Chapter 10 - The Bracelet)
The green bracelet was gone.
Laura had left it inside the metal case.
She was certain.
Investigator Parker was certain she had seen it when cataloguing the contents.
Now the evidence bag was empty.
Parker immediately reviewed office surveillance.
At 7:13 that evening, a maintenance worker had entered the evidence room.
At 7:17, he left.
The problem was no maintenance work had been scheduled.
His face remained hidden beneath a baseball cap.
Brooke watched the footage.
“Could that be Michael?”
Adam shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
“Same height?”
“Maybe.”
Parker paused the recording.
The man’s left hand rested on the doorframe.
A thin scar crossed the thumb.
Adam stood abruptly.
“What?”
“My brother cut his hand when we were teenagers.”
Brooke looked at the image.
“You’re saying he’s alive.”
“I’m saying that scar looks exactly like his.”
Parker turned off the monitor.
“If Michael is alive and connected to this, we treat him as potentially dangerous.”
Adam shook his head.
“He wouldn’t hurt children.”
“You haven’t seen him in eleven years.”
“He’s my brother.”
Parker looked at him.
“So was Gary your best friend.”
That silenced him.
Gary remained in custody overnight.
The financial charges were strong enough to keep him from coming home immediately.
Laura obtained a temporary protection order.
It should have felt like victory.
Brooke walked through their quiet house the next morning and felt nothing except exhaustion.
The belt was gone.
The broken glass had been cleaned.
Green paint still marked one grout line.
Ethan knelt beside it.
“I can get it out.”
Brooke sat.
“Leave it.”
“Gary will be mad.”
“He’s not coming back.”
Ethan looked toward her.
“Ever?”
Brooke hesitated.
“We’re going to make sure he doesn’t.”
That answer satisfied him.
For now.
Adam stayed at a motel nearby.
He did not assume he belonged in the house.
Brooke respected that.
Laura spent hours with attorneys.
She planned to file for divorce.
She signed documents freezing Gary’s authority over the trust.
She also removed every tracking application from her phone.
Small freedoms.
That afternoon, Brooke opened the basement filing cabinet with a key investigators had recovered from Gary.
Adam’s letters were back.
Gary had moved them into a suitcase before following them to the storage unit.
Police found it in his SUV.
There were 143 letters.
Brooke counted.
One hundred forty-three attempts to reach them.
She opened the earliest.
Dear Brooke,
You’re eight today.
I don’t know if this will reach you.
I need you to know I did not leave because I wanted to.
Brooke stopped.
She could not continue.
Ethan sat beside her.
“Read it.”
“Not now.”
“Please.”
Brooke handed him another envelope instead.
It said Ethan.
He opened it.
Dear Ethan,
Your mother told me you lost your first tooth.
I wish I could have seen it.
Ethan’s lip trembled.
“Gary told me Dad didn’t know when my birthday was.”
Brooke looked at the stacks.
“He knew.”
They spent an hour opening letters.
Adam had written about books.
Baseball.
Weather.
The zoo.
Bad prison food.
He never complained about Laura.
He never told the kids to hate Gary.
Brooke noticed that.
Then she found one letter different from the rest.
No prison return address.
It was dated six months after Adam’s release.
Dear Brooke,
I came to Columbus today.
Your grandmother asked me not to contact you yet.
She believes someone is watching the house.
She also told me something I never expected.
Michael may be alive.
Brooke stopped.
She called Adam.
He answered immediately.
“I found a letter.”
“Which one?”
“Michael.”
Silence.
“You knew before Grandma died.”
“Yes.”
“You told us you didn’t.”
“I told you I didn’t know whether he was alive.”
“You acted like the photograph shocked you.”
“It did.”
“You already suspected him.”
Adam sighed.
“Brooke.”
“No more partial truth.”
“You’re right.”
“Then talk.”
He arrived fifteen minutes later.
Laura joined them at the table.
Adam placed both hands flat on the wood.
“Evelyn contacted me two years ago because she received a Christmas card.”
“From Michael?” Brooke asked.
“No name.”
“What did it say?”
“Ask Adam who signed the first transfer.”
Laura whispered, “Michael.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t Evelyn tell me?”
“She didn’t trust anybody.”
Brooke remembered the letter.
“Including you.”
“Yes.”
Adam continued.
“Evelyn hired a private investigator. He found a utility account in Kentucky under Michael’s old Social Security number.”
“So he was alive.”
“Maybe. Identity theft happens.”
“What happened to the investigator?”
“He disappeared.”
Brooke froze.
“People don’t just disappear.”
“This one did.”
“When?”
“Fourteen months ago.”
Laura stared.
“You never told me.”
“Because Evelyn asked me not to.”
Brooke laughed bitterly.
“Everybody keeps protecting everybody by lying.”
Adam nodded.
“You’re right.”
That surprised her again.
He continued.
“The investigator’s name was Robert Vale.”
Brooke’s mind jumped.
Grandma’s hidden number.
Ask for Adam.
Had she written another name anywhere?
“What did he find before disappearing?”
Adam pulled out his phone.
“One photograph.”
He showed them.
A man entering a restaurant.
His face was clearer than the bank image.
Adam’s breathing changed.
Brooke looked at him.
“That’s Michael?”
“Yes.”
Eleven years had aged him.
But the resemblance was unmistakable.
Adam’s brother was alive.
Ethan leaned closer.
“Where is that?”
“Louisville.”
Laura covered her mouth.
Brooke zoomed in.
Behind Michael stood another person.
A woman.
Blonde hair.
Face turned toward the camera.
Brooke recognized her too.
She had seen that woman at Grandma Evelyn’s funeral.
Standing beneath a black umbrella.
“Who is she?”
Adam stared.
“I don’t know.”
Laura did.
Brooke saw it.
“Mom.”
Laura whispered, “Her name is Rachel.”
“Rachel who?”
“Rachel Mercer.”
Adam looked confused.
Laura continued.
“She was Gary’s first wife.”
Brooke stared.
“Gary said he was never married.”
Laura looked at the photograph again.
“He lied.”
“Where is she now?”
Laura swallowed.
“According to Gary, Rachel died sixteen years ago.”
Nobody spoke.
First Michael.
Now Rachel.
Two people connected to Gary.
Two people supposedly dead.
Both appearing alive years later.
Then Ethan said something that changed everything.
“I know her.”
Brooke turned.
“What?”
May you like
Ethan pointed at Rachel.
“She came to my school.”
