Chapter 12 - the man who looked like a dead father)
Daniel did not sleep.
He returned to Blackwood before dawn and opened every box associated with Arthur's death.
Police reports.
Insurance documents.
Funeral arrangements.
Photographs.
The body had been recovered three days after the boating accident.
Badly damaged by water.
Identification had been made through dental records.
Daniel had never seen the body.
Eleanor had insisted he remember his father as he was.
At the time Daniel had been grateful.
Now he wondered.
Maya arrived at seven.
"I know what you're thinking."
"Do you?"
"You're thinking your father survived."
Daniel looked at her.
"Tell me that's impossible."
"It is unlikely."
"That's not the same."
"No."
She placed a folder down.
"We checked the dental identification."
Daniel waited.
"The dentist who provided Arthur's records died six years ago."
"Convenient."
"His practice files were destroyed after the office flooded."
"More convenient."
"Daniel."
He stood.
"Someone calling himself Mr. Reed visited my sister four years after my father supposedly died."
"According to one witness."
"A witness who described his scar."
"That still isn't proof."
Rachel entered carrying coffee.
She had overheard enough.
"Eleanor would have known."
Daniel turned.
"If Arthur lived, my grandmother would know."
"Unless she didn't."
Daniel thought about Eleanor's final years.
Her anxiety.
Her secret investigation.
Her fear.
Maybe she had discovered more than financial theft.
Rachel opened one of Eleanor's archive inventories.
"She began requesting old boating records about eighteen months ago."
Daniel stared.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"I didn't know they mattered."
"What did she request?"
"Maintenance files. Coast Guard reports. Insurance claims."
Maya asked, "Where are they?"
Rachel looked toward the archive.
"Somebody removed them."
Of course.
They went underground again.
The old vault no longer frightened Daniel.
It angered him.
Every wall seemed to hold another secret his family had chosen not to tell him.
Rachel searched Eleanor's handwritten index.
A line near the bottom listed:
AR personal.
Box 17.
No box 17 existed on the shelf.
Daniel checked neighboring cabinets.
Nothing.
Then Rachel noticed scratches on the floor.
A cabinet had been moved.
Behind it was a narrow recess.
Inside sat a black metal box.
17.
Daniel almost laughed.
"Eleanor really loved hiding things."
Rachel replied, "She learned she had to."
The box contained letters.
Dozens.
All addressed to Eleanor.
None mailed.
Most written in Arthur's handwriting.
Daniel knew it immediately.
The first letter was dated six months before the boating accident.
Mother,
Richard knows about Caroline.
Daniel sat down.
He read.
Arthur had found his first daughter.
He had made contact secretly.
Caroline was angry.
Confused.
She wanted nothing from the Reed family.
Arthur planned to tell Daniel anyway.
He wanted his children to know each other.
But Richard Hale had learned about the trust clause through Thomas.
Even then.
Years before Vanessa met Daniel.
Richard wanted Arthur to restructure certain assets.
Arthur refused.
Another letter.
Richard is not acting alone.
Daniel looked at Maya.
She leaned closer.
The next sentence had been underlined.
Someone inside our family has been feeding him information for years.
Daniel kept reading.
I believed it was Samuel.
I was wrong.
There was no name.
The next page had been torn.
Another letter described the boat.
Arthur suspected someone had tampered with its navigation electronics two weeks before the accident.
He planned to cancel the trip.
He did not.
The final letter was dated the morning of his death.
Mother,
If something happens today, do not trust the body.
Daniel dropped the page.
Rachel covered her mouth.
Maya read it again.
"Do not trust the body."
Daniel stood.
"He knew."
"Knew what?"
"That someone might fake his death."
"Or replace him."
Daniel stared.
"Why would my father allow that?"
Rachel asked the better question.
"What if he didn't?"
Silence.
Maya immediately contacted state authorities to request exhumation of Arthur's grave.
Daniel hated the thought.
But certainty mattered more.
The process would take time.
Meanwhile investigators traced Bellweather Maritime.
The dissolved company that serviced Arthur's yacht had been controlled through shell companies.
One shareholder name appeared.
North Crown Preservation Foundation.
The same organization tied to stolen Reed money.
Calvin Ross had served on its board.
So had another director.
Samuel Reed.
Daniel stared at the corporate record.
His great-uncle had known more than he admitted.
They found Samuel at his apartment.
He refused to come to Blackwood.
Daniel went to him.
Samuel opened the door looking exhausted.
"You found North Crown."
Daniel pushed past him.
"You lied."
Samuel closed the door.
"Yes."
"Were you working with Richard?"
"No."
"Then why were you on the foundation board?"
"Because Arthur asked me to be."
Daniel stopped.
"What?"
Samuel sat.
"North Crown originally belonged to Arthur."
Daniel stared.
"He created it to hide money from the family trust."
"Why?"
"To support Caroline."
Daniel's anger shifted into confusion.
Samuel explained.
Arthur created North Crown years before his death as a private foundation.
He transferred personal funds into it so Caroline could be supported without exposing her identity.
After Arthur's boating accident, Richard gained influence over the foundation through Thomas and corrupted its purpose.
Stolen trust money began flowing through the same structure.
"Why didn't you stop them?"
Samuel looked ashamed.
"I tried."
"Not very hard."
"Richard threatened Caroline."
Daniel leaned closer.
"You knew where she was?"
"I knew until five years ago."
"What happened?"
"She called me."
Samuel's eyes filled.
"She said someone had found her. She told me never to contact her again."
"Who found her?"
"She didn't say."
"Was my father alive?"
Samuel looked away.
Daniel grabbed the arm of his chair.
"Was Arthur alive?"
"I don't know."
"You do."
"No."
"Samuel."
The old man looked at him.
"I saw him once."
Daniel's heart stopped.
"When?"
"Three years after the funeral."
"Where?"
"Across the street from Eleanor's house."
Daniel could barely speak.
"You saw my father alive and said nothing?"
"I wasn't sure."
"You knew his face."
"He disappeared before I reached him."
"Did you tell Eleanor?"
"Yes."
"What did she say?"
Samuel whispered, "She said I was imagining things."
Daniel stepped back.
"But later?"
Samuel nodded.
"Later she began investigating."
Daniel understood.
Eleanor had not dismissed Samuel.
She had protected him.
She had begun searching quietly.
The missing files.
Bellweather.
The videos.
The fear.
Arthur Reed might have survived his accident.
Or someone who looked exactly like him wanted the family to believe he had.
Before Daniel could ask another question, his phone rang.
Maya.
"Daniel, we found Caroline."
He gripped the phone.
"Alive?"
"We think so."
"Where?"
"There was a passport renewal under a different surname eighteen months ago."
"What name?"
Maya told him.
Anna Mercer.
Daniel frowned.
Then his blood ran cold.
He knew that name.
Not personally.
But he had seen it recently.
On the Blackwood wedding vendor list.
Anna Mercer Floral Design.
The company responsible for every flower at his wedding.
May you like
Caroline had been inside Blackwood Villa three days ago.
And nobody had known who she was.
