Chapter 4 - What My Mother Knew
I read the word until the letters stopped looking like letters.
Resolved.
My father saw it too.
His hand closed around the edge of the hospital table.
“What does that mean?”
The officer immediately raised one hand.
“We don’t know.”
Harold leaned toward the photocopy.
“Could be financial.”
“On the day my wife died?” Dad demanded.
“It could still be financial.”
My father stood.
“I want that notebook examined.”
“It will be.”
“I want every page.”
“It’s evidence.”
“I understand what evidence is.”
“Dad.”
He turned toward me.
The anger left his face instantly.
I had seen him angry only a handful of times in my life.
My father was a careful man.
A measured man.
Daniel had always interpreted restraint as weakness.
That had been one of his greatest mistakes.
“Sit down,” I said.
He sat.
The officer explained that Daniel remained in custody pending his initial court appearance.
The bag in the garage had escalated the investigation.
The forged property papers mattered.
The cash mattered.
The passports mattered.
But the notebook changed everything.
Especially because one of the accounts discovered by my mother might have involved identity theft.
The officer left.
My father stared at the wall.
“I should have told you.”
“What?”
“Everything.”
“You didn’t know everything.”
“I knew enough.”
“So did I.”
He looked at me.
“I knew enough about Daniel too.”
“Claire—”
“I kept making excuses.”
“Because he trained you to make them.”
I hated how correct that sounded.
After Emma woke, Dad took her home with him.
Not to my house.
To his.
Harold arranged for an officer to collect some clothing and Emma’s stuffed rabbit, Juniper.
My surgery happened the next morning.
When I woke, my leg was wrapped and elevated, and sunlight filled the room.
For several seconds, I forgot.
Then memory returned all at once.
Daniel.
The kitchen.
The notebook.
My mother.
A nurse noticed my breathing change.
“You’re okay.”
Was I?
I looked at the empty chair beside my bed.
“Where’s my father?”
“He stepped outside to take a call.”
The door opened seconds later.
Dad entered.
His face told me something had happened.
“What?”
He closed the door.
“Daniel had his hearing.”
“And?”
“Bond was set.”
My chest tightened.
“How much?”
“Fifty thousand.”
“That’s nothing to him.”
“He has to surrender his passport.”
“He had two passports in a bag.”
“I know.”
“Is he out?”
“Not yet.”
“But he will be.”
“Probably.”
I stared at the blanket.
The room suddenly felt too small.
“He’ll come after us.”
“No.”
“You don’t know him.”
“I know where you and Emma are going.”
I looked up.
“My house.”
“No.”
“My house has police tape.”
“I mean my house.”
“Dad—”
“It has cameras. Mercer lives ten minutes away. Daniel knows I own firearms, which are secured and legal, and more importantly, he knows I’m expecting him.”
“That is exactly why I don’t want Emma there.”
Dad nodded.
“Then we go somewhere he doesn’t know.”
“Where?”
A strange expression crossed his face.
“There’s something else your mother did.”
Of course there was.
“What?”
Dad pulled a key from his pocket.
Small.
Brass.
Old-fashioned.
“Three years ago, your mother bought a cabin.”
I stared at him.
“A cabin?”
“Near Lake Marston.”
“I’ve never heard of Lake Marston.”
“That was the point.”
“You two secretly bought a cabin?”
“She did.”
“Why?”
“She said every woman should have somewhere she could go where nobody had permission to follow.”
A lump formed in my throat.
“That sounds like Mom.”
“It does.”
“Did she think she would need it?”
“No.”
He paused.
“I think she believed you might.”
That hurt in a way my broken leg did not.
My mother had seen what I refused to see.
“How long had she known?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did she ever ask you if Daniel hit me?”
“No.”
“She asked me once.”
Dad went still.
“When?”
“Christmas. Two years ago.”
“What did you say?”
“That she was ridiculous.”
My eyes burned.
“I got angry at her.”
“She knew you weren’t ready.”
I turned toward the window.
“God.”
“Claire.”
“I wish she were here.”
“So do I.”
He held my hand.
We sat there without speaking.
That afternoon, Harold returned with news.
The preliminary examination of Daniel’s notebook showed that most entries involved money transfers.
Initials corresponded with names.
Some were contractors.
Some were shell companies.
Several payments seemed connected to property deals.
“What did Daniel actually do for a living?” Harold asked.
“He owns Bennett Restoration.”
“Residential?”
“Mostly.”
“Insurance work?”
“Storm damage. Fire damage. Water.”
Harold exchanged a look with Dad.
“What?”
“Businesses like that interact with claims.”
“So?”
“So fraudulent claims can generate significant money.”
I stared at him.
“You think Daniel was stealing from insurance companies?”
“I think investigators are asking questions.”
“What does that have to do with accounts in my name?”
“If someone needed places to move money…”
My stomach turned.
“He used me.”
“That’s one possibility.”
“And my mother found out.”
“Yes.”
“What does ‘resolved’ mean?”
“We still don’t know.”
The door opened.
A hospital security officer entered.
“Mrs. Bennett?”
“Yes?”
“There’s a woman downstairs asking to see you.”
“Who?”
“She wouldn’t give us her full name.”
“I don’t want visitors.”
“She said you would want to hear what she knows.”
My father stood.
“What’s her name?”
The security officer checked his notes.
“Rebecca.”
My heart stopped.
Dad looked at me.
“Who is Rebecca?”
I could barely answer.
“Daniel’s sister.”
I had not seen Rebecca Bennett in almost six years.
Not since the night she disappeared from our lives after a screaming argument with Daniel.
He told everyone she had stolen money from their family business.
He called her unstable.
Dangerous.
A liar.
She moved out of state and never contacted us again.
Until now.
“What does she want?” Dad asked.
The security officer handed me a folded piece of paper.
“She asked me to give you this.”
I opened it.
May you like
Five words were written inside.
Your mother called me first.
