Chapter 4 - My Father’s Letter
I opened the envelope with shaking hands.
Claire,
If you are reading this, something happened before I could tell you myself.
I have made mistakes.
Your mother does not know everything.
Victor knows too much.
Do not trust anyone who tells you our family problems began with money.
They began with a child.
I stopped reading.
Rebecca looked at me.
“A child?”
I shook my head.
“I don’t know.”
The letter continued.
I found proof that Victor has been lying to me for years.
If I confront him and something happens, look at the company files from 2009.
There is a name there you will recognize when you see it.
I am sorry I kept this from you.
I thought silence protected the family.
I was wrong.
Dad.
I read it twice.
Then Ethan pointed at the shirt.
“Was Uncle Victor wearing that?”
I looked at him.
“Yes.”
He answered without hesitation.
“The dark shirt.”
Marcus photographed everything before touching it.
Rebecca immediately called police.
This time the response was different.
The shirt was collected.
The watch was collected.
Dad’s letter was collected.
Victor was brought in again.
He still was not charged.
Not yet.
The district attorney announced they would test the shirt for DNA.
I wanted them to move faster.
Mom had forty-eight hours.
Rebecca filed an emergency motion for a new stay.
Then we went home.
Home felt wrong.
For six years, Ethan and I had lived in the small house Uncle Victor bought for us after Mom’s conviction.
I had once considered that generosity.
Now I wondered if he had wanted us somewhere he could watch us.
That night, I searched every old box Dad had left behind.
Invoices.
Tax forms.
School drawings.
Holiday cards.
Then I found a file labeled 2009.
Inside were business documents from Hayes Development Group.
Dad and Victor had inherited the company together.
One contract stood out.
A property transfer to a company named North Valley Care Services.
The authorized representative was listed as Evelyn Carter.
I knew that name.
I had heard it during Mom’s trial.
Evelyn Carter had been Dad’s former accountant.
She disappeared three months before he was murdered.
Police never connected her disappearance to the case.
I called Rebecca.
“Dad said I would recognize a name.”
“What name?”
“Evelyn Carter.”
Rebecca went silent.
Then she said something I had never known.
“Claire, Evelyn Carter testified before the grand jury.”
“What?”
“Her testimony was sealed.”
“Why?”
“Because she claimed your father and Victor were hiding financial crimes.”
My chest tightened.
“What kind?”
“I don’t know.”
“Can we open it?”
“I’m trying.”
Then I heard something outside my bedroom.
A floorboard.
I ended the call.
“Ethan?”
No answer.
I stepped into the hallway.
His bedroom door was open.
His bed was empty.
The back door stood ajar.
And on the kitchen table sat a note.
May you like
STOP DIGGING.
OR THE BOY DISAPPEARS LIKE EVELYN DID.
