Chapter 18 - The Dead Lawyer Called Me
“Where are you?”
Samuel Pike laughed.
“You inherited Thomas’s manners.”
Ruiz motioned for everyone to stay quiet while a technician began tracing the call.
I put Pike on speaker.
“You left Noah outside the clinic.”
“Yes.”
The admission came so easily that I almost missed it.
“Why?”
“Because Lily asked me to.”
My heart stopped.
“You knew her?”
“Better than she wanted.”
“Did you kill her?”
“No.”
“Did you kill my father?”
Silence.
Then Pike said, “I helped.”
Marlene closed her eyes.
Rachel made a sound like a sob.
I gripped the phone.
“How?”
“I told Arthur which road Thomas would take. I believed Maddox wanted the documents. I did not know he intended to kill anyone.”
“That is not an excuse.”
“No.”
Everyone in my family had learned that word.
No.
Not denial.
Admission.
“You faked your death.”
“Yes.”
“You used my father’s identity.”
“Briefly.”
“You moved our trust money.”
“Yes.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Because I am tired.”
I laughed bitterly.
“People died. How exhausting for you.”
“I deserve that.”
“You deserve prison.”
“Probably.”
“Where is the microSD card?”
“I have it.”
Ruiz’s head snapped up.
“How?”
“The person who took it from Shaw delivered it.”
“Who?”
“Not yet.”
“Then this conversation is over.”
“Clara, the card contains Lily’s video testimony.”
I froze.
“Video?”
“She recorded everything she knew before going to St. Catherine’s.”
My throat tightened.
“She knew she might die.”
“She knew she was being followed.”
“Send it.”
“I can’t.”
“Yes, you can.”
“If I send it electronically, the people monitoring me will know.”
Ruiz mouthed, Keep him talking.
“Who is monitoring you?”
“The last people Arthur still controls.”
“Arthur is alive?”
“Oh, yes.”
“Where?”
“Close.”
I hated that answer.
“Why give Noah to me?”
“Because Lily told me one thing with absolute certainty.”
“What?”
“That you would not abandon him.”
I looked at the sleeping baby in my arms.
My eyes burned.
“She knew me.”
“She studied you like a person studies the home they want to return to.”
I swallowed.
“Why didn’t she?”
“Fear.”
“Everybody says fear like it is a court order.”
Pike was silent.
Then he said, “That sounds like something Thomas would say.”
“Do not talk about him like you loved him.”
“I did love him.”
“You got him killed.”
“Yes.”
The simplicity of it made me furious.
“How can both be true?”
“Very easily. That is the horror of being human.”
I wanted to hate the sentence.
Instead, I understood it.
Vanessa looked away.
Marlene stared at the floor.
Jonah folded his arms.
Every person in that warehouse had loved someone badly.
“Where do we meet?” I asked.
Ruiz shook his head.
Pike said, “Not with police.”
“No deal.”
“Then Lily’s testimony disappears with me.”
“You think I trust you?”
“No.”
“Good.”
“I think you trust evidence.”
That was harder to argue with.
“Where?”
“The old Voss theater.”
Eleanor looked up sharply.
“My family theater?”
“Yes.”
The Voss family had once owned a small downtown movie house, closed for renovations after a fire twelve years earlier.
Rachel whispered, “That fire was when Emily was declared dead.”
The room chilled.
Pike heard her.
“Hello, Rachel.”
Rachel stepped toward the phone.
“You knew.”
“I knew enough.”
“You let Eleanor bury a stranger.”
“I was trying to keep Emily dead.”
Eleanor grabbed the table.
“What?”
I stared at her.
Pike continued.
“Emily survived the crash.”
The world stopped again.
Rachel shook her head.
“No. I saw the car burn.”
“You saw Thomas die. Emily was thrown clear.”
Eleanor’s face emptied.
“My daughter was alive?”
“For eight more years.”
“Eight years?”
“Yes.”
“Then the theater fire…”
“Was not an accident.”
Eleanor began to collapse.
Jonah caught her.
I gripped the phone.
“Who died in the fire?”
“A woman named Donna Reeve. Arthur’s bookkeeper.”
“Why was she identified as Emily?”
“Dental records were switched.”
“By who?”
“A clinic administrator Arthur paid.”
“St. Catherine’s?”
“Yes.”
Everything returned to that clinic.
Birth.
Death.
Records.
Noah.
Pike said, “Emily had been living under protection arranged privately by Thomas before the crash. Afterward, she continued. She raised Lily in hiding.”
“But Eleanor said Lily grew up with her.”
“Partly. Emily left Lily with Eleanor for stretches when surveillance got too close.”
Eleanor was sobbing.
“I thought she was unstable.”
“She was terrified.”
“Why didn’t she tell me?”
“Because Arthur used you.”
Eleanor went silent.
“What?”
“The Voss Foundation was the pipeline. He believed you knew more than you did.”
Eleanor stared at the floor.
Pike continued.
“Emily died in the theater because she came back for a ledger hidden there.”
“The same ledger Lily found?”
“Yes.”
“Where in the theater?”
“You will see.”
The trace technician shook his head.
No location.
Pike said, “Midnight.”
Ruiz mouthed, No.
I said, “I’ll be there.”
“Alone.”
“No.”
“Clara.”
“You want the person who has Noah? I come with Noah’s uncle.”
Jonah raised his eyebrows.
I ignored him.
Pike laughed softly.
“You negotiate like Thomas.”
“Stop saying that.”
“Midnight. Bring no police inside.”
The line disconnected.
Ruiz immediately said, “Absolutely not.”
“I am going.”
“We will secure the building first.”
“He said no police.”
“He is a confessed accessory to murder.”
“He has Lily’s testimony.”
“He says he does.”
“He knew the phrase on the message.”
“He may have written it.”
“Exactly.”
Ruiz stared at me.
I lowered my voice.
“I am done having people decide what truth I am old enough to survive.”
He looked away.
At eleven forty-five, police quietly surrounded the blocks near the Voss theater without approaching it.
I left Noah with Dana under protection from state police, not county officers.
Jonah and I entered through the front.
Dust covered the lobby.
Old movie posters curled behind cracked glass.
A single light glowed near the stage.
Samuel Pike waited beneath it.
He was the man from the photograph.
Older.
Thinner.
Wearing my father’s watch.
I stopped.
“Take that off.”
He looked at the watch.
Then removed it.
He placed it on the stage.
“I should have done that years ago.”
“Where is the card?”
He held up a small plastic case.
“Here.”
Jonah said, “And Maddox?”
Pike looked toward the dark balcony.
“Also here.”
A light switched on above us.
May you like
Arthur Maddox stood behind the railing.
Beside him was Judge Miriam Cole.
