Chapter 11 - Rachel’s Last Recording
They found a cassette player in Eleanor’s hidden room.
Harold insisted Detective Vasquez be present.
Elaine objected.
Nora did not care.
At eight-twenty that evening, Rachel Bennett’s voice filled the room for the first time in twenty-two years.
Nora closed her eyes.
Her mother sounded younger than Nora remembered.
Angry.
Breathless.
“Richard, you don’t understand what they’re doing.”
Richard’s voice followed.
“I understand perfectly.”
“No, you don’t.”
“Then explain it.”
“Harbor isn’t about money.”
Nora opened her eyes.
Everyone listened.
Rachel continued.
“The transfers are payments.”
“For what?”
“For people.”
“What people?”
“I don’t know yet.”
Richard laughed.
“Then you know nothing.”
“I know Daniel found patient lists.”
The tape crackled.
Elaine covered her mouth.
Nora looked at her.
Rachel said, “Some of them aren’t patients.”
“Then what are they?”
A pause.
“Witnesses.”
The room went still.
Richard’s voice sharpened.
“Witnesses to what?”
“I don’t know.”
Another sound.
A door closing.
Rachel whispered now.
“Daniel thinks Dad started this.”
Thomas Bennett.
Their father.
Nora’s grandfather.
Richard said, “Thomas has been dead for years.”
“Which means someone kept it running.”
The tape crackled again.
Then another male voice entered.
Low.
Calm.
Nora looked at Harold.
He had gone pale.
On the recording the unknown man said:
“Rachel, you need to stop.”
Rachel replied, “You’re supposed to be dead.”
Nora’s blood turned cold.
The tape ended.
Nothing else.
She stared at the machine.
“Who was that?”
Elaine shook her head.
“I never knew.”
Harold looked sick.
Nora turned.
“You recognize the voice.”
“No.”
“You reacted.”
“I reacted to what he said.”
“You’re lying.”
Harold removed his glasses.
“Not lying. Remembering.”
“What?”
“Eleanor once told me Rachel had called her the night before the accident.”
Nora stared.
“She said someone from Thomas’s past had returned.”
“Who?”
“She refused to give a name over the phone.”
Nora rewound the final section.
“You’re supposed to be dead.”
She played it again.
And again.
Marcus, who had remained silent near the door, finally spoke.
“I know that voice.”
Everyone turned.
Elaine whispered, “Marcus.”
He looked at his mother.
“I heard him at Dad’s funeral.”
Elaine shook her head.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
Marcus swallowed.
“Someone called Dad’s private office the night before the funeral.”
“Your father was already dead,” Nora said.
“I know.”
“You answered?”
“I was in his office looking for documents. The phone rang.”
“And?”
“The man asked if Richard had left instructions.”
Nora’s skin prickled.
“What did you say?”
“I told him Richard was dead.”
“What did he say?”
Marcus looked terrified.
“He said, ‘I’m aware.’”
Nora pressed.
“Then?”
“He told me to look inside the bottom desk drawer.”
Elaine stepped toward him.
“You never told me this.”
“No.”
“What was there?”
Marcus looked at Nora.
“A key.”
Nora laughed without humor.
“Apparently our family communicates exclusively through keys.”
“Where is it?”
Marcus said nothing.
“Marcus.”
“I used it.”
“To open what?”
“A storage unit.”
Elaine looked ready to strike him.
“When?”
“Nine years ago.”
“What was inside?”
“Files. Cash. Passports.”
Nora stared.
“Whose passports?”
“Dad’s.”
“He was dead.”
“I know.”
“How many?”
“Five.”
Different names.
Different birth dates.
Same photograph.
Richard Bennett had multiple identities.
One passport showed entry into Canada eleven years earlier.
The year Daniel Cross supposedly returned from Toronto.
Nora looked at Elaine.
“Are you sure the man who contacted you was my father?”
Elaine’s face crumpled slightly.
“He knew things only Daniel would know.”
“That doesn’t answer me.”
“I never saw him.”
The room went silent.
Harold understood first.
“Someone may have impersonated Daniel.”
Elaine shook her head.
“No.”
Nora thought of the hidden payments.
The false death entry.
The multiple passports.
Victor Hale.
Project Harbor.
People who disappeared without officially disappearing.
“Where is the storage unit?” Nora asked.
Marcus looked down.
“Gone.”
“What?”
“I cleared it after Dad died.”
“Where are the files?”
Marcus’s silence told her.
“You destroyed them.”
“Most.”
Nora stepped toward him.
“Most?”
“I kept one box.”
Elaine whispered, “You idiot.”
“Where?”
Marcus looked at his mother.
Then Nora.
“In the house Dad bought under another name.”
“What house?”
“Wisconsin.”
Nora knew before he said it.
May you like
Marcus swallowed.
“Three miles from the old Arden House property.”
