Chapter 4
Margaret screamed.
Not loudly.
It was worse than that.
It came from somewhere deep inside her, a broken sound that made Noah call for me from the porch.
I rushed outside.
He wrapped both arms around me.
“What happened?”
“Nothing you need to worry about.”
He looked at my face.
“You’re lying.”
That hurt because he was right.
I crouched in front of him.
“We found something confusing. The police are helping us understand it.”
“Is it about the man?”
“Yes.”
“Was he Uncle Michael?”
My throat tightened.
“I don’t know yet.”
Noah looked past me toward the house.
“Dad looks scared.”
Daniel stood in the doorway.
For once, he didn’t try to hide it.
“I am scared, buddy.”
Noah studied him.
Then he asked the question none of us expected.
“Did Uncle Michael hate you?”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“Sometimes.”
“Why?”
“Because we were brothers.”
Noah frowned.
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“No,” Daniel whispered. “It doesn’t.”
Detective Harris took possession of the box.
Before leaving Margaret’s house, she questioned her for nearly an hour.
I sat with Noah on the front steps while Daniel remained inside.
Eventually, Margaret came out.
She looked ten years older.
“Sarah.”
I didn’t answer.
She sat beside me.
“Noah, sweetheart, could you give me and your mother a minute?”
Noah looked at me first.
I nodded.
Officer Ramirez walked with him toward her patrol car.
Margaret clasped her trembling hands.
“I’m sorry.”
“For which part?”
Her eyes filled.
“All of it.”
“That isn’t enough.”
“I know.”
“Did you know Linda had been hired by us?”
“No.”
“Did you know Michael might be alive?”
Margaret looked away.
That was enough.
I stood.
“You did.”
“I suspected.”
“You suspected?”
“After Linda came back.”
I could barely keep my voice down.
“She had access to my son every weekday.”
“I didn’t know.”
“You knew she was in Nashville.”
“I thought she wanted money.”
“You let me bring Noah to your house every weekend and never said a word.”
Margaret began crying.
“I was ashamed.”
“Your shame put my child in danger.”
She flinched.
I didn’t care.
Daniel appeared behind us.
“Sarah.”
I turned on him.
“Don’t defend her.”
“I’m not.”
Margaret looked at her son.
“I should have told you.”
“Yes,” Daniel said. “You should have.”
The coldness in his voice surprised both of us.
Margaret lowered her head.
“I thought if I ignored it, Michael would disappear again.”
Daniel stared at her.
“You’ve been doing that my entire life.”
She looked up.
He continued.
“When Michael stole from Dad, you covered for him.”
“He was sick.”
“When he emptied your retirement account, you told everyone the bank made a mistake.”
“He needed help.”
“When he broke into my apartment, you begged me not to call the police.”
Margaret started shaking.
“And when he threatened Sarah?”
My head snapped toward him.
“What?”
Daniel froze.
Margaret went white.
The silence told me everything.
I stepped toward my husband.
“When did Michael threaten me?”
“Before we got married.”
My heart slammed against my ribs.
“You said he died four years ago.”
“He did. I thought he did.”
“We were married seven years before that.”
“I know.”
“So he threatened me while you were hiding his existence.”
“Yes.”
“What did he do?”
Daniel stared at the ground.
“He saw us leaving a restaurant once. He followed you home.”
I felt cold.
“I lived alone then.”
“I know.”
“What happened?”
“He called me and said you were pretty.”
My skin crawled.
“That’s not a threat.”
“He said it would be a shame if you found out what kind of family you were marrying into.”
I looked at Margaret.
She wouldn’t meet my eyes.
“Anything else?”
Daniel swallowed.
“He sent me a picture of your apartment building.”
I stepped backward.
“You let me live there after that?”
“I stayed outside your place every night for two weeks.”
“That doesn’t make it better.”
“I know.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I thought he wanted a reaction.”
“You decided for me.”
“Yes.”
“You decided what danger I was allowed to know about.”
His eyes filled.
“Yes.”
I walked away before I said something I couldn’t take back.
Detective Harris called that evening.
They had identified the house Noah described.
An abandoned rental outside Murfreesboro.
The gas station with the giant chicken sign had been enough.
Officers had searched the property.
Nobody was there.
But they found evidence people had recently used it.
Food.
Bedding.
Several prepaid phones.
A printer.
And photographs of our family.
Dozens of them.
Daniel leaving work.
Me shopping.
Noah playing soccer.
Margaret at church.
Even my parents visiting from Knoxville.
“We believe Linda was not acting alone,” Harris said.
My hand tightened around the phone.
“Michael?”
“We don’t know yet.”
“What about the message?”
