Chapter 8 - The Woman in Vermont
At six the next morning, Clara and I left for Vermont.
Leo stayed with Mother and doubled the security detail.
Clara spent the first hour staring out the window.
Finally she said, "You don't have to do this."
"Yes, I do."
"Because I'm your sister?"
"Because somebody nearly killed my mother."
She looked at me.
"And because you're my sister."
The words felt strange.
Not wrong.
Just new.
June Mercer lived in a white farmhouse at the edge of a frozen field. When she opened the door and saw me, she tried to close it.
I caught it with my hand.
"Ms. Mercer, please."
"Go away."
"My father left a codicil."
Her face collapsed.
Behind me, Clara said, "My name is Clara Reed."
June looked at her.
Then at me.
She stepped back.
"You found her."
Inside, June's hands shook so badly she spilled tea.
"Henry wanted to acknowledge Clara publicly," she said. "Not just privately. He wanted to amend the trust and create a share for her."
"Why didn't he?"
"He did."
"Where is it?"
June looked toward the window.
"Marcus took it."
Clara leaned forward. "You saw him?"
"The night Henry died."
My stomach tightened.
June spoke faster now, as if once she started she could not stop.
"Henry called me from his office. He said he was driving to meet Samuel Price because Marcus had refused to sign an acknowledgment as trustee. Henry said he would remove Marcus if he had to."
"Then the crash."
June nodded.
"Marcus arrived at the office before the police called. He went straight to Henry's safe. I asked what he was doing. He told me Henry had been confused and that I would destroy the family if I repeated anything."
"Why didn't you go to the police?"
She looked at Clara.
"Because two days later, someone cut my brake line."
Silence filled the room.
"I left the state that night," June said.
Clara's voice was barely audible. "Do you have proof?"
June stood and walked to a cabinet.
She returned with an old flash drive.
"Henry dictated letters. I backed up everything."
She handed it to me.
"One file is called CLARA."
I closed my hand around the drive.
Outside, tires crunched over gravel.
June's face drained of color.
"Were you followed?"
I moved to the window.
A black SUV stopped beside our car.
Two men got out.
May you like
Neither wore a uniform.
One of them reached inside his coat.
