Chapter 11 - My Mother-in-Law’s Other Family
Police traced the threatening call to a prepaid phone.
The device had been purchased with cash.
No camera footage clearly identified the buyer.
For the first time since Daniel’s arrest, Detective Ruiz looked frustrated.
“Someone is still helping them.”
“Who?”
“We’re finding out.”
The answer came from an unexpected place.
Evelyn’s sister.
A woman named Patricia Monroe whom I had met only twice.
Patricia contacted Ruiz after seeing the news.
She arrived carrying a cardboard box.
Inside were letters.
Bank statements.
Old photographs.
And court records.
Patricia sat across from me in Thomas’s office.
“You need to understand who Evelyn is.”
“I think I’m beginning to.”
“No.”
Patricia shook her head.
“You understand what she did to you.”
“That isn’t the same thing.”
She opened the box.
Twenty-six years earlier, Evelyn had been married to another man.
Before Daniel’s father.
Before the family story I knew.
His name was Raymond Bell.
Bellweather.
My pulse changed.
“Bellweather Family Holdings.”
Patricia nodded.
“That was Raymond’s mother’s maiden name.”
“What happened to him?”
“He disappeared.”
The room went silent.
“Disappeared?”
“Evelyn said he abandoned her.”
“Police investigation?”
“Barely.”
“He left a note.”
Patricia slid a photocopy across the desk.
I read it.
Raymond supposedly wrote that marriage had become unbearable and he was leaving town.
The handwriting looked careful.
Almost staged.
My stomach tightened.
“Was it verified?”
“No.”
“Did he ever contact anyone again?”
“Never.”
“What does this have to do with Daniel?”
Patricia looked toward Ruiz.
“When Raymond disappeared, Evelyn received control of several joint accounts.”
“How much?”
“Enough to start over.”
The pattern was unmistakable.
Control.
Isolation.
Financial transfer.
Disappearance.
I looked at Patricia.
“You think she did something to him.”
“I’ve thought it for twenty-six years.”
“Why didn’t you tell police?”
“I did.”
“They believed Evelyn.”
I almost laughed.
Of course they did.
Evelyn knew how to sound concerned.
How to become the reasonable person in a room.
How to make the victim appear unstable.
Just like Daniel.
Patricia pulled out another photograph.
Raymond stood beside a lake cabin.
Lake Mercer.
The same cabin Victor had used.
My heartbeat quickened.
“Was that Raymond’s?”
“Yes.”
“Did police search it?”
“Not thoroughly.”
Ruiz immediately started taking notes.
Patricia continued.
“There’s more.”
Of course there was.
“Raymond kept cash.”
“A lot of it.”
“He distrusted banks.”
“After he disappeared, nobody found it.”
“How much?”
“Maybe two hundred thousand.”
That would have been enormous money then.
“Where did he keep it?”
Patricia looked toward the photograph.
“He told me once that if anything happened to him, the truth would be under the place Evelyn hated most.”
“What did she hate?”
Patricia pointed at the lake.
“The dock.”
Before sunset, detectives returned to the cabin.
The dock had been replaced twelve years ago.
But beneath the newer boards, officers found part of the original structure.
And beneath that structure, they found a rusted metal box.
Inside were financial records.
A journal.
And several audio cassette tapes protected in plastic.
The final journal entry had been written three days before Raymond disappeared.
One sentence had been underlined twice.
Evelyn says a family survives only when everyone knows who is allowed to speak.
I recognized the philosophy immediately.
Daniel had inherited more than his mother’s temper.
He had inherited her method.
Then Ruiz called with one final update.
They had found something else under the dock.
Not money.
Not paperwork.
May you like
A wedding ring.
Engraved with Raymond Bell’s initials.