“We traced the number. Prepaid device. No subscriber information.”
“Can you track it?”
“We’re working on it.”
I looked across our living room.
Daniel was sitting on the floor beside Noah, helping him build a model airplane.
Noah barely spoke to him.
Every few minutes, Daniel glanced at me.
“Detective, I need to know something.”
“Yes?”
“If Michael is alive, whose body did Daniel cremate?”
Silence.
“We’re investigating that.”
That answer terrified me.
That night, Noah insisted on sleeping in our room.
I placed a mattress beside our bed.
Daniel offered to sleep downstairs.
I didn’t stop him.
At 2:17 a.m., I woke to Noah whispering.
“Mom.”
I sat up instantly.
“What?”
“Someone’s outside.”
I froze.
“What did you hear?”
“A car.”
I reached for my phone.
Then headlights swept across the bedroom wall.
A vehicle stopped in front of our house.
I called Daniel.
He answered immediately from downstairs.
“I see it.”
“Don’t go outside.”
“I’m not.”
I called police.
Within three minutes, the car drove away.
A patrol officer stopped it six blocks away.
The driver was a rideshare driver.
He had received a pickup request from our address.
Nobody had ordered one.
It could have been a coincidence.
I didn’t believe in coincidences anymore.
By morning, we had cameras installed.
Daniel canceled work.
I took leave from mine.
Noah stayed home from school.
The police advised us not to discuss the investigation with anyone.
At ten, Detective Harris returned.
She brought a folder.
“We found something.”
Daniel and I sat across from her.
Noah was upstairs with Officer Ramirez.
Harris opened the folder.
“Your brother’s death was investigated by Detective Leonard Price.”
Daniel nodded slowly.
“That name sounds familiar.”
“He retired two years ago.”
“Okay.”
“He remembers the case.”
Daniel leaned forward.
“And?”
“He says you did not identify the body at the morgue.”
Daniel frowned.
“Yes, I did.”
“According to him, the body was too decomposed for family identification. The match came through fingerprints and dental records.”
“That’s what I said.”
“You said fingerprints.”
Daniel rubbed his forehead.
“Fine. Maybe there were dental records too.”
Harris turned a page.
“There’s a problem with the fingerprints.”
“What problem?”
“They were entered manually.”
Daniel stared at her.
“What does that mean?”
“It means an officer compared a physical fingerprint card to the prints from the body.”
“And?”
“The original fingerprint card is missing.”
My stomach tightened.
“Could someone have switched it?” I asked.
Harris nodded.
“It’s possible.”
Daniel whispered, “Who?”
“We’re looking at everyone with access.”
She slid another page toward us.
“This is the dental office that supplied Michael’s records.”
Daniel looked.
Then his expression changed.
I recognized the name.
Dr. Robert Carter.
Daniel’s father.
I stared at my husband.
“Your father was a dentist.”
He said nothing.
“He provided the records?”
Detective Harris nodded.
Daniel stood so fast the chair fell backward.
“No.”
Harris remained calm.
“Your father signed the verification.”
Daniel paced across the room.
“He wouldn’t do that.”
“He may not have known they were incorrect.”
“My father hated Michael.”
“Hatred can motivate different choices.”
Daniel turned toward me.
“My father died two years ago.”
I remembered Robert Carter.
Quiet.
Strict.
He had never been warm with me, but he adored Noah.
He had also never once mentioned another son.
Not once.
Harris continued.
“We searched county property records connected to Michael, Linda, and aliases we believe they used.”
She removed another document.
“There’s a property in Bowling Green, Kentucky, that was purchased twelve years ago under a shell company.”
Daniel looked confused.
“What does that have to do with Dad?”
“The company’s mailing address was your father’s dental office.”
Daniel stared at the page.
Then Harris placed a photograph beside it.
It was a recent aerial image of a rural house.
White siding.
Broken basketball hoop.
And a red front door.
My mouth went dry.
“That’s the house,” I whispered.
Harris nodded.
“The house Noah visited isn’t abandoned because Linda found it randomly.”
She looked at Daniel.
“It belonged to your family.”
Daniel’s phone rang.
Everyone jumped.
Unknown number.
Harris held up a hand.
“Put it on speaker.”
Daniel answered.
“Hello?”
For several seconds, there was only breathing.
Then a man spoke.
His voice was rough.
Older.
“Danny.”
Daniel’s face collapsed.
I had never heard anyone call him that.
The man laughed softly.
“Still pretending I’m dead?”
Daniel couldn’t move.
Harris signaled for him to keep talking.
“Michael?”
Another laugh.
May you like
Then the voice said, “Tell Mom I want my box back.”
The line went dead.
