Chapter 6 - What June Hid in the Train
The miniature train had six wooden cars and a chipped red engine.
June had bought it for Anna when she was four. Walter remembered kneeling on the living-room rug while Anna pushed the engine under the Christmas tree, announcing that every passenger was going to the North Pole.
He had not touched the train since June died.
Maisie handed him the engine. “Mom said it was Grandma June’s.”
Walter turned it over. One screw beneath the smokestack was newer than the others.
Eli, who had come to deliver a statement, offered a small screwdriver from his tool bag. Walter hesitated, then asked Nora whether opening it would compromise anything. She photographed the engine before allowing an evidence technician to remove the screw.
Inside was a memory card wrapped in waxed paper.
The card held a short video recorded by Anna. She sat in a car, speaking directly to the camera.
“Dad, if you found this, I couldn't reach you. The insurance isn't the whole thing. June’s medical trust was never dissolved. Someone has been borrowing against it for years. I think Peter discovered it before he vanished. I met Dr. Price because he promised to show me the original records.”
Anna paused, listening to something outside the car.
“Maisie has nothing to do with this. Please keep her out of it. I’m going to the old Bellamy plant tomorrow. If I don't return, look for the ledger marked December payroll.”
The video ended.
Walter closed his eyes. June had created a trust to fund rehabilitation services for injured factory workers. After her death, Celeste had told him the fund had been absorbed into a larger charitable program. Walter had accepted the explanation because the annual reports looked respectable.
Ruth asked to see those reports. The same accounting firm had signed every one. Martin Hale was its liaison.
Walter called Martin and asked him to come to the house. Nora arranged for investigators to be present. Martin arrived wearing an old camel coat and carrying a bakery box of Christmas cookies, as if routine might still protect him.
When Walter showed him the video, Martin sank into a chair.
“I didn’t know Anna had found it,” he said.
“You knew the trust was being used?”
Martin stared at the box. “I knew the accounts were being moved.”
“By whom?”
“I signed what Celeste gave me. At first it was temporary financing. Then the money was gone, and she said we had to keep the business alive.”
Walter’s voice was barely audible. “You used June’s money?”
Martin nodded.
Nora asked for the records and told him to obtain counsel. Martin agreed to preserve his files. He also admitted he had seen Peter alive once, three years after the funeral, at a private meeting in New York.
“He told me he wanted his share,” Martin said. “Celeste told me to forget I’d seen him.”
Maisie entered carrying a crooked paper star. Walter immediately stopped the conversation.
“Can we put this one on top?” she asked.
He lifted her so she could reach. She leaned against him for one brief moment, then asked whether her mother would see the tree.
“I hope so,” he answered. “We're looking for her.”
Eli noticed that Maisie did not ask him to promise.
The trust’s original charter was written in June’s precise handwriting. It described workers by name and explained why she wanted help available without humiliating applications. Walter remembered her visiting injured employees at home, bringing soup and asking what they needed rather than deciding for them. He had admired that about her. He had also allowed her work to become a line item he rarely examined.
Maisie asked to see the train after the memory card was removed. The technician checked it and returned it. She rolled the engine across the table, listening to its uneven wheels. “It still works,” she said. Walter looked at the scratched paint and answered, “Yes. It does.”
After dinner, Nora received an urgent call from officers at the abandoned Bellamy plant. A basement door had been opened recently. Inside were food wrappers, a folding cot, and a heater still warm to the touch.
On the wall, someone had written ANNA in chalk, followed by an arrow pointing toward the old freight elevator.
At the bottom of the shaft, investigators found a woman’s bracelet.
May you like
Walter recognized the tiny silver bell attached to it.
He had given it to Anna on her sixteenth Christmas.
