Chapter 6 - The Woman Who Signed the Death Certificate
June would meet only at a public diner near the county courthouse. Thomas arrived with Grace. Ortiz waited nearby after June agreed to speak with investigators.
June looked smaller than Thomas remembered. Her hands shook around a cup of tea.
“I should have called you four years ago,” she said.
“Yes.”
“I thought I was protecting Anna.”
“Where is she?”
June swallowed. “I don’t know where she is now.”
Thomas almost stood, but Grace touched his sleeve.
June explained that Anna survived the highway crash. She was taken to a private clinic under an incorrect name after a transfer arranged by Beverly. June, then the company bookkeeper, discovered a payment for the transfer and went to investigate.
“Anna was conscious,” June said. “She told me the brakes felt wrong. She said somebody had been following her.”
“Why didn’t you call me?”
“She begged me not to. Someone had told her Rosie would be taken if she contacted you.”
Thomas looked away. He hated that Anna had believed it possible. He hated more that the threat had worked.
“Who signed the death certificate?” Grace asked.
“A doctor named Adrian Kessler. I never met him.”
Ortiz later confirmed that the original record contained irregularities and that a medical examiner would review it. She cautioned Thomas that June’s account needed corroboration.
June placed a folder on the table. It held bank transfers, clinic invoices, and a copy of the red ledger.
Hearthstone had used the names of children in temporary care to bill charities for housing, food, and medical services. The payments were routed through vendors controlled by Beverly and Meredith. Henry had signed several authorizations. June had processed some before she understood what they represented.
“I was part of it,” June said. “I didn’t know at first. When I did, I kept copies.”
“Where did Anna go after the clinic?”
“She left with a woman named Clara Finch. Clara said she could protect her until they found someone trustworthy.”
“Why not the police?”
“Anna believed Beverly had a friend in the sheriff’s office.”
Ortiz took notes. “We’ll investigate that claim.”
June’s last contact with Anna had been a letter two months earlier. It contained no return address, only a photograph of a red barn and a request: Tell Thomas to check the music box.
Thomas knew the music box. It sat on Rosie’s dresser in the mansion. Meredith had called it junk and tried to sell it during a spring yard sale. Rosie cried until Thomas intervened.
Ortiz arranged for an officer to accompany Thomas to retrieve personal belongings. Meredith’s attorney had already notified them that she would not be present.
The mansion felt abandoned. A Christmas wreath still hung on the front door. A sticky red mark stained the dining-room carpet where the bowl had fallen.
Thomas did not stop there.
In Rosie’s room, he found the music box beneath her bed. Its painted ballerina had lost one arm. When he wound it, a familiar tune played: “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.”
Grace noticed a screw beneath the base.
Inside was a small memory card wrapped in tissue.
They brought it to Ortiz. The first file showed Anna seated in her car, speaking directly into the camera.
“If you’re watching this, Thomas, somebody got to me before I could explain. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. I thought I could keep Rosie out of it.”
She held up a ledger.
“The missing money wasn’t stolen by me. I found the transfers. Meredith is not who she says she is.”
Thomas leaned closer.
Anna continued, “Her real name is Melissa Crane. She’s Beverly’s daughter. And the person helping them get into our company is someone you trust with your life.”
The recording cut off before she named that person.
May you like
The second file began with a Christmas party from four years earlier. Thomas watched himself laughing with Henry near the fireplace.
In the background, Meredith—still calling herself Melissa—stood beside Anna, holding a key to Thomas’s office.
