Chapter 12 - The Name No One Mentioned
The speaker went silent.
Laura and Margaret stood frozen.
Then every light in the corridor came back on.
The security camera stopped blinking.
Margaret grabbed Laura's arm.
“We have to leave.”
They reached the parking lot.
Laura's car was gone.
Margaret looked at the empty space.
“Someone took it.”
Laura's phone rang.
Daniel.
She answered.
“Where are you?”
“Where are you?”
“At the courthouse.”
Silence.
Then Daniel said, “Leave immediately.”
“Why?”
“I know who is behind this.”
Laura stared at Margaret.
“Tell me.”
“Not over the phone.”
“Then tell me now.”
Daniel lowered his voice.
“The person you're looking for isn't Elliot.”
Laura's stomach tightened.
“Who is it?”
“I need you to come to the house.”
“No.”
“Laura…”
“No more secrets.”
Daniel was silent.
Then he said one name.
“Richard.”
Laura frowned.
“Who is Richard?”
Daniel didn't answer.
The call ended.
Margaret looked horrified.
Laura stared at her.
“You know that name.”
Margaret slowly nodded.
“Your father's younger brother.”
Laura had never heard of him.
“My father had a brother?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn't I know?”
“Because they hadn't spoken for twenty years.”
“Why?”
Margaret looked toward the road.
“Because Richard was the one who originally introduced your father to Elliot.”
Laura felt a chill.
Everything seemed to circle back to the same place.
The house.
Her father.
Margaret.
Daniel.
Elliot.
And now Richard.
She and Margaret found a taxi.
On the way home, Laura searched old family records.
She found almost nothing.
Richard Bennett had disappeared from public records twenty-one years earlier.
No address.
No business.
No current photograph.
Then she found one image.
An old newspaper clipping.
Her father and Richard standing beside each other.
A younger Elliot stood behind them.
Laura stared at the photograph.
There was another person in the background.
A woman.
Laura zoomed in.
Her breath caught.
It was Margaret.
But the photograph was dated twenty-three years earlier.
Three years before Laura was born.
Margaret had always said she met Laura's father after college.
That was a lie.
When Laura reached home, Daniel was waiting.
He looked at the photograph in her hand.
His face went pale.
“You found him.”
“Found who?”
Daniel looked toward the hallway.
“Richard.”
May you like
Laura waited.
Daniel whispered, “He's already inside the house.”
