Chapter 13 - THE DEATH CERTIFICATE WITH THE WRONG NAME
Margaret could not speak.
Daniel picked up the phone and attempted to call Elias back. The number no longer existed.
The state investigator examined the device.
“It was configured for one incoming call.”
Margaret stared at Robert’s ring.
“What did he mean?”
No one answered.
Daniel turned toward Nora.
“You said the evidence could reopen Dad’s death investigation.”
“It can.”
“But what if the body they recovered wasn’t his?”
Margaret remembered the closed coffin.
Robert’s body had been in the water for two days. Identification had been based on clothing, dental records, and the engraved watch found nearby.
The watch that had contained Robert’s voice.
The ring had been missing.
“What document could prove it?” Daniel asked.
“A second medical report,” Nora said. “An altered identity record. Perhaps original dental charts.”
Margaret looked at Owen.
“Did you see Robert’s body?”
“No.”
“Did Elias?”
“I don’t know.”
The investigator contacted the county medical examiner.
The original autopsy records had been archived. A digital copy arrived two hours later.
Nora reviewed it.
“The body was identified using dental records supplied by Robert’s dentist.”
“Which dentist?” Margaret asked.
Nora read the name.
“Dr. Leonard Vale.”
Margaret remembered him.
He had retired shortly after Robert’s death.
Nora continued.
“The records were delivered by Adrian Cole.”
Daniel struck the table with his palm.
“Why would Dad’s lawyer deliver dental records?”
“Adrian was not his lawyer,” Margaret said.
“But the report lists him as family counsel.”
“He never represented us.”
The investigator began making calls.
Dr. Vale had died five years earlier.
His clinic records had been transferred to a storage company and later destroyed in a warehouse fire.
Daniel looked at Margaret.
“Someone prepared this.”
“Yes.”
“And Vanessa has the proof.”
“Or she gave it to whoever helped her escape.”
Nora studied the recent payments from Elias.
“He recruited her before she met Daniel. She was probably supposed to gather information about Celeste, Adrian, and Northstar.”
“Why would he use Celeste’s daughter?” Margaret asked.
“Access,” Owen said. “Vanessa could move between both sides.”
Daniel stared at the wedding photograph on his phone.
“Did she ever love me?”
Margaret could not answer.
A state investigator entered the garage.
“We found the black car’s driver.”
“Where?” Daniel asked.
“At a private airfield.”
“Was Vanessa with him?”
“No. But the airfield camera recorded her boarding a plane.”
“Where was it going?”
“The flight plan listed Montreal.”
Margaret looked toward Nora.
“That may be false.”
“It probably is.”
The investigator placed a printed image on the table.
Vanessa stood beside a small aircraft, still wearing her wedding gown. She held Robert’s folded note in one hand and a black document case in the other.
A man stood at the aircraft door.
His face was turned away.
Owen leaned closer.
“I know that coat.”
Margaret waited.
Owen looked deeply disturbed.
“Robert wore it the night he disappeared.”
Daniel stared at him.
“You think the man is my father?”
“I think someone wanted the camera to make us ask that question.”
Nora enlarged the image.
The man’s left hand rested on the aircraft door.
A silver ring was visible on one finger.
Margaret compared it with Robert’s ring from the statue.
The design matched.
But Robert’s authentic ring was in her hand.
“The man is wearing a copy,” she said.
Daniel looked at the image again.
“Who would pretend to be him?”
The answer arrived in an envelope delivered to Lakehaven that evening.
There was no return address.
Inside was a certified copy of Robert Hale’s death certificate.
The name had been crossed out in red ink.
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Below it, someone had written:
THE MAN IN THE LAKE WAS ELIAS WARD.
