Chapter 5 - The Man Buried Under Another Name
The sealed envelope was addressed to Maya.
She opened it inside Julian’s car.
My dearest girl,
If you are reading this, then either I failed to come home or I finally found enough courage to tell you the truth.
I hope it is the second.
I fear it is the first.
Maya stopped.
The handwriting was unmistakable.
She remembered grocery lists written in the same looping script.
Birthday cards.
Notes inside lunch bags.
Call me when you arrive.
Don’t forget an umbrella.
Proud of you always.
She kept reading.
My name was Eleanor Grace Ashbourne before I became Evelyn Bennett.
I changed it because powerful people convinced the world I was unstable, then convinced me they would destroy anyone I loved if I continued speaking.
For many years, I believed silence protected you.
I was wrong.
Silence protects the people who create fear.
If Daniel Mercer is alive, he knows where the first set of records was hidden.
Do not trust anyone solely because they share my blood.
Do not distrust anyone solely because their parents failed me.
Judge what people choose when the truth becomes expensive.
Maya glanced toward Julian.
He was looking out the opposite window.
She continued.
The Ashbourne trust was not merely stolen.
It was used.
Money moved through charities, development companies, private hospitals and political consulting firms. Some recipients may never have known the original source.
Others absolutely did.
There is one person I feared more than Jonathan.
Someone whose name does not appear in the early records because she learned to work through everyone else.
If you find Daniel, ask him what happened at Blackridge.
He will understand.
The final line made Maya stop breathing.
And Maya, if Richard Vance is still in your life when you read this, leave him before you do anything else.
Her hands went numb.
She read the sentence again.
Julian turned.
“What is it?”
Maya handed him the letter.
He read it.
His expression became unreadable.
“She knew Richard.”
Maya whispered the words.
Julian looked at her.
“Apparently.”
“No. That isn’t possible.”
“When did you meet him?”
“Seven years ago.”
“When did Eleanor vanish?”
“Eight.”
Julian looked back at the letter.
“She may have investigated him before you met.”
“Why would she?”
“I don’t know.”
Maya felt suddenly sick.
The man who had comforted her after her mother disappeared.
The man who happened to enter her life months later.
The man who discouraged her from reopening the investigation.
The man who said searching for Evelyn was keeping Maya trapped in grief.
Richard.
Maya grabbed the flash drive.
“We need to see what’s on this.”
The drive was encrypted.
Thomas joined them at a private Sterling office in Boston.
He examined the files.
“It’ll take time.”
“Can you open it?” Maya asked.
“Probably.”
Julian looked at Thomas.
“Not on Sterling systems.”
Thomas nodded.
“Agreed.”
Maya noticed the exchange.
“You don’t trust your own company.”
Julian answered quietly.
“Not completely.”
Three hours later, Thomas recovered the first folder.
It contained financial spreadsheets.
Payments.
Trust transfers.
Property records.
Maya understood almost none of it.
Then Thomas opened a directory marked PERSONAL.
Inside were twelve photographs.
The first showed Richard Vance.
Maya stood so quickly her chair rolled backward.
The photograph had been taken eight years earlier.
Richard stood outside a coffee shop.
Beside him was Olivia.
The next photograph showed Olivia entering a building labeled Northstar Property Services.
The third showed Richard meeting Daniel Mercer.
Maya’s legs weakened.
Julian caught the back of her chair.
She did not notice.
Thomas opened the fourth photograph.
Vanessa Brooks.
Younger.
Walking behind Richard.
The fifth photograph showed Vanessa handing an envelope to a man in a parked vehicle.
Maya whispered, “She was involved too?”
Thomas enlarged the license plate.
“I can run it.”
Julian said, “Do it.”
The sixth photograph changed everything.
Evelyn stood across the street from Richard.
She was photographing him.
On the back of the image was a handwritten date.
Three weeks before she disappeared.
Maya covered her mouth.
“My mother was investigating my husband before I knew him.”
Julian’s phone rang.
He looked at the screen.
Thomas immediately noticed his expression.
“What?”
Julian answered.
He listened for fifteen seconds.
Then his eyes moved to Maya.
“When?”
Another pause.
“Secure the site. Tell no one outside the team.”
He ended the call.
Maya knew before he spoke that something had happened.
“What?”
Julian put the phone down.
“Thomas ran Daniel Mercer through private databases this morning.”
“And?”
“There was a death certificate from five years ago.”
“You said that already.”
“There was also a second identity associated with the same fingerprints.”
Maya stared.
“Where?”
“Vermont.”
“Is he alive?”
Julian nodded.
“He was.”
“Was?”
“Our investigator reached his house twenty minutes ago.”
Maya’s heart stopped.
Julian continued.
“The front door was open.”
“What happened?”
“They found blood in the kitchen.”
May you like
“And Daniel?”
“Gone.”
