Chapter 12: Inside the Walls
The house stood forty minutes outside town.
Nobody had lived there in years.
At least, that was what I believed.
Police had been notified about Richard, and I was told not to confront him.
So I didn’t take the children.
Amanda stayed with Mason and Lily at a secure location while Hale and I drove to the property.
Vanessa insisted on coming.
I almost refused.
Then she said:
“I know where Richard searches.””
That changed my mind.
We arrived shortly before sunset.
The old Reed house looked smaller than I remembered.
White siding.
Dark shutters.
A porch sagging slightly at one corner.
Rachel had grown up there.
I had spent Thanksgiving there once.
I remembered Thomas carving turkey in the dining room.
Amanda laughing.
Rachel stealing food from my plate.
Happy memories.
Or what I thought were happy memories.
Hale unlocked the front door.
“You have a key?”” I asked.
“I manage the holding company.””
“You knew Lily owned this?””
“I knew the company existed. Thomas concealed the beneficiary.””
Vanessa stepped inside.
Dust floated through the fading sunlight.
She looked around slowly.
“So this is where they grew up.””
There was something painful in her voice.
I didn’t answer.
We searched Thomas’s old office first.
Empty drawers.
Old books.
A dead clock.
Nothing.
Then I remembered Rachel’s words.
Inside these walls.
I walked through the hallway.
“Michael?”” Vanessa called.
I ignored her.
Rachel had always loved puzzles.
When we were married, she hid birthday gifts behind clues.
Once she made me search our entire apartment for concert tickets that were taped beneath the kitchen table.
If she wanted me to find something, she would leave a trail only I understood.
I entered her childhood bedroom.
Faded yellow wallpaper covered one wall.
My chest tightened.
Years ago, Rachel had shown me a tiny pencil mark near the closet.
Her height at age nine.
Another at twelve.
Another at fifteen.
I ran my fingers along them.
Then I noticed something.
One mark wasn’t a height.
It was an arrow.
Tiny.
Almost invisible.
Pointing toward the baseboard.
“Hale.””
He entered.
“What?””
I knelt.
The baseboard had been removed before.
There were scratches around one nail.
Vanessa appeared behind him.
“What did you find?””
I pulled carefully.
The wood shifted.
Behind it was a narrow cavity.
Inside sat a metal box.
Nobody spoke.
I removed it.
The box wasn’t locked.
Inside were documents wrapped in plastic.
Photographs.
A flash drive.
And a small envelope.
For Michael.
Rachel’s handwriting again.
My throat tightened.
I opened it.
Michael,
If you found this, Thomas was right. Someone came looking for what he left behind.
I stopped.
Vanessa stood several feet away.
She didn’t try to approach.
I continued.
Rachel explained that Thomas had discovered Richard was using Vanessa’s identity to create financial accounts.
He had confronted him.
Richard threatened to expose the affair publicly and destroy the family.
Thomas refused to pay.
So Richard began stealing.
First from Vanessa.
Then from businesses connected to Thomas.
The missing inheritance wasn’t gone.
Thomas had traced it.
He had collected evidence.
Bank records.
Recorded conversations.
Original transfer instructions.
Everything needed to prove what Richard had done.
I looked at the flash drive.
“This is the evidence.””
Hale exhaled.
“My God.””
Vanessa covered her mouth.
“He knew.””
“Thomas knew everything.””
She began crying.
“He could have told me.””
I looked at her.
“Maybe he tried.””
Beneath the letter was another envelope.
Vanessa’s name was written across it.
She stared.
“That’s for me.””
I handed it to her.
Her fingers trembled as she opened it.
She read silently.
Then collapsed onto the edge of Rachel’s old bed.
“What does it say?”” I asked.
She shook her head.
“Vanessa.””
She looked up.
Tears covered her face.
“He apologized.””
“For what?””
“For leaving me.””
Her voice broke.
“He said the money was never supposed to replace being my father.””
For a moment, none of us spoke.
Then she continued reading.
Her expression suddenly changed.
“What?””
She looked at me.
“He says Richard isn’t just after the money.””
My stomach tightened.
“What else?””
Vanessa read the line aloud.
“Richard believes Lily can identify him.””
I stared at her.
“Identify him from what?””
She turned the page.
There was a photograph.
Vanessa gasped.
I took it.
The picture showed Rachel standing outside this house shortly before her death.
Richard was behind her.
They were arguing.
And through the front window, barely visible, was a tiny child.
Lily.
Watching.
I remembered Lily saying she had stopped talking about her mother.
I remembered Vanessa telling me to ask what happened that night.
“What happened here?””
Vanessa whispered:
“I don’t know.””
Then a floorboard creaked downstairs.
All three of us froze.
Hale slowly turned toward the bedroom door.
Another creak.
Closer.
Someone was inside the house.
I reached for my phone.
No signal.
Then a man’s voice drifted up the staircase.
“Michael?””
Vanessa’s face turned white.
Richard.
Hale whispered, “Stay here.””
But footsteps were already climbing.
Slow.
Deliberate.
Then Richard called again.
“You found the box.””
I looked at the flash drive in my hand.
He laughed from the hallway.
“Good.””
May you like
A shadow appeared beneath the bedroom door.
“Now ask Vanessa why Rachel was really at this house the night she died.””
