Chapter 7 - Marlene’s Version of the Truth
“I understand that you lie.”
Marlene laughed softly through the phone.
“Then stop calling every truth a lie because it comes from me.”
Ruiz motioned for silence and started recording.
I put the phone on speaker.
“Where are you?”
“Safe.”
“You broke into medical records.”
“I broke into a room.”
“To destroy Lily’s file.”
“To find out what was already missing.”
Ruiz leaned toward the phone.
“Marlene, this is Detective Ruiz. Turn yourself in.”
“Hello, Owen.”
His expression changed.
“You know me?”
“I know who investigates financial crimes in this county. That used to matter.”
“Where are you?”
“I’m not giving you a present.”
I said, “Why did you steal from my trust?”
There was a long silence.
Then Marlene said, “I did.”
The admission stunned me more than another denial would have.
Vanessa, waiting near the office door, whispered, “Mom?”
Marlene heard her.
“Vanessa, go home.”
“No.”
“Go home.”
“No, Mom. You don’t get to say that anymore.”
Marlene exhaled.
“Clara, the money was real. The transfers were real. My signatures were real.”
“Four hundred thousand dollars.”
“More.”
My stomach dropped.
“How much more?”
“Your investigator hasn’t found all of it yet.”
Ruiz wrote something.
“Where did it go?”
“At first? To keep you alive.”
I almost laughed.
“You fed me cereal and bought my clothes at thrift stores.”
“I also paid lawyers, private investigators, and people you were never supposed to know existed.”
“Why?”
“To keep Thomas Hayes dead.”
The room went silent.
I looked at the photograph on Mercer’s desk.
“What does that mean?”
“It means your father was involved in things he didn’t understand.”
“My father was an accountant.”
“He was an accountant who found a money-laundering pipeline moving donor funds, estate money, and political contributions through educational charities.”
Ruiz said, “Names.”
“No.”
“Then this call ends with you as a fugitive confessing to theft.”
“It may end worse if I give you names.”
I snapped, “Stop acting like you protected me.”
“I did protect you.”
“You called me a burden every day.”
A pause.
“I needed you to hate me.”
The sentence cut through the room.
“What?”
“If you loved me, you would have trusted me.”
“That makes no sense.”
“It does when people are watching.”
Vanessa whispered, “Mom, what did you do?”
Marlene ignored her.
“Thomas planned to take evidence to federal investigators. The night of the crash, he was supposed to meet Emily Voss and another person.”
“Who?”
“Arthur Maddox.”
Mercer’s face tightened.
Marlene continued.
“The car went off the road before the meeting.”
“Was my mother in it?”
“No.”
My knees weakened.
I grabbed the desk.
Eleanor made a small sound.
“Who was the second body?”
“Emily.”
Eleanor stared at the speaker.
“No.”
“I’m sorry.”
“No. My daughter died eight years ago.”
“No, Eleanor. You buried someone else.”
Eleanor shook her head violently.
“I saw her.”
“You saw a body after a house fire. You were told it was Emily.”
Mercer looked at Ruiz.
Ruiz was already dialing someone on a second phone.
I said, “Where was my mother?”
Marlene went quiet.
“Answer me.”
“Your mother left town.”
“Why?”
“To keep you alive.”
“You keep saying that.”
“Because it is the part you refuse to understand.”
“Did she abandon me?”
“No.”
My throat closed.
“Then where is she?”
“I don’t know.”
I wanted to scream.
“You took me in. You stole my money. You lied about my parents. You spent sixteen years humiliating me and now you want me to believe you were some kind of secret bodyguard?”
“No.”
Marlene’s voice was suddenly tired.
“I want you to believe I was scared.”
That stopped me.
“I was twenty-nine,” she said. “My brother was dead. His girlfriend was dead. His wife was gone. A six-year-old girl was crying in my kitchen. Two men came to my house and told me that if Thomas’s evidence ever surfaced, you would be next.”
Vanessa covered her mouth.
“They told me to control you. They told me to make sure you never looked into the trust. I thought if you grew up wanting nothing to do with the Hayes family, you’d be safe.”
“And Vanessa?”
“She was my daughter.”
“So you loved her.”
“Yes.”
“And me?”
Another silence.
“When you were seven, you had pneumonia. I sat in the hospital parking lot for three nights because I was afraid the men watching the house would follow me inside.”
My eyes burned.
“You never came into my room.”
“I know.”
“I thought you didn’t care.”
“I needed them to think that too.”
“You were cruel.”
“Yes.”
“You don’t get to call cruelty protection.”
“No.”
For the first time, she did not defend herself.
“I failed you, Clara.”
Vanessa began crying.
Marlene heard it.
“Baby, don’t.”
Vanessa snapped, “Don’t call me that.”
“Vanessa—”
“You made me hate her.”
“I made you compete.”
“You made me believe every good thing Clara earned took something from me.”
“I know.”
“You let me forge that complaint.”
“No.”
Vanessa stopped.
“What?”
“I told you to stay away from Caleb.”
“You told me Clara deserved to be knocked down.”
“I said things I cannot take back. But the complaint was Caleb’s idea.”
Ruiz leaned in.
“Who ordered it?”
Marlene said nothing.
“Marlene.”
“Arthur Maddox.”
Mercer stood.
“Maddox is behind this?”
“He was.”
“Was?”
Marlene’s breathing changed.
Then came a loud bang through the phone.
Vanessa screamed, “Mom?”
Another sound.
A car door slamming.
Marlene whispered, “They found me.”
Ruiz shouted, “Where are you?”
Static.
Then Marlene said, “Clara, listen carefully. The photograph is real, but that man is not your father.”
I stared at the picture.
“Who is he?”
“A man who used Thomas’s identity after the crash.”
“Why?”
“To move the trust.”
Ruiz said, “Name him.”
Marlene breathed once.
Then she said, “Samuel Pike.”
The line exploded with noise.
A man shouted in the background.
Marlene screamed.
The call ended.
Vanessa lunged for my phone.
“Call her back!”
I did.
Straight to voicemail.
Ruiz was already moving.
“Trace is coming in.”
“Where?”
He looked at his screen.
“Blackwater County.”
“The cabin?”
“No.”
May you like
He grabbed his coat.
“A cemetery.”
