Chapter 12 - Rachel's Aunt)
Margaret Hale had a death certificate.
That made her different from Elizabeth Mercer.
She had died in a hospital in Vermont.
Cancer.
Lucas attended the funeral.
So had Rachel.
Closed casket.
Another closed casket.
Lucas was beginning to hate them.
Molina requested records.
The death certificate was legitimate.
The attending physician existed.
The hospital confirmed a patient named Margaret Hale died.
But the identification had been based on documents provided by the patient's companion.
No family member viewed the body.
Rachel had refused.
At the time, Lucas thought grief was the reason.
Now he wondered if Rachel already suspected something.
Margaret had raised Rachel from sixteen until college.
She knew every childhood secret.
Every family record.
Every fear.
If anyone could have known about Arthur Wynn, Mara Bennett, and Thomas Vale, it was Margaret.
Daniel found an old probate file.
Margaret's estate contained almost nothing.
Five thousand dollars.
Furniture.
A vehicle.
But bank records showed she had withdrawn nearly four hundred thousand dollars in the year before her supposed death.
"Where did it go?" Lucas asked.
"Unknown."
Vanessa sat quietly across the table.
Lucas had allowed her into the house only because Molina requested everyone remain available.
She had no access upstairs.
Emily would not see her.
Vanessa accepted that without argument.
Molina asked Vanessa whether Thomas ever mentioned Margaret.
"Not by name."
"What did he call her?"
Vanessa thought.
"The keeper."
Lucas looked up.
"What?"
"He said Rachel learned everything from the keeper."
"What else?"
"He hated her."
"Why?"
"He said she betrayed an agreement."
"What agreement?"
"I don't know."
Molina leaned forward.
"Vanessa."
"I really don't."
Lucas believed her this time.
It surprised him.
Not forgiveness.
Just recognition.
Vanessa had been used by Vale.
She had also made her own cruel choices.
Both could be true.
The distinction mattered.
Late that evening, police found a property purchased under Margaret Hale's middle name.
A cabin in northern Maine.
No mortgage.
Cash purchase.
Utilities active.
Someone lived there.
Molina insisted Lucas stay home.
He refused.
"You are not law enforcement."
"Rachel was my wife."
"And Emily is your daughter. Which is why you should remain with her."
Lucas looked upstairs.
She was right.
Again.
He stayed.
Molina and a team traveled to Maine.
Hours passed.
At three fourteen in the morning Lucas's phone rang.
Molina.
"We found the cabin."
"And?"
"Someone was living here recently."
"Margaret?"
"No one present."
"What did you find?"
"A room full of files."
Lucas closed his eyes.
"Rachel?"
"Yes."
"What else?"
Molina paused.
"Photographs of Emily."
His eyes opened.
"What photographs?"
"School. Playground. Your house."
Lucas stood.
"Recent?"
"Some taken last month."
Fear hit harder than anger.
"Margaret is alive."
"We don't know."
"Someone is watching Emily."
"Yes."
"I want my daughter moved."
"We can arrange a secure location."
Within an hour, Lucas, Emily, and Caroline relocated to a private residence used for protected witnesses.
Ryan came under separate escort.
Vanessa was moved elsewhere.
Daniel coordinated legal filings.
The wedding was now national gossip.
But the public still thought it was a bride and groom scandal.
No one knew about the trust.
No one knew about Rachel.
Lucas preferred it that way.
Emily slept beside him in the unfamiliar bedroom.
At dawn she opened her eyes.
"Daddy?"
"I'm here."
"Why aren't we home?"
"Just a little trip."
"Because of Vanessa?"
Lucas hesitated.
"Partly."
Emily looked toward the window.
"Is Grandma Margaret coming?"
Lucas froze.
Rachel had called Margaret Grandma around Emily.
But Margaret supposedly died before Emily turned two.
"You remember Grandma Margaret?"
Emily nodded sleepily.
"She came to school."
Lucas's pulse exploded.
"When?"
Emily closed her eyes again.
"Tuesday."
"Emily."
She opened them.
"What Tuesday?"
"The Tuesday before the wedding."
Lucas sat up.
"What did she say?"
Emily yawned.
"She said don't trust the lady in white."
"Vanessa?"
Emily nodded.
"What else?"
"She gave me something."
Lucas stared.
"What?"
Emily climbed out of bed.
She walked to her shoes.
Inside one shoe was a tiny brass key.
Lucas took it.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Grandma said it was part of Mommy's game."
"Did she say what it opens?"
Emily nodded.
"The room where Mommy is waiting."
Lucas felt every hair on his arms rise.
"Mommy is dead, sweetheart."
Emily looked confused.
"I know."
"Then what did Margaret mean?"
May you like
Emily answered with the simple certainty only a child could possess.
"She said Mommy left a room for me."
