Chapter 10: What Thomas Buried
“Rachel, step away from her.””
Daniel had the phone pressed so tightly against his ear that his knuckles were white.
“I’m not near her,” Rachel whispered.
“I’m behind the maintenance building. She doesn’t know I’m here.””
Detective Harris was already moving.
“Which cemetery?”” he asked.
Daniel repeated the name.
Harris called for officers while we hurried from the bank vault.
I grabbed Daniel’s sleeve.
“I’m coming.””
“No.””
“Daniel—”
“Claire, please.””
His voice broke.
“Not this time.””
I looked at my stomach.
Then at him.
He was right.
Whatever Margaret was doing, I had no business standing near it.
Evelyn touched my arm.
“I’ll stay with Claire.””
Daniel hesitated.
Then kissed my forehead.
“Go,” I said.
He left with Harris.
Evelyn and I waited at the bank.
Those forty minutes felt longer than the night in the hospital.
Finally, Daniel called.
“Are you okay?”” I asked.
“I’m fine.””
“Rachel?””
“She’s okay.””
“And Margaret?””
A pause.
“Police have her.””
“What happened?””
Daniel exhaled.
“She was digging beside Dad’s grave.””
“Beside it?””
“Not into the grave. There’s a small memorial garden behind the headstone. Dad apparently buried something there before he died.””
“What?””
“We’re about to find out.””
I heard voices.
Then Rachel.
“Daniel, let me talk to Claire.””
“No.””
“Please.””
A moment later, her voice came through.
“Claire?””
“What?””
“I need you to know something.””
My body tensed.
“I didn’t go there to help Mom.””
“I didn’t say you did.””
“She called me this morning. She said she wanted to explain everything.””
“And?””
“She told me where she was. When I arrived, she already had the shovel.””
“Why did you call Daniel?””
Rachel went silent.
Then she whispered, “Because I finally realized she would destroy anything to keep control.””
Including me.
She didn’t say those words.
She didn’t have to.
Daniel took the phone back.
“I’ll call when we know more.””
Two hours later, he returned to the bank with Harris and Rachel.
Margaret wasn’t with them.
Rachel looked exhausted.
Daniel carried an evidence bag containing a rusted metal box.
Harris placed it on the table.
“We found this beneath a stone marker behind the grave.””
“Can you open it?”” Evelyn asked.
“We already did.””
Inside were photographs, an old pocket diary, and a sealed letter.
The envelope had one name.
Rachel.
She stared at it.
“I don’t want it.””
Daniel looked at her.
“It belongs to you.””
“My entire life belonged to someone else’s lies.””
“Then maybe this is where you get one truth.””
Rachel took the letter.
Her hands shook as she opened it.
Dear Rachel,
If you are reading this, I am gone.
I owe you an apology because I allowed you to call me Dad while knowing there was a possibility another man was your biological father.
Rachel stopped.
Tears fell onto the paper.
Daniel sat across from her.
“Keep going.””
She did.
Thomas explained that Margaret had been pregnant when they married.
She told him the child was his.
He chose to believe her.
Years later, during an argument, she admitted she had been seeing another man.
Thomas never told Rachel because, in his words:
Whatever biology says, I raised you, loved you, and chose you. That made you my daughter.
Rachel covered her face.
Daniel looked away.
For all Thomas’s failures, those words hurt both of them.
“There’s a name,” Rachel whispered.
She continued.
Margaret had admitted the other man was named Jonathan Vale.
Evelyn suddenly stiffened.
“What?””
Everyone turned.
“You know him?”” Daniel asked.
Evelyn looked stunned.
“Jonathan Vale worked for my father.””
My skin prickled.
“What did he do?””
“He was my father’s accountant.””
Harris leaned forward.
“Did he handle the property transaction?””
“Yes.””
Daniel stood.
“So Margaret was having an affair with the man who controlled Charles Hart’s financial records?””
Evelyn nodded slowly.
The pieces rearranged themselves again.
Thomas may not have been the mastermind behind the stolen property.
Margaret and Jonathan had access to everything required to manufacture the transfer.
“Is Vale alive?”” Harris asked.
Evelyn shook her head.
“I don’t know.””
Rachel was staring at the diary.
“There’s something written here.””
She opened to a marked page.
Thomas had written:
J.V. demanded payment again. Margaret terrified he will tell Rachel. Claims he kept original Hart ledger as insurance.
Harris leaned closer.
“What ledger?””
Evelyn answered.
“My father kept handwritten business records. Every loan. Every property. Every payment.””
“If that ledger exists,” Daniel said, “it could prove what really happened to the house.””
Rachel flipped forward.
Another entry.
J.V. says Margaret promised him half when Charles died. Says signatures were her idea.
Evelyn sat back.
Her face had gone white.
“My father trusted him.””
Harris photographed the page.
Rachel kept reading.
Then she stopped.
“What?””
She looked at Daniel.
“There’s an address.””
“Jonathan’s?””
“I think so.””
Harris checked his phone.
The address belonged to a house about twenty miles away.
But Jonathan Vale no longer owned it.
He had died eight years earlier.
“Who owns it now?”” Daniel asked.
Harris looked at the screen.
“A woman named Melissa Vale.””
“His wife?””
“Daughter.””
Rachel stared at the diary.
“Maybe she has the ledger.””
Harris shook his head.
“We contact her carefully. Nobody goes there alone.””
Daniel nodded.
Then Harris’s phone rang.
He stepped away.
His expression became serious.
“What happened?”” I asked when he returned.
He looked directly at Rachel.
“Your mother wants to make a statement.””
Rachel’s mouth tightened.
“About what?””
“She says she’ll explain the property fraud.””
“That’s convenient.””
“There’s a condition.””
Daniel laughed bitterly.
“Of course there is.””
“What does she want?”” Evelyn asked.
Harris hesitated.
Then looked at Rachel.
“She’ll only talk if Rachel comes to the station.””
Rachel went pale.
“Why?””
Harris’s answer chilled the room.
“Because she says Thomas Bennett wasn’t poisoned by her.””
May you like
He paused.
“She says Rachel did it.””
