Chapter 9 - The Sister He Never Mentioned)
The voice belonged to Miriam North, Honora's younger sister.
Miriam had vanished from the family forty-three years earlier. She was twenty-two, restless, and furious with the rules that governed the North household. One winter morning she left a note saying she was going west. For six months postcards arrived from Arizona and California. Then they stopped.
Honora searched hospitals and police records until Walter insisted they had to continue living. Her parents removed Miriam's photographs from the parlor. Over time, absence hardened into a kind of family death.
"Thaddeus found her," Honora said.
The chapel recorder proved Miriam was alive at least months earlier. It also connected her to Evelyn, the heir named in the will.
Celia searched public records while Samuel contacted old Vale investigators who still owed him favors. By midnight they found a Miriam Cross, born Miriam North, who had lived in Boston with her husband, a notary named Marian Cross.
Marian was not a woman. He was Miriam's husband, and his full name was Marian Elias Cross.
The professional record had hidden him behind an initial.
Miriam and Marian had one daughter.
Evelyn.
Honora stared at the birth entry. Evelyn Cross had been born forty-two years earlier, eight months after Miriam left home. The father's name on the original record was sealed by court order.
"She is my niece," Honora said.
"Maybe," Celia replied. "But Thaddeus used her mother's name in the will, not Cross. There may be more."
Samuel returned with news from the cabin. He had driven there after court and found the rear window broken. The metal box was gone. Fresh gasoline stains marked the floor around the altar.
"They are preparing to burn it," he said.
"Then let them believe the evidence is still inside," Honora answered.
Celia stared at her. "You want to use the cabin as bait."
"Thaddeus already did. The Blue Heron letter said the truth was in the box, but the most useful evidence has always been somewhere else. If Victoria thinks we are returning for it, she will send whoever set the first fire."
Samuel objected. Celia objected more forcefully. Honora listened and then unfolded the map from the hidden compartment. A narrow tunnel ran beneath the cabin to an abandoned root cellar fifty yards uphill. Walter had used it to store preserves. Thaddeus and Honora used it during games of hide-and-seek.
"We install cameras," Honora said. "We notify Judge Bell and the state police. We make copies of everything. And this time, no local deputy knows the plan."
Celia contacted an investigator attached to the attorney general's office. He agreed to place two unmarked teams on the mountain, but a landslide delayed their arrival until the next night.
Honora insisted on returning to the cabin before then.
"If no one sees me enter, the bait is useless."
She wore her black funeral dress again because the watcher on the ridge would recognize it. Samuel drove openly along the main track and unloaded her battered suitcases. Celia followed at a distance, then climbed through the root-cellar tunnel after dark with cameras and recording equipment.
They found an electrical wire attached to a fuel can under the porch. It could be triggered by telephone. Celia photographed it but did not disconnect it. Instead they replaced the fuel with water and left a smaller amount of gasoline along one outer wall where the fire could be controlled.
Honora placed the empty metal box inside the compartment. The original documents remained sealed in a fireproof case in the root cellar.
At eleven, Celia and Samuel withdrew through the tunnel. Honora stayed inside, visible beside the window.
"Ten minutes," Celia told her. "Then you follow us."
Honora waited eleven.
She was about to lift the altar when headlights moved among the trees. A black vehicle stopped beyond the porch. Mercer stepped out with another man. His knee was bandaged. He carried a red fuel can.
Honora opened the floor and pressed the alarm button Celia had given her.
Nothing happened.
The device showed no signal.
Mercer's companion crawled beneath the porch. A moment later the smell of gasoline strengthened.
Honora pulled the tunnel latch.
The trapdoor opened, but smoke poured up from below. Someone had discovered the root cellar and set a second fire inside the escape route.
Mercer knocked on the front door.
"Mrs. Vale," he called. "Victoria wants her box."
Honora backed toward the altar with Thaddeus's portrait in her arms.
May you like
The electrical wire beneath the porch clicked.
Flames climbed the wall.
