Chapter 9 - The Friend Who Came Back From the Dead
Claire opened the door only after Ruiz positioned officers around the
room.
Rebecca stepped inside.
For several seconds, neither woman spoke.
Then Claire slapped her.
Not hard.
Not from hatred.
From five years of funerals, grief, anger, and impossible relief
arriving at once.
Rebecca touched her cheek.
“I deserved that.”
Claire hugged her.
Rebecca broke down.
“I’m sorry.”
“You were dead.”
“I know.”
“I talked to your grave.”
“I know.”
“How could you know?”
“Owen told me.”
Claire pulled back.
“My father saw you?”
“Twice.”
The truth came quickly.
Owen helped Rebecca establish a new identity after the cabin was
compromised. He wanted her protected until federal authorities outside
Victor Dane’s influence could receive the evidence.
Then Owen died.
Stephen continued helping her.
Then Stephen died.
Rebecca believed Victor was removing everyone connected to the original
fraud.
She returned because Evan appeared in a North Star test campaign that
accidentally reached one of her monitoring accounts.
“When I saw his face, I knew Daniel had started again.”
Claire whispered, “Why didn’t you call me?”
“I didn’t know who was listening.”
Rebecca handed Ruiz the flash drive.
It contained years of payments to Victor Dane.
One payment stream came from Margaret.
Another came from Daniel.
A third came from someone unexpected.
Marcus Hale.
Claire stared at her brother.
Marcus stared at the screen.
“No.”
Rebecca said, “I don’t think it’s him.”
The account used Marcus’s name but an old address.
Identity theft.
Again.
The real recipient was hidden behind a numbered corporation.
Federal tracing identified the beneficiary by morning.
Susan Dane.
Mrs. Pike.
She had been receiving money under Marcus’s identity for three years.
“Why?” Claire asked.
Rebecca answered.
“To make Victor believe she was loyal.”
Susan had secretly helped Rebecca.
She took the nanny job to protect Evan and gather evidence.
The camera inside Mr. Buttons was originally Daniel’s.
Susan modified it so Rebecca could access the feed.
“Where is Susan now?”
Rebecca’s expression darkened.
“Missing.”
They had planned to meet December 22.
Susan never arrived.
Rebecca went to the mansion searching for her and discovered Daniel
preparing the west room.
She triggered the Christmas Eve broadcast remotely from the motel.
“Then why disappear from the motel?”
“Because Sutter found me again.”
“Daniel’s lawyer?”
“He warned me Victor knew where I was.”
Sutter had not been helping Margaret that second time.
He had finally realized how dangerous the network was.
Everyone, it seemed, had reached the truth at a different speed.
Some had reached it too late.
Federal investigators arrested Victor Dane on expanded charges.
Margaret remained jailed.
Daniel’s cooperation ended when evidence showed he personally authorized
multiple fraudulent campaigns.
But Susan was still missing.
The clue came from Evan.
While Rebecca sat with him in the kitchen, he drew a picture.
A little house.
A tree.
A red door.
And a woman beside a star.
Rebecca stared.
“Who is that?”
“Mrs. Pike.”
“Where is she?”
“Star house.”
Claire asked, “What’s star house?”
Evan shrugged.
“Dad takes boxes.”
Daniel owned no property called Star House.
North Star Outreach did.
An old church retreat outside Lake Geneva.
Federal agents searched it.
They found Susan alive in a locked caretaker’s apartment, weak but
conscious.
Victor’s associates had held her there after discovering she was leaking
information.
The rescue should have felt like an ending.
It did not.
Susan gave investigators one final piece.
“Victor wasn’t the top.”
Ruiz frowned.
“Who was?”
Susan looked at Claire.
“Your father knew.”
“Owen?”
“He called it the Evergreen Circle.”
“What is that?”
“Donors. Lawyers. executives. People who learned that emotional charity
stories could move money without questions.”
North Star was only one branch.
Christmas campaigns were especially profitable.
Children’s stories generated sympathy.
Sympathy generated donations.
Donations moved through foundations.
Some funded legitimate aid.
Some vanished.
Claire felt exhausted by the size of it.
“Who runs Evergreen now?”
Susan shook her head.
“I only know the initials.”
She wrote them.
E.H.
Marcus frowned.
Nobody in the family recognized them.
Rebecca did.
Her face drained.
“What?”
Rebecca whispered, “Eleanor Hale.”
Claire stopped breathing.
“My grandmother?”
Owen’s mother had supposedly died when Claire was fourteen.
Rebecca shook her head.
“No. Eleanor Hale founded the original Christmas relief network.”
“That was fifty years ago.”
“Yes.”
“She’s dead.”
Rebecca looked at Susan.
Susan said nothing.
Claire suddenly understood the silence.
“Is she?”
Before anyone answered, the mansion phone rang.
Not Claire’s cell.
The old landline.
Nobody used it.
Claire picked up.
An elderly woman spoke.
“Merry Christmas, Claire.”
Claire gripped the receiver.
“Who is this?”
The woman laughed softly.
“You have your grandfather’s temper.”
Claire’s blood went cold.
“Eleanor?”
A pause.
Then:
May you like
“Bring Evan to the old Hale store tomorrow. Come alone if you want to
know why Daniel chose your family.”
