she had prepared disappeared.
“You have his eyes.”
“People keep saying that. I would rather have him.”
Evelyn lowered herself into a chair.
Nora switched on the recorder after explaining the interview process. Evelyn's attorney sat beside her. For several seconds the only sound was the building's ventilation system.
“Thomas came to Arthur with a ledger,” Evelyn began. “Not a rumor. Not a suspicion. A ledger showing that Henry Vale and Victor Russo had been diverting money from the employee trust into shell companies. Thomas worked in freight accounting. He found the discrepancy because a retired dockworker couldn't collect a benefit he'd earned.”
Emily nodded slowly. Her father had never been able to ignore an unfair bill.
“Arthur didn't know?” Dominic asked.
“He knew there were problems. He didn't know how deep they went. When Thomas showed him the ledger, Arthur asked for forty-eight hours to contact outside counsel. Thomas said he was going to the authorities that night.”
“Why?”
“Because someone had threatened his family.”
Emily's stomach dropped.
Evelyn opened her purse and removed a photograph of a yellow notepad. “Thomas wrote this while Arthur made calls. I photographed it before Victor took the original.”
The handwriting was unmistakable. Emily recognized the way her father crossed his sevens.
IF ANYTHING HAPPENS TO ME, PROTECT SARAH, EMILY, AND BEN. THE RED SEAL MEANS THE ORIGINAL IS SAFE.
Emily read the line again. “What original?”
“The ledger,” Evelyn said. “Thomas had already made a copy. He put it somewhere no one in the Russo organization would think to search.”
“Where?”
Evelyn's gaze dropped to her hands. “He didn't tell me. He said his daughter would know when she was ready.”
Emily stared. She had been thirteen when her father died. What could a thirteen-year-old possibly have known?
Dominic asked why Evelyn had disappeared.
“Victor came to me the night after the crash. He knew I had heard the meeting. He showed me pictures of my grandson walking to school. He said I could disappear or watch him disappear.”
“Why didn't you go to the police?” Nora asked.
“I should have. I spent thirteen years telling myself survival was the same thing as innocence. It isn't.”
The admission did not make Emily forgive her. But it sounded true.
Evelyn leaned toward Emily. “Your father left Arthur one more thing. A sentence. He said, 'Tell Emmy the lighthouse still works.'”
Emily stopped breathing.
Her father had built a wooden lighthouse for her seventh birthday. He had hidden birthday notes inside its base. She kept it on the bookshelf in her childhood bedroom.
“Ben,” she whispered. “Call Ben.”
They reached the Carter house with a state investigator less than two hours later. Ben had already found the lighthouse. Its white paint was chipped; the tiny red roof leaned slightly to one side. Emily turned it over. Four screws held the base in place.
Inside was a narrow brass cylinder wrapped in waxed paper.
Ben looked at his sister. “Dad really did leave us a treasure map.”
Emily laughed once, and then cried.
The cylinder contained a storage receipt, a small key, and a note addressed to Emily. She unfolded the paper carefully.
MY BRAVE GIRL, IF YOU ARE READING THIS, I COULDN'T COME HOME TO EXPLAIN. BE KIND, BUT DON'T LET KINDNESS MAKE YOU QUIET. THE TRUTH BELONGS TO EVERYONE THEY HURT.
At the bottom was a storage-unit number in Worcester.
Before anyone could move, Nora's phone rang. Her expression changed as she listened.
“Victor's attorneys just filed a motion,” she said. “They claim the original codicil is fraudulent and that Emily and Dominic conspired to manufacture evidence.”
Dominic looked at the little brass key.
“Then we find out what Thomas left,” he said.
May you like
Emily closed her fist around her father's note.
“And this time,” she answered, “they don't get to write the ending.”
