Chapter 9 - The Boy in the Photograph
Thomas refused to say anything more.
The unexpected call had terrified him. He began shouting for the staff to lock the doors and protect the records.
The facility moved him to a quiet room.
Naomi checked the call log.
The number had been blocked.
On the drive home, Claire replayed his words.
Do not let Gabriel find Dustin.
There was no obvious connection between the baby in a thirty-year-old photograph and Claire’s ten-year-old son.
Unless Gabriel was no longer a child.
If alive, he would be in his early thirties.
“What could Gabriel want with Dustin?” Claire asked.
Naomi kept her eyes on the road.
“I don’t know.”
“Your father said Henry changed the baby’s name.”
“Yes.”
“Could Gabriel be Michael?”
“No. Michael is nearly eight years older than the baby in that picture.”
“Carla?”
“She is older too.”
“Victor?”
“Possibly, but Victor Hale is his legal name. I checked.”
Claire looked at the photograph again.
The woman holding Gabriel had dark hair and a small crescent-shaped mark near her left eyebrow.
Dustin had a similar birthmark.
Claire told herself it meant nothing.
Many people had small birthmarks.
Dustin was the son of Claire and her first husband, Daniel Reeves. Daniel died in a highway accident when Dustin was three.
There had never been uncertainty about Dustin’s identity.
Claire had been present when he was born. She had held him within seconds. Daniel’s name appeared on the birth certificate.
Still, Thomas’s warning remained in her mind.
When they reached Bellweather, Detective Ruiz was waiting.
“We found Michael,” he said.
“Where?”
“At the airport.”
“Was he leaving?”
“He had a ticket to Toronto and $26,000 in cash.”
Claire felt no surprise, only exhaustion.
“Did you arrest him?”
“We detained him based on the suspected forged financial documents. His attorney is challenging it.”
“Has he confessed?”
“No. He says Victor Hale created everything.”
“Victor says Michael did.”
“One of them is lying. Possibly both.”
Ruiz handed her an evidence bag containing a key.
“We found this in Michael’s luggage.”
It was a safety-deposit-box key.
The bank name had been scratched into the metal.
Naomi obtained an emergency court order preventing the box from being opened or emptied until ownership could be determined.
The following morning, the bank confirmed the box was registered jointly to Michael and Ruth.
Michael’s attorney argued that Claire had no right to access it.
Ruiz obtained a warrant after finding evidence that fraudulent property documents had been stored there.
Inside the box were copies of Claire’s signature, photographs of her passport, old tax records, and a notary stamp reported stolen two months earlier.
There was also a handwritten agreement between Michael and Carla.
After Bellweather House transferred to the Merritt Renewal Trust, Carla would receive $80,000 and a permanent apartment.
Ruth would receive $120,000.
Owen received nothing.
Carla read the agreement twice when Ruiz showed it to her.
“That is not what Michael promised.”
“What did he promise?” Ruiz asked.
“The house would be placed in a trust for Owen.”
“Why Owen?”
“My mother said Bellweather should pass to the youngest Merritt child.”
“Dustin is younger.”
“He isn’t a Merritt.”
Claire watched from the other side of the interview-room glass.
Carla began crying.
“Michael said Claire would eventually forgive us. He said no one would be hurt.”
“You watched your mother deny Dustin food.”
“I didn’t know how far she would go.”
“You helped her enter Henry’s study.”
Carla covered her face.
“Yes.”
“Who was the man in the gray coat?”
“Victor.”
“Why did he take the ledger?”
“I don’t know. Michael told us to let him in.”
“Where is it now?”
“Victor took it.”
Ruiz placed the photograph of Elena and Gabriel on the table.
“Have you seen these people?”
Carla lowered her hands.
She pointed at the baby.
“That picture was in my mother’s apartment.”
“When?”
“Years ago.”
“Who is Gabriel?”
“My mother said he died.”
“How?”
“She said Henry Bennett killed him.”
Claire entered the room before Ruiz could stop her.
“My father never killed anyone.”
May you like
Carla looked directly at her.
“Then ask why Gabriel’s name appears on Dustin’s original birth record.”
