Chapter 10 - The Dead Man’s Email
No one spoke for several seconds.
Martin opened the email.
It was not a supernatural message from the dead. It had been scheduled years earlier through a legal dead-man protocol that released specific files when certain trigger phrases were entered into the trust system.
Samuel Bennett had anticipated deception with frightening precision.
The email contained one sentence and one attachment.
The sentence read: The real phrase is not written anywhere. Claire will know it when she remembers the green door.
Claire stared at the screen.
"The green door?"
Martin shook his head. "Does that mean something?"
At first, nothing.
Then memory opened.
She was nine years old, running through the old Bennett estate in Connecticut. A green-painted door at the back of the greenhouse. Her father behind her, laughing because she had stolen his gardening gloves.
She had asked why the door was always locked.
Samuel had crouched beside her and said, Some doors stay closed because the right person hasn't asked the right question yet.
Claire whispered the sentence.
Martin looked up.
"That may be it."
"The whole sentence?"
"Or the question hidden inside it."
Vivian laughed from the hospital bed.
"This is ridiculous."
Claire turned.
"You tried 'red winter roses.'"
Vivian's mouth tightened.
Nolan asked, "Where is this green door?"
"My father's old estate. We sold the main property after he died, but the greenhouse parcel stayed in the trust because of an easement dispute."
Martin checked the property records.
"It's still owned by Bennett Holdings."
"Then that's where we're going."
Nolan shook her head. "You're not going anywhere until daylight and until we have a warrant if needed."
Vivian sat up.
"If Richard Vale learns you found the green door, he'll get there first."
Claire looked at her.
"How do you know what's behind it?"
Vivian realized the mistake instantly.
Nolan stepped closer.
"Mrs. Cole?"
Vivian stared at the blanket.
"I don't."
"You just said he would get there first."
"I assumed."
Claire moved beside the bed.
"You have been there."
Vivian said nothing.
"With my father?"
Still nothing.
"Or after he died?"
Vivian's silence answered.
Then her hospital monitor beeped faster.
Not from illness.
From fear.
Claire leaned in.
"What did you take from behind that green door?"
Vivian finally looked at her.
May you like
"Nothing."
Then, barely above a whisper, she added, "Because Evelyn beat me to it."
