Chapter 2 - A Letter From the Dead
Nobody spoke for several seconds.
The police officer nearest me finally cleared his throat.
“Mrs. Vale, are you okay?”
No.
But I nodded.
My fingers were shaking so badly the paper rattled.
Evelyn sat at my kitchen table like the strength had gone out of her legs.
The delivery driver remained near the doorway.
His name, I learned, was Ben Carter.
He could have left.
Instead, he stayed.
Maybe because Lucas had assaulted him.
Maybe because he sensed none of us were ready to be alone.
I looked back at Adam’s letter.
Nora,
If you are reading this, then my death was not an accident.
I stopped.
Evelyn whispered, “Read it.”
I looked at her.
She seemed ten years older than she had on the porch.
I continued.
I don’t know who I can trust anymore.
Not Lucas.
Not the board.
Possibly not my mother.
Evelyn closed her eyes.
I almost stopped again.
But something inside me had spent two years waiting for this.
Waiting for somebody to admit that the story I had been given did not fit.
Adam supposedly lost control of his car on a wet bridge.
The police report said speed.
The insurance investigation called it driver error.
Lucas told me grief was making me irrational when I asked why Adam had called me fourteen times the night before he died.
Fourteen calls.
I had been asleep beside Ellie.
My phone had been on silent.
That mistake lived inside me.
I kept reading.
The key belongs to locker 317 at Union Station.
Do not go alone.
The drive contains copies, but they are incomplete.
Someone has been moving money through Vale Development using properties we do not own.
I confronted Lucas.
He denied it.
The next day my brakes failed in the employee garage.
The mechanic said the line had been cut.
I told Mother.
She asked me not to involve the police until she could speak to Lucas.
Evelyn made a broken sound.
I looked at her.
“You knew?”
Her lips parted.
“Nora—”
“You knew somebody cut his brakes?”
“I knew he believed someone had.”
“That is not what the letter says.”
The officer stepped between us verbally.
“Let’s finish the letter first.”
I wanted to scream.
Instead, I read.
If something happens to me, do not sign anything Lucas gives you.
Ellie’s trust becomes independently controlled when she turns twenty-five, but until then, Nora is her sole guardian and voting proxy.
If Nora signs the amendment, Lucas gets control.
That was why he wanted my signature.
For almost a year, Lucas’s attorneys had sent documents.
He called them administrative updates.
Routine restructuring.
Necessary after Adam’s death.
I refused because one paragraph gave Lucas temporary voting authority over shares held for Ellie.
My attorney warned me.
Lucas became furious.
I kept reading.
Mother knows more than she admits.
But I still believe she will protect Ellie if she understands what Lucas has become.
The locker contains what I couldn’t keep at home.
Trust Ben Carter.
I stopped.
Every head turned toward the delivery driver.
Ben’s face lost color.
“What?”
I lifted the letter.
“It says your name.”
He stared at me.
“That’s impossible.”
“You knew Adam?”
“No.”
His answer came too quickly.
Evelyn noticed.
“So did I,” she said.
Ben looked at the floor.
The police officer stepped closer.
“Mr. Carter?”
Ben rubbed one hand over his face.
“I knew him.”
I stood.
“You just lied to me.”
“I never met him socially.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
Ben looked toward Ellie, who was sitting in the living room with another officer.
Then he lowered his voice.
“Adam helped my father.”
“How?”
“My dad worked maintenance at Vale Tower. Three years ago he found invoices that didn’t make sense. He reported them. Two weeks later, Lucas fired him and accused him of stealing equipment.”
Evelyn frowned.
“I remember.”
Ben laughed without humor.
“Of course you remember. Vale Development sued him.”
Evelyn looked away.
“My father lost our house.”
I suddenly understood the anger beneath Ben’s calm.
“Adam came to see him,” Ben continued. “He apologized. Privately. Said he thought my dad was telling the truth.”
“Why are you delivering packages now?”
“I own the courier company.”
I stared at his uniform.
