Chapter 6 - The Body Beneath Hawthorne
“No.”
Detective Hale caught my arm as I tried getting out of bed.
“Emily.”
“No. Rachel was alive last night.”
“The identification isn't confirmed.”
“I saw her face!”
“The woman resembles Rachel.”
“Resembles?”
Hale looked at his phone again.
Then his expression changed.
He enlarged the photograph.
“What?”
He didn't answer.
“Hale.”
“The body has a scar across the left eyebrow.”
“So?”
“Rachel doesn't.”
I remembered her face.
He was right.
The woman looked almost identical.
But not exactly.
Hale called the officers at Hawthorne.
Twenty minutes later, we had an identification.
Rebecca Cole.
Rachel's older sister.
Missing for seventeen years.
Rachel arrived at the hospital shortly afterward.
When Hale told her, she sat silently for almost a minute.
Then she whispered, “He kept her.”
“Who?”
“Voss.”
Rachel explained that Rebecca had worked for the same company.
When Rachel decided to help Rose, Rebecca disappeared.
Everyone assumed she'd run away.
She hadn't.
Evidence recovered from the north barn suggested Rebecca had been killed recently.
Not seventeen years ago.
Someone had kept her alive.
The implication was horrifying.
Then Linda asked to speak with police.
This time, I agreed to listen.
She was brought into an interview room while I watched remotely.
Hale questioned her.
“Who is Charles Voss?”
Linda's hands shook.
“The worst mistake I ever made.”
“You had a relationship with him?”
“Yes.”
“Daniel is his son?”
“Yes.”
“Does Daniel know?”
“He suspected.”
“Is Voss alive?”
Linda closed her eyes.
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“I don't know.”
“Why did you help Daniel take Hawthorne?”
“Because Charles came back.”
“When?”
“Two months ago.”
“What did he want?”
“The farm.”
“Why?”
“He said Rose had hidden evidence there.”
“Did he threaten you?”
Linda looked directly at the camera.
“He threatened Emily.”
I felt nothing.
Not sympathy.
Not yet.
Hale continued.
“So you protected Emily by helping your son assault her?”
Linda started crying.
“I thought if she signed, Charles would leave her alone.”
“You could have gone to police.”
“You don't understand him.”
“Then help us.”
Linda breathed deeply.
“There is a house.”
“Where?”
“Outside Cedar Ridge. Blackwood Road.”
Rachel reacted instantly.
“I know it.”
We looked at her.
“That's where the old company kept executive housing.”
Police obtained a warrant.
What they found changed everything.
Financial ledgers.
Fake identities.
Surveillance photographs of me.
Daniel.
Grandma.
Even Linda.
Charles Voss had spent years watching all of us.
But Voss wasn't there.
One room contained medical equipment.
Another contained Rebecca's belongings.
Then officers found something beneath the floor.
A locked steel box.
Inside were original documents proving the chemical conspiracy.
And a handwritten confession.
Thomas Mercer had written it.
He admitted helping cover up the attack on my parents.
But he also named Charles Voss as the man who ordered it.
Thomas had tried to save my parents at the last minute.
He failed.
Then he spent decades collecting evidence.
That explained why he disappeared.
But not why he returned.
At noon, Detective Hale received another call.
Thomas had surrendered.
Voluntarily.
He asked to speak with me.
I agreed.
He entered my hospital room in handcuffs.
He looked exhausted.
“I should have come forward years ago.”
“Yes.”
“I was afraid.”
“So were my parents.”
He lowered his head.
“I know.”
“Did you kill them?”
“No.”
“Did you know Voss planned to?”
“Not until it was already happening.”
“Did you help cover it up?”
“Yes.”
I appreciated the absence of excuses.
“Why come back now?”
“Because Rose made me promise.”
“Before she died?”
“Yes.”
“Was she murdered?”
Thomas looked at Hale.
Then at me.
“Yes.”
My chest tightened.
“Who?”
“I don't know.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I know Voss ordered it. I don't know who administered the drug.”
“Drug?”
“Rose had enough sedative in her system to stop her breathing. Her death was made to look natural.”
I thought of Walsh.
Thomas saw it.
“Not the surgeon.”
“How do you know?”
“Walsh was helping Rose.”
Then who?
Linda?
Daniel?
Someone else?
Thomas continued.
“Rose suspected she was in danger. That's why she scattered evidence among several people.”
“Why me?”
“Because Hawthorne belonged to you.”
“It belonged to her.”
“No.”
I stared at him.
“What?”
“Hawthorne was always yours.”
He explained that my father had purchased the property through Rose shortly before his death.
Rose held it in trust.
She wasn't giving me an inheritance.
She was returning something my parents already owned.
My eyes filled.
For years, I had believed Hawthorne was the last gift Grandma gave me.
It was more than that.
It was the last thing my parents had protected for me too.
“I won't sell it,” I whispered.
Thomas smiled sadly.
“Rose knew you wouldn't.”
That afternoon, prosecutors offered Linda reduced charges in exchange for testimony against Daniel and Voss.
She accepted.
Daniel also requested a deal.
I didn't care.
The criminal justice system could decide what happened to him.
My marriage was finished.
Walsh was cleared of involvement in my assault, though his failure to disclose his relationship with Rose triggered a medical review.
He apologized.
I accepted the apology.
Not the secrecy.
There was a difference.
At five that evening, Hale entered carrying my phone.
“We recovered it from your car.”
I turned it on.
Dozens of messages appeared.
Then one arrived immediately.
UNKNOWN NUMBER.
A photograph.
I opened it.
Grandma Rose.
Alive.
The photograph had been taken shortly before her death.
She was sitting at her kitchen table.
Across from her was a man whose face was hidden.
Beneath the photograph was a message.
YOUR GRANDMOTHER GAVE ME SOMETHING BEFORE SHE DIED.
A second message arrived.
COME TO HAWTHORNE IF YOU WANT IT.
Hale took the phone.
“Absolutely not.”
Then a third message appeared.
A live photograph.
The north barn.
Someone stood inside.
He held Grandma's green jewelry box.
Thomas looked at the screen.
May you like
His face went white.
“That's Voss.”
