Chapter 14 - What Rachel Remembered
Police searched for Marianne until nearly dawn.
They found her coat near the garden gate.
No blood.
No sign of a struggle.
No witness who had seen her leave.
The dark SUV from earlier appeared on a traffic camera two streets away.
Its license plate was stolen.
Marianne disappeared for the second time in twelve years.
But this time Eleanor knew she had been real.
And this time she had taken Arthur’s envelope.
Agent Marlow stayed until sunrise.
Trent was questioned for hours.
Because Rachel had already reported the assault, police separated him from her.
By morning, he was no longer inside Eleanor’s home.
That fact brought relief.
Not peace.
Rachel slept on the living room sofa beneath one of Arthur’s old blankets.
Eleanor sat beside the fireplace.
Daniel stood at the window.
Samuel made coffee.
Agent Marlow returned from another call.
“No sign of her.”
Daniel nodded.
“She’s good at disappearing.”
Marlow looked at him.
“You’re angry.”
“My sister has spent half my life being dead when convenient.”
Eleanor looked toward the staircase.
“Did she take the envelope herself?”
Marlow nodded.
“We found fingerprints on the drawer where it was placed temporarily.”
“Only hers?”
“And yours.”
Eleanor frowned.
“So she planned to leave.”
“Looks that way.”
Samuel handed Eleanor coffee.
“Maybe she never intended to surrender.”
Daniel laughed.
“You met Marianne twenty minutes ago and already understand her.”
Rachel stirred.
Everyone became quiet.
She opened her eyes.
“Is Trent gone?”
“Yes,” Eleanor said.
Rachel sat up.
“Where?”
“With police, last I heard.”
“Is he coming back?”
“No.”
The certainty in Eleanor’s voice surprised even her.
Whatever happened next legally, financially, or emotionally, Trent would not sleep beneath her roof again.
Rachel nodded.
Then she noticed the wooden cufflink box.
“Can I see that?”
Eleanor handed it over.
Rachel ran her finger across the seven stars.
“What?”
Eleanor asked.
“I remembered something.”
Everyone looked at her.
“When I was little, Dad didn’t just count the stars.”
Eleanor frowned.
“What else?”
“He told stories.”
“Yes.”
“One about a sailor.”
Eleanor smiled faintly.
“The sailor who followed seven stars home.”
Rachel shook her head.
“No. That’s what you heard.”
“What do you mean?”
“Dad changed it when you left the attic.”
Eleanor stared.
Rachel concentrated.
“He used to say, ‘Seven stars tell you where. Three knocks tell you when.’”
Daniel turned.
“Three knocks?”
Rachel nodded.
“I thought it was part of the story.”
Samuel looked toward the attic.
“Maybe it was an instruction.”
Eleanor remembered Mercer arriving.
Three knocks.
Slow.
Was that coincidence?
She looked at Daniel.
“You knocked three times last night.”
He frowned.
“I always knock like that.”
“Because?”
“My father did.”
Samuel stared at him.
“Your father knew Arthur?”
Daniel nodded slowly.
“He worked for Whitmore Industrial before I was born.”
Eleanor’s pulse quickened.
“What was his name?”
“Thomas Mercer.”
Rachel stood abruptly.
“T.M.”
Everyone froze.
Daniel shook his head.
“No.”
“T.M.H.,” Rachel said.
Samuel looked at the ledger.
“Thomas Mercer Holloway?”
Daniel stared.
“My father was not a Holloway.”
“Could H stand for something else?” Eleanor asked.
Marlow was already calling someone.
“Run Thomas Mercer.”
Daniel looked offended.
“He died twenty years ago.”
“That doesn’t mean records disappear.”
Minutes later, Marlow received a response.
She listened.
Her expression changed.
“Daniel.”
“What?”
“Your father changed his surname.”
“When?”
“1968.”
“From what?”
Marlow looked at Eleanor.
“Holloway.”
Daniel sat down.
Nobody spoke.
Rachel whispered, “Your father and Trent’s father…”
“Brothers,” Marlow said.
Daniel stared at nothing.
“My father never had a brother.”
“Records say he did.”
Samuel whispered, “Charles Holloway.”
Daniel shook his head.
“That’s impossible.”
Marlow continued reading.
“Thomas Holloway became Thomas Mercer after his mother remarried.”
Daniel covered his mouth.
Eleanor finally saw the larger shape.
Daniel and Trent were cousins.
Marianne had been Charles Holloway’s lover.
Marianne had given birth to Trent.
Which meant Marianne had secretly had a child with her own uncle by marriage?
No.
The relationships were not yet clear enough.
Eleanor forced herself not to assume.
“Wait.”
Everyone looked at her.
“We are filling gaps with guesses.”
Samuel nodded.
“Agreed.”
Eleanor opened Arthur’s ledger.
“T.M.H. may not be a person.”
Marlow frowned.
“What else?”
“A company.”
Rachel took the ledger.
She turned pages.
Then stopped.
“Mom.”
“What?”
“There’s a second T.M.H.”
“Where?”
“Here.”
Everyone gathered around.
On a page dated six years earlier:
Transfer authorized to T.M.H. Preservation Account.
Below it:
Purpose: Rachel.
Eleanor felt a chill.
“Purpose Rachel?”
Samuel read further.
“Emergency protective reserve.”
Rachel stared.
“Dad had an account to protect me?”
“Maybe.”
Daniel pointed farther down the page.
“Look.”
One additional line.
Access authority transferred upon A.W. death.
Initials:
P.V.
Peter Vale.
Samuel whispered, “Peter controlled it.”
Marlow looked up.
“If T.M.H. is still active, Peter may be moving money.”
Rachel shook her head.
“Then why investigate it?”
Eleanor turned several pages.
Near the back, Arthur had written:
If Peter activates the reserve, danger is no longer theoretical.
Eleanor’s hands began to tremble.
Samuel read over her shoulder.
Below that:
Rachel must receive the black envelope before the second beneficiary is identified.
Everyone froze.
Rachel whispered, “Second beneficiary?”
Daniel looked toward the empty place where the envelope had been.
Marianne had taken it.
Marlow said, “Then she knows who it is.”
Eleanor shook her head.
“Maybe not.”
“What?”
“If Arthur placed the identity inside the envelope, Marianne has it now.”
Rachel sat down slowly.
“What could be important enough for Dad to hide all this for seven years?”
No one answered.
Eleanor closed the ledger.
Then Rachel’s phone rang.
Everyone looked at it.
Unknown number.
Rachel stared.
Marlow said, “Speaker.”
Rachel answered.
“Hello?”
Static.
Then a man’s voice.
Weak.
Breathing hard.
“Rachel?”
She looked at Eleanor.
“Peter?”
The room went silent.
“Yes.”
Rachel gripped the phone.
“Where are you?”
“No time.”
“Are you safe?”
“No.”
“Where’s Marianne?”
Silence.
“Peter?”
“She took the envelope.”
“We know.”
“You need to get it back.”
“What’s inside?”
Peter coughed.
Then whispered:
“The truth about why Arthur chose you.”
Rachel frowned.
“Chose me for what?”
Peter did not answer.
A noise sounded behind him.
A door opening.
He breathed sharply.
Then:
“Do not let Trent find out he has a brother.”
The call disconnected.
Nobody moved.
Rachel stared at the phone.
Eleanor’s mind went blank.
May you like
Daniel whispered,
“Brother?”