He shrugged.
“One driver called in sick. I took the route.”
“Did you know this box was for me?”
“No.”
“Did you know Adam arranged it?”
Ben hesitated.
“Not until I saw Lucas.”
My skin went cold.
The officer asked, “Explain.”
Ben leaned against the counter.
“Two years ago, Adam gave my father a sealed envelope. He said if anything happened to him, my father would receive instructions.”
“Did he?”
“Yes. Six months after Adam died.”
“Why wait two years?”
“The instructions had conditions. Certain documents had to be held until a specific corporate filing occurred.”
Evelyn went rigid.
“What filing?”
Ben looked at her.
“The transfer of the Riverside properties.”
Evelyn whispered, “That happened yesterday.”
Ben nodded.
“That’s probably why the package released this morning.”
I looked from one to the other.
“What are the Riverside properties?”
Evelyn’s expression changed.
Not fear.
Shame.
“Assets worth approximately eighty million dollars.”
I nearly laughed.
Not because it was funny.
Because my brain couldn’t hold the size of what she was saying.
“And Lucas controls them?”
“He does now.”
The police officer took notes.
I looked at Evelyn.
“You knew Adam suspected Lucas.”
“Yes.”
“You knew someone cut his brakes.”
“Yes.”
“And after Adam died, you told me to stop asking questions.”
Her eyes filled.
“I thought I was protecting the family.”
“Which family?”
She flinched.
“Because it wasn’t mine.”
Ellie appeared in the doorway.
“Mom?”
I stopped immediately.
She walked toward me.
I crouched and hugged her.
Her small arms wrapped around my neck.
“Is Uncle Lucas bad?”
Every adult in the room became still.
I wanted to give her the easy answer.
Children deserved easy answers.
But easy lies had already destroyed too much.
“I don’t know everything yet.”
She whispered against me.
“He scared me.”
“I know.”
“Grandma scared him.”
I looked over her shoulder.
Evelyn lowered her eyes.
That night, after the police left, a patrol car remained outside.
Ben gave a statement and finally departed.
Evelyn did not.
She stood in my kitchen long after Ellie went upstairs.
“You hate me,” she said.
“I don’t have enough room for hate tonight.”
“I deserve it.”
“Yes.”
She accepted that.
Then she placed a small card on the counter.
“My private number.”
“I already had your number.”
“No. You had my office.”
I looked at it.
“Why are you helping now?”
Her answer came quietly.
“Because two years ago, I chose my living son over my dead one.”
She swallowed.
“And today, when I saw Lucas look at Ellie, I realized I may have chosen wrong.”
I stared at her.
“What did you see?”
Evelyn hesitated.
Then she told me something that made the entire situation worse.
“When Adam died, his company shares passed into Ellie’s trust.”
“I know.”
“What you don’t know is that together with your proxy, those shares are enough to block Lucas from selling Vale Development.”
I frowned.
“Why would he sell it?”
“I don’t know.”
“He has eighty million dollars in property.”
“That isn’t enough.”
“For what?”
Evelyn looked toward the dark window.
“I think my son is in debt.”
“To who?”
Before she answered, her phone buzzed.
One message.
Unknown number.
She showed me.
YOU SHOULD HAVE LET HIM TAKE THE BOX.
Then mine buzzed.
Same unknown number.
Different message.
LOCKER 317 WILL BE EMPTY BY MORNING.
I grabbed my coat.
Evelyn stood.
“You can’t go.”
“Adam told me where the rest of the evidence is.”
“He also told you not to go alone.”
I looked at her.
She lifted her cane.
“I’m coming.”
From the hallway, a third voice said,
“So am I.”
Ben stood inside my open front doorway.
He held up his phone.
“I got a message too.”
I stared at him.
“What did yours say?”
He turned the screen toward us.
BEN CARTER SHOULD HAVE STAYED A DELIVERY MAN.
Beneath it was a photograph.
May you like
Taken less than five minutes earlier.
Ellie asleep in her bedroom.
