Chapter 3 - Storage Unit 214)
Porter Avenue was almost empty at nine fifty the next morning.
Rachel parked two buildings away from the storage facility and watched the entrance through her windshield.
Emma was with Susan, who had returned early from her trip after receiving Rachel's call.
Rachel had told her aunt only part of the truth.
She had said there was a financial problem.
She had not described the dog bowl.
She was afraid that saying the words aloud would make her lose control again.
At ten three, Caleb arrived in an old pickup.
He did not park near Rachel.
He entered through the side gate.
Five minutes later Rachel received a text.
214. Door unlocked. I am leaving.
She waited until his truck disappeared.
Then she entered the building.
Unit 214 was at the end of a narrow corridor.
Inside were cardboard boxes, an old bicycle, two metal shelves and a plastic chair.
On the chair sat a black flash drive.
Rachel closed the storage door behind her.
She had brought her laptop.
Her hands shook as she inserted the drive.
There were three audio files.
The first was dated three weeks earlier.
Rachel pressed play.
At first she heard only chairs moving.
Then Dean's voice.
"Rachel won't sell."
Another man answered.
Richard Weller.
Rachel knew immediately because Caleb had described his slow, polished voice.
"Then selling is irrelevant."
"The deed is hers."
"The debt won't be."
Dean laughed.
"She'll contest it."
"Not if she is busy contesting everything else."
"What does that mean?"
"You said your marriage is unstable."
"That doesn't mean she'll walk away from a million-dollar property."
Rachel froze.
A million dollars.
The house had been valued at around seven hundred thousand two years earlier.
Apparently something had changed.
Weller continued.
"The county zoning vote is in October. If the western corridor is approved for commercial redevelopment, your parcel becomes extremely valuable."
"Our parcel."
"No. Her parcel."
Dean swore.
Weller sounded amused.
"Which is why you need leverage."
There was a pause.
Then Dean said, "I can handle Rachel."
"Can you?"
"Yes."
"Because from where I sit, you have spent seven years living in a house you do not own."
The recording continued.
They discussed a loan.
Forged documents.
A company called Red Oak Holdings.
Rachel wrote every name down.
Then Emma's name appeared.
Dean said, "If Rachel fights me, I go for custody."
Weller replied, "On what basis?"
"She loses her temper."
"Everyone loses their temper."
"Not like Rachel."
Rachel's skin prickled.
Dean continued.
"She's emotional. Her mother died suddenly. She had postpartum anxiety after Emma. She gets overwhelmed."
Weller's voice became colder.
"You have documentation?"
"I can create documentation."
Rachel stopped the recording.
For several seconds she could not move.
Then she forced herself to continue.
Dean said, "If she thinks she could lose Emma, she'll sign anything."
Weller replied, "Then make sure she thinks it."
The audio ended.
Rachel stared at the screen.
The second file was shorter.
It began with Caleb speaking.
"You're talking about setting her up."
Dean answered.
"I'm talking about protecting myself."
"By taking her kid?"
"Nobody is taking anybody."
"That is exactly what you just said."
Dean's tone changed.
"Caleb, you work for me."
"Not anymore if this is what you're doing."
There was a loud sound.
Then Weller.
"Gentlemen."
Caleb said, "I'm done."
The recording stopped.
Rachel opened the third file.
This one was only forty-two seconds long.
Dean's voice again.
"The kid is the weak spot."
Weller answered, "Children usually are."
"I don't want Emma hurt."
Rachel almost laughed at the hypocrisy.
Dean continued.
"I just need Rachel scared."
"Fear is temporary."
"So?"
"Evidence is permanent."
Then Weller said something Rachel did not understand.
"Use the dining room."
Dean asked, "Why?"
"Because you already have a camera there."
Rachel's head snapped up.
Camera?
There was no security camera in the dining room.
At least none she knew about.
The recording ended.
Rachel immediately called Caleb.
He answered quietly.
"You heard it."
"What camera?"
Caleb cursed.
"I was afraid of that."
"What camera, Caleb?"
"Dean installed one."
"Where?"
"I don't know."
"Why?"
"He told me it was to watch the side door."
"When?"
"Maybe two months ago."
Rachel's thoughts raced.
"Was yesterday recorded?"
"I don't know."
"Dean knew I would react."
"Rachel."
"He wanted footage of me hitting him."
Caleb did not deny it.
"He wanted footage of me turning over that table."
"Maybe."
"And he has witnesses."
"Some of those men had no idea what was happening."
"But they'll protect him."
"Not all of them."
Rachel looked at the flash drive.
"Will you testify?"
Caleb went silent.
"Caleb."
"I have a wife."
"So do the right thing because you have a wife."
"You don't know Weller."
"Then tell me."
Caleb lowered his voice.
"Red Oak buys distressed properties."
"So?"
"Not always honestly."
Rachel waited.
"They find owners who are vulnerable. Debt, divorce, illness. They push until selling seems like the only option."
"That is disgusting, not terrifying."
"They pushed one man into bankruptcy."
"Who?"
"Peter Donnelly."
Rachel wrote the name down.
"What happened to him?"
"He disappeared."
Her pen stopped.
"What?"
"Six months ago."
"Did police investigate?"
"Adults disappear every day."
"Caleb, what are you saying?"
"I'm saying Weller likes people to believe he has more power than he does. Sometimes believing it is enough."
Rachel stared at the door of the storage unit.
"Why does he want my property?"
"You heard the recording."
"Because of rezoning."
"That is part of it."
"What is the other part?"
"I don't know."
"You hesitated."
"Because I have heard Weller mention your mother's name."
Rachel felt the room tilt.
"My mother?"
"Once."
"What did he say?"
"I don't remember exactly."
"Try."
Caleb breathed slowly.
"He said something about finally finishing what Evelyn Hayes stopped."
Rachel could not speak.
Evelyn Hayes had been dead for eleven years.
She had raised Rachel alone after Rachel's father disappeared from their lives.
She had owned the house for nearly twenty years.
Rachel whispered, "My mother knew Weller?"
"I don't know."
"Then why would he say that?"
"I don't know."
Rachel ended the call and searched through the remaining folders on the flash drive.
There were no more recordings.
But there was one photograph.
It showed Dean and Weller leaving a restaurant.
Behind them was a third man.
Older.
Gray-haired.
Tall.
Rachel zoomed in.
Her heart stopped.
She knew that face.
Not personally.
But she had seen it in an old photograph kept in her mother's bedroom.
The man standing beside Richard Weller was Nathan Cole.
Rachel's father.
The man who had supposedly abandoned the family when Rachel was six years old.
May you like
The man her mother had refused to discuss.
The man Rachel had been told was dead.
