Chapter 4 - A Letter From the Dead.
Maya could not continue reading.
Her vision blurred.
Marcus gently took the letter before her trembling hands tore the fragile page.
“Do you want me to read it?”
Maya nodded.
She held Grace against her heart and closed her eyes.
Marcus cleared his throat.
“My darling Amelia.”
“If you are reading this, then I did not make it home.”
“I need you to know something before anyone tells you a different story.”
“I did not leave you.”
Maya broke.
A sound escaped her that she had spent twenty-four years refusing to make.
Marcus paused.
Maya covered her mouth.
“Keep going.”
He swallowed.
“I would never leave you.”
“You are the bravest little girl I have ever known, even if right now you are still afraid of thunderstorms and insist that carrots taste like punishment.”
A faint laugh escaped Maya through her tears.
She hated carrots.
She had always hated them.
Nobody at the group home had known why.
Marcus continued.
“If anything happens tonight, Grandpa Marcus will come for you.”
Marcus’s voice cracked.
He stopped reading.
Maya looked at him.
“You didn’t know.”
“No.”
He wiped his eyes.
“If I had known where you were, I would have torn the country apart looking for you.”
Maya believed him.
She did not know why.
Perhaps because the grief in his face looked older than she was.
Marcus continued.
“There are powerful people who want me to stay silent.”
“They have money.”
“They have lawyers.”
“They have friends in government.”
“But none of that makes them stronger than the truth.”
“I have hidden enough evidence to prove what they did.”
“If I cannot deliver it myself, someone named David Rowan knows where to look.”
Harold Bennett suddenly inhaled sharply.
Everyone turned.
Marcus stopped reading.
“You know that name.”
Bennett nodded slowly.
“David Rowan was Eleanor’s partner.”
“Military?”
“Federal investigator.”
Marcus stared at him.
“I was told Rowan died in 2003.”
Bennett looked toward Victoria.
“That’s what Charles wanted everyone to believe.”
Victoria snapped.
“Stop looking at me.”
Bennett laughed bitterly.
“You ran the company after Charles died.”
“You signed every payment.”
“You kept Cole quiet.”
Victoria stepped toward him.
“You took the money too.”
“I know.”
Bennett lowered his head.
“And I’ve hated myself for it every day.”
Marcus finished the letter.
“Amelia, if I fail to come home, remember that you were loved before you knew the meaning of the word.”
“You were wanted.”
“You were chosen.”
“And whatever happens to me was never because of you.”
“I love you beyond every road, every ocean, and every lifetime.”
“Mom.”
The silence afterward was unbearable.
Maya touched the paper.
For twenty-four years she had imagined a mother walking away.
Now she had a mother who had written a goodbye because she knew somebody might kill her.
Maya looked at Victoria.
“Your husband took this letter.”
Victoria’s voice was cold.
“You have no proof.”
“It was in his safe.”
“That proves possession.”
Marcus stepped between them.
“And possession of a murder victim’s letter hidden from investigators for twenty-four years is going to interest every federal prosecutor in the state.”
Victoria scoffed.
“You’re assuming Eleanor was murdered.”
Marcus held up the letter.
“She predicted something might happen.”
Bennett interrupted.
“There’s more.”
Everyone turned.
He looked older than he had an hour earlier.
“Charles didn’t destroy the evidence because he couldn’t find all of it.”
Marcus stepped closer.
“Rowan.”
Bennett nodded.
“Eleanor made copies.”
“Charles spent years looking for him.”
“Why didn’t he find him?”
Bennett hesitated.
“Because Rowan disappeared.”
Commissioner Hale’s phone rang.
He answered.
His expression changed.
Then he looked toward Marcus.
“They found Raymond Cole.”
Maya’s stomach tightened.
“Where?”
“Thirty miles north of here.”
“He owns a small repair shop.”
Marcus glanced toward the clock.
“We go now.”
Victoria stepped forward.
“You’re dragging her into some roadside interrogation in the middle of the night?”
Maya turned.
“You lost the right to pretend you care about me.”
Victoria’s face tightened.
Ethan approached Maya.
“I’m coming.”
“No.”
“Maya.”
“No.”
He stopped.
She looked at him.
“I don’t know what you are to me right now.”
His eyes filled with pain.
“I’m your husband.”
“You were supposed to be.”
She handed Grace’s diaper bag to Marcus for a moment while adjusting the baby’s blanket.
Then something fell from one of the folder pockets.
A photograph.
Marcus picked it up.
It showed Charles Sterling standing beside Raymond Cole.
And between them was a third man.
Marcus went still.
“David Rowan.”
Maya leaned closer.
The photograph was dated 2008.
Nine years after her mother disappeared.
Rowan had been alive far longer than official records suggested.
On the back of the photograph was one handwritten sentence.
ROWAN AGREEMENT EXTENDED.
Maya looked toward Bennett.
“What agreement?”
Bennett shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
Marcus studied the image.
Then he noticed the background.
A roadside motel.
A faded sign.
Room 14.
Commissioner Hale checked the location.
“That motel still exists.”
Marcus folded the photograph.
“Then we have two places to visit.”
Maya looked at her sleeping daughter.
For years her only connection to her past had been a medal she had nearly thrown away countless times.
May you like
Tonight it had become a map.
And every road on that map seemed to lead back to the Sterling family.
