Chapter 5 - The Death Certificate)
Richard Sterling's death certificate said he died at 9:18 p.m. in a private hospital outside Chicago.
Cause of death.
Cardiac arrest following myocardial infarction.
Daniel had been twenty-seven.
He remembered Margaret calling him at 10:03 that night.
She had sounded calm.
Too calm, he realized now.
"Your father is gone."
Daniel had flown to Chicago the next morning.
Richard's body was already being prepared for transport to Boston.
Margaret refused an autopsy.
She said Richard hated hospitals and deserved peace.
Daniel had agreed.
Why wouldn't he?
He trusted his mother.
Now, sitting at the kitchen table beside Ava, he showed her the photograph.
Ava studied it.
"Can the timestamp be manipulated?"
"Yes."
"So we don't know whether it's real."
"No."
"Have you called the hospital?"
"The hospital closed six years ago."
Ava looked toward the living room where Lily was building a tower from wooden blocks.
"You're thinking this is connected to what happened to her."
Daniel rubbed his face.
"I don't know what I'm thinking anymore."
Ava reached across the table.
"Then start with what you know."
Daniel looked at her.
Ava counted softly.
"We know Margaret punished Lily."
"Yes."
"We know staff members were afraid to stop her."
"Yes."
"We know your father installed a hidden camera because he didn't trust her."
"Yes."
"We know someone used that camera to send Caroline footage."
"Apparently."
"We know Rebecca Hale is alive."
"Probably."
"And someone wants you to investigate your father's death."
Daniel nodded.
Ava squeezed his hand.
"Then don't solve eleven years today."
Daniel looked into the living room.
Lily placed one block on another.
The tower collapsed.
She laughed.
The sound almost destroyed him.
"I should have protected her."
Ava's expression changed.
"Stop."
"I brought you into that house."
"I chose you."
"I kept asking you to give my mother another chance."
"Yes."
"I told you she was old-fashioned."
"Yes."
"I said you were being sensitive."
Ava did not answer.
Daniel looked at her.
"I did."
"Sometimes."
"I failed you."
Ava's voice softened.
"You made excuses for her."
"That's the same thing."
"No. It isn't."
Daniel looked away.
Ava continued.
"If you want to repair what you ignored, then repair it. Don't turn guilt into another way of making this about you."
Daniel looked back.
It hurt.
Because she was right.
The doorbell rang.
Both froze.
Daniel stood.
Ava checked the security camera on her phone.
"It's Caroline."
Daniel opened the door.
His sister entered carrying a box.
Caroline Sterling looked nothing like Margaret.
She had dark hair cut at her shoulders and wore almost no jewelry.
She was thirty-nine, divorced and permanently underestimated.
She set the box on the table.
"I stole these."
Daniel raised an eyebrow.
"From Mom?"
"Borrowed without permission."
Ava almost smiled.
Caroline opened the box.
Inside were Richard Sterling's old appointment books.
"Corporate archive clerk owed me a favor."
Daniel took the book from eleven years ago.
October 17.
The page listed three appointments.
9:00 a.m. Board call.
12:30 p.m. Lunch with R.H.
4:00 p.m. Airfield.
Daniel tapped the final word.
"Airfield."
Caroline nodded.
"Not airport."
Ava looked at them.
"Private flight?"
Daniel flipped pages.
Richard often wrote Logan Airport when flying commercially.
Airfield appeared only twice.
"Who is R.H.?"
Caroline asked.
Daniel shook his head.
A folded receipt slipped from the appointment book.
Ava picked it up.
It came from a restaurant in Providence, Rhode Island.
October 17.
2:11 p.m.
Two lunches.
Caroline frowned.
"Dad was supposed to be in Boston that morning and Chicago by evening."
Daniel took out his phone.
Driving time from Providence to Boston.
Approximately one hour.
"Could still fit."
Ava turned the receipt over.
Someone had written a number on the back.
Not a phone number.
Nine digits separated into three groups.
Caroline stared.
"Bank account?"
Daniel shook his head.
"Locker number?"
Ava looked at the brass key Samuel had given him.
"Storage box."
They exchanged glances.
The address Samuel provided belonged to a private archival storage company in downtown Boston.
They drove there together.
Ava left Lily with Helen, who had come to the townhouse after formally resigning from the Sterling estate that morning.
The storage company occupied the basement of an old bank.
The manager checked Daniel's identification.
Then he examined the brass key.
"This box hasn't been opened in eleven years."
Daniel's heart beat faster.
They entered a private room.
The box was long and narrow.
Daniel turned the key.
Inside lay three items.
A sealed envelope.
A small digital recorder.
And a birth certificate.
Caroline picked up the certificate.
Her face drained of color.
"Daniel."
He looked.
The certificate belonged to a baby girl.
Name.
Rose Elizabeth Sterling.
Father.
Richard Alexander Sterling.
Mother.
Rebecca Marie Hale.
Date of birth.
Thirty-three years earlier.
Daniel stared at the paper.
Caroline whispered.
"Dad had another daughter."
Ava looked at the sealed envelope.
May you like
Written across the front in Richard's handwriting were five words.
FOR DANIEL WHEN MARGARET FALLS.
