Chapter 6 - THE SECOND STAR
Daniel loved puzzles.
Not difficult puzzles.
The kind that made children feel clever.
He created scavenger hunts for Lily.
He hid birthday notes inside books.
He taught her to search beneath labels, behind frames, and inside objects that seemed decorative.
The Hart Diamond was shaped like an eight-pointed star.
Daniel called it the Blue Star.
Lily had another star.
A cheap silver pendant Daniel bought from a museum gift shop.
She wore it beneath her gala dress.
I had forgotten about it because the chain disappeared inside the collar.
Lily pulled it free.
“Daddy said the real star was too heavy.”
“So this one could remember for it.”
Officer Brooks examined the pendant.
A tiny screw sat behind the center.
The technician opened it.
Inside was a black micro-storage card.
Lily smiled through her tears.
“I moved it after Bunny went to the hospital.”
Daniel had taught her not to keep important things in one place.
He had not told her what the card contained.
He called it a memory for when she was older.
The police copied the data.
Most files were encrypted.
One video opened without a password.
Daniel appeared at his desk.
His face looked tired.
I had not seen him alive on a screen since the funeral.
My knees nearly gave way.
He looked directly into the camera.
“Evelyn.”
“If you are watching this, something happened before I could finish what I started.”
I covered my mouth.
Lily stared at her father.
“Daddy.”
Daniel continued.
“Do not trust any emergency that requires you to sign quickly.”
“Do not allow my mother or Julian to control Lily’s trust.”
“The Hart Diamond contains a key.”
“The pendant contains the evidence.”
“Together, they open the full archive.”
The brooch compartment had not contained the card.
It contained part of the encryption key.
Julian removed it before planting the brooch in Lily’s jacket.
He believed the card remained inside the brooch or Bunny.
Without the key, the archive could not be opened.
The technician examined the empty compartment.
A thin piece of adhesive remained.
Whatever had been removed was smaller than a fingernail.
Julian had it.
Daniel’s video continued.
“If Julian has the key, he may believe destroying the evidence protects him.”
“It does not.”
“I stored a second key with the person who knew Hart Medical before it became a family monument.”
The video ended.
Naomi looked toward me.
“Who knew the company before Eleanor?”
Daniel’s grandfather founded a small medical-supply business.
Eleanor married into it.
Julian and Daniel were born after expansion began.
Only one person from the original company remained alive.
Rose Bennett.
Daniel’s first-grade teacher.
Before teaching, Rose worked as the company’s bookkeeper.
She was ninety-one years old and lived in a nursing home outside Albany.
Eleanor had sent flowers to her every Christmas.
May you like
I once called it kindness.
Now I wondered whether the flowers were reminders.
