Chương 4
“I know.”
She looked at Brian.
“That’s why I am.”
Brian said nothing.
The front door closed.
Rachel heard Claire’s SUV start outside.
The house settled around the remaining three.
Margaret stared at the fireplace.
Brian stared at his hands.
Rachel examined the lawyer’s card.
There was a faint crease down the middle.
She turned it over.
On the back, written in Daniel Hayes’s narrow block print, were four words.
IF OPENED, CALL CALEB.
Rachel showed Margaret.
The old woman nodded slowly.
“Your father loved instructions.”
“He loved being obeyed.”
“That too.”
Brian looked up.
“He was controlling.”
Rachel faced him.
“Yes.”
The answer seemed to frustrate him.
“You always defend him.”
“I just agreed with you.”
“You know what I mean.”
“I know you want me to turn him into a villain so whatever you did feels smaller.”
His face changed.
There it was again.
Fear.
Not anger.
Fear.
Rachel sat across from him.
“What did you take?”
“Nothing.”
“What did the letter say?”
“I never read any letter.”
“But you knew it existed.”
“I heard Dad mention something.”
“When?”
Brian rubbed his shoulder.
Rachel noticed that he had stopped favoring it theatrically. She had not injured him. He was sore, embarrassed, and frightened.
“Months ago.”
“To who?”
“I don’t remember.”
“Try.”
He looked toward Margaret.
“That’s the problem with you.”
Rachel waited.
“You talk like a cop.”
“I’m not a cop.”
“You sound like one.”
“I’m asking my brother a question.”
“No. You’re interviewing me.”
“Then answer like my brother.”
His jaw tightened.
Margaret said, “Daniel told me to make sure Rachel opened the case.”
Brian looked at her.
“When?”
“April.”
“That was when he was on morphine.”
“He was taking prescribed medication. He was not wandering around hallucinating.”
“He said people were stealing his mail.”
“Someone was.”
Brian stared.
Margaret lifted her chin.
“His bank statements stopped coming.”
“He went paperless.”
“He hated paperless.”
“I set it up because bills were piling everywhere.”
“Without asking him?”
“He asked me to handle things.”
“Handling things is not the same as making everything disappear.”
Rachel watched them.
“How much control did Brian have over Dad’s finances?”
Brian answered immediately.
“Here we go.”
Margaret ignored him.
“Enough to pay bills.”
“Power of attorney?”
“For some things.”
Brian said, “Dad signed it.”
“I didn’t say he didn’t.”
“You’re acting like I forged it.”
“No one said forged.”
“You keep implying things.”
Rachel leaned forward.
“No. We’re trying to learn what happened. You keep supplying the worst possible version before anyone says it.”
Brian looked at her.
Rachel had seen the behavior in interviews before.
People thought guilt made them stupid.
Usually fear did.
Fear rushed ahead and answered accusations that had not been made.
Rachel disliked recognizing the pattern in her brother.
She disliked even more that part of her still wanted a simpler explanation.
Maybe Brian had found the letter and thrown it away because it contained an insult.
Maybe their father had written something cruel.
Daniel Hayes could be cruel in the specific, efficient way of men who believed accuracy excused unkindness.
Rachel remembered being nineteen and showing him the paperwork for her enlistment.
He had studied the page, tapped one finger beside her chosen occupational specialty, and asked, “You sure you’re not picking something hard because you’re scared of finding out you’re ordinary?”
He had apologized years later.
Not well.
But he had apologized.
She still remembered the first version better.
A car pulled into the driveway.
Margaret looked toward the dark window.
Rachel checked the time.
Caleb Morrow had arrived thirty-eight minutes after the phone call.
Brian stood.
“Listen to me.”
Rachel looked at him.
“If he comes in here making accusations, don’t assume he’s telling you the truth because he has a law degree.”
“Why would Dad’s lawyer lie?”
“He wasn’t Dad’s lawyer.”
Margaret said, “Yes, he was.”
“No. Kline handled the estate.”
Rachel looked at Margaret.
“That’s true.”
Their father’s probate paperwork had come from James Kline, an attorney Daniel had known through church.
Margaret adjusted her cardigan.
“Caleb handled something else.”
“What?”
The doorbell rang.
Brian whispered, “Don’t.”
Rachel went to the door.
Caleb Morrow stood on the porch in a dark wool coat, holding a leather case under one arm.
He was in his early sixties, silver-haired, narrow-faced, with the exhausted expression of a man who had spent Thanksgiving pretending not to check email.
He looked at Rachel’s cheek first.
“Did he do that?”
Rachel did not answer immediately.
Caleb’s mouth tightened.
“May I come in?”
Brian called from behind her. “No.”
Rachel opened the door wider.
“It’s not your house,” Brian said.
Rachel glanced back.
“You want to call the police and have them decide who gets to stand in the foyer?”
Brian’s mouth closed.
Caleb entered.
He knew Margaret immediately.
“Mrs. Hayes.”
“Caleb.”
He looked at Brian.
“Mr. Hayes.”
“Get to the point.”
Caleb removed his coat but kept the leather case in his hand.
“Where’s Claire?”
“Taking her son home,” Rachel said. “She’s coming back.”
“Good.”
Brian gave a humorless laugh.
“Why? You collecting an audience?”
Caleb looked at him.
“No. I want witnesses.”
The sentence silenced the room.
Caleb examined the flag case without touching it.
“Rear seal was intact when I last saw this.”
“When was that?”
“Four days before your father died.”
Rachel felt a cold pressure under her ribs.
“You saw him that week?”
“Yes.”
“Nobody told me.”
“I was instructed not to.”
“By Dad?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Caleb looked at Brian.
“Because your father believed someone was monitoring his calls.”
Brian stood.
“That is bullshit.”
Caleb did not react.
“Daniel asked me to use precise language when this conversation happened.”
“He had cancer in his brain.”
“No,” Rachel said.
Brian turned.
“What?”
“Dad’s cancer hadn’t spread to his brain.”
“He was medicated.”
“So stop changing the diagnosis.”
Brian looked at her as though she had betrayed him.
Caleb opened his leather case.
May you like
Inside were two folders, a tablet, and a small digital recorder.
Rachel noticed the recorder but said nothing.
