Chapter 12 - THE SECOND PHONE
Thomas stepped outside the diner to take the call.
Through the window, he could still see Rebecca helping Jacob cut pancakes while Samuel watched the door like a little soldier.
Daniel’s voice was low.
“The phone was hidden in Robert’s car. Quinn got a warrant fast because of the child confinement evidence and the recovered bracelet.”
Thomas pressed a hand against the brick wall.
“What was on it?”
“A contact saved only as L.”
Thomas closed his eyes.
“Messages?”
“Yes.”
Daniel hesitated.
Thomas already knew he did not want to hear them.
“Read them,” he said.
Daniel exhaled.
“Three weeks before Claire died, Robert wrote: ‘She knows too much about the accounts.’ The contact replied: ‘Then keep her quiet.’ Robert answered: ‘Accidents are cleaner.’”
The world tilted.
Traffic blurred.
Thomas forced air into his lungs.
Daniel continued.
“There are later messages. The night of the crash. Robert wrote: ‘Road is bad. She took Route 18.’ The contact replied: ‘Then it happens tonight.’”
Thomas bent forward like he had been struck.
For years, he had mourned an accident.
Now grief became murder in his hands.
“Who is L?” he asked.
“They’re tracing it.”
Thomas looked through the window at his children.
Claire’s children.
The children his parents had hated because they carried pieces of her.
“There’s more,” Daniel said.
Thomas closed his eyes.
“Say it.”
“The accounts Claire mentioned? Robert was moving money through the family foundation. Claire found irregular transfers. She wrote to an accountant two days before she died.”
Thomas remembered Claire at the kitchen table, laptop open, face troubled. He had asked what was wrong.
She had smiled and said, “Nothing we can’t fix.”
He had kissed her forehead and gone back to work.
Nothing we can’t fix.
Except she had tried to fix it alone.
Thomas returned to the booth changed.
Rebecca saw it.
“What happened?”
He sat down carefully.
“There may be more truth about Mom’s accident.”
Samuel’s fork stopped halfway to his mouth.
“Grandpa hurt Mom?”
Thomas did not want to answer.
But lies had already destroyed enough.
“The police are investigating,” he said. “I don’t know everything yet.”
Rebecca’s face hardened in a way too adult for her age.
“I hope they find everything.”
Thomas reached across the table and took her hand.
“They will.”
His phone buzzed again.
Unknown number.
He answered.
May you like
A woman’s voice whispered, “If you want to know who L is, look at your mother’s charity board.”
Then the line went dead.
