Chapter 3 - The Brother in the Shadows
William Whitmore had been dead for seven years.
At least, that was what Richard had told everyone.
Heart attack.
Private funeral.
No photographs.
No public ceremony.
Hannah had never heard of him.
Now she discovered that Richard's brother had been at the center of her family's darkest secret.
They left the restaurant through a private exit.
Hannah refused to go to Richard's car.
“I'll take the train.”
“You're not going alone.”
“I've spent twenty-four years going alone.”
Richard stopped.
“You shouldn't have had to.”
“Don't say things like that now.”
He looked at her.
“Why?”
“Because I don't know whether to hate you.”
Richard's expression tightened.
“That would be fair.”
Margaret heard him.
She looked at her husband differently now.
Not with affection.
With suspicion.
“What aren't you telling us?”
Richard opened his mouth.
His phone rang.
He answered.
His face changed.
“Where?”
He listened.
Then:
“Get the police.”
Hannah felt a chill.
“What happened?”
He looked at her.
“Your mother's house.”
Everything inside her froze.
“My mother?”
“They found the front door broken.”
Hannah started running.
Richard caught her arm.
“Wait.”
“My mother is there.”
“She wasn't home.”
“She could be.”
“We checked.”
Hannah jerked her arm away.
“I need to see her.”
Thirty minutes later, they arrived.
Police cars filled the street.
The front window was shattered.
The house had been searched.
Drawers had been pulled open.
Pictures thrown onto the floor.
Hannah ran inside.
“Mom?”
No answer.
“Mom!”
A voice came from upstairs.
“Hannah?”
She ran.
Her mother was sitting on the floor in the bedroom.
Shaking.
Alive.
Hannah dropped beside her.
“Oh my God.”
Her mother hugged her.
Then she saw Richard standing behind the doorway.
Her expression changed.
“You.”
Richard stopped.
“You knew.”
Hannah looked at her mother.
“Knew what?”
Her mother began crying.
“I told you never to trust them.”
Hannah stared.
“Who?”
Her mother looked at Richard.
“The Whitmores.”
Margaret stood behind him.
“What did my husband do?”
Hannah's mother shook her head.
“Not him.”
She looked at Hannah.
“He tried to save your father.”
Hannah's breath caught.
“But he failed.”
The room went silent.
Her mother pointed toward the damaged closet.
“They were looking for the box.”
“What box?”
“The one your grandmother left.”
Hannah looked at her purse.
The purple envelope.
She pulled it out.
Her mother stared.
“Rose gave that to you?”
“Yes.”
Her mother's face filled with horror.
“Then you must leave.”
“Why?”
“Because now they know.”
“Know what?”
Her mother struggled for breath.
“Your father didn't die because of the money.”
Hannah shook her head.
“What money?”
Her mother looked toward Richard.
“You tell her.”
Richard stepped inside.
“I didn't know the entire truth.”
“Then tell me what you do know.”
Richard took a breath.
“Twenty-one years ago, I started a project with your father.”
“What project?”
“A housing development for working families.”
Hannah frowned.
“That sounds harmless.”
“It was.”
Richard looked toward the floor.
“Until William took over the accounting.”
His brother manipulated invoices.
Moved money.
Created shell companies.
At first, Richard believed it was embezzlement.
Then he discovered something worse.
The money came from government funds intended to build affordable housing.
Families lost homes.
Children went hungry.
Entire neighborhoods were abandoned.
Daniel Brooks discovered the scheme.
He wanted to expose it.
William wanted him silent.
“Why didn't you report him?” Hannah asked.
“I tried.”
“What happened?”
Richard's voice lowered.
“The police officer I trusted was working for William.”
Hannah stared.
“Then who could you trust?”
“No one.”
“Except my grandmother.”
Richard nodded.
“She found the ledger.”
The ledger.
That was what the pendant contained.
Hannah looked at the gold necklace.
“What does a necklace have to do with an accounting fraud?”
Richard looked at it.
“The pendant opens a hidden compartment in a safe.”
Hannah stared.
“What?”
Margaret whispered, “Oh my God.”
Richard continued.
“Your grandmother took the evidence and hid it.”
“Where?”
“We don't know.”
“Then how did she die?”
“Cancer.”
Hannah's mother spoke.
“Rose knew she was dying.”
She reached under the bed.
Pulled out an old photograph.
“Before she died, she told me that if anyone came looking for the pendant, I was to give you one thing.”
She held out a small key.
Hannah stared.
A brass key.
Tiny.
Old.
Engraved with three letters.
W.H.
William Whitmore.
Hannah's hands shook.
Richard saw it.
“He never got that key.”
“Why?”
“Because Rose hid it.”
“Where?”
Her mother pointed toward Hannah's purse.
Hannah opened the zipper.
There was nothing else.
Then she remembered.
The old photograph.
She opened the frame.
Behind the picture was a thin metal compartment.
The key fit.
Inside was a microfilm strip.
Hannah stared.
Richard did too.
Margaret's voice trembled.
“What is that?”
Richard whispered:
“Proof.”
Suddenly the house lights went out.
A gunshot came from downstairs.
Richard pushed Hannah behind him.
“Get down!”
Another shot.
Glass shattered.
Security guards rushed in.
Someone was firing from the backyard.
Then a voice called from outside.
“Hannah!”
She knew that voice.
Her stomach dropped.
It was Arthur.
“Give me the pendant.”
Richard raised his gun.
Arthur laughed.
“You can't protect her forever.”
Richard shouted back.
“I'll die trying.”
Arthur replied:
“That's what your brother said too.”
Then he disappeared into the darkness.
Hannah looked at Richard.
“Your brother is dead.”
Richard's face went pale.
“Yes.”
Arthur's words echoed in her mind.
What did you mean?
Richard stared into the darkness.
He finally understood.
William had been dead.
But someone was using his name.
May you like
Someone close enough to know everything.
And someone who had just revealed that Daniel had not died alone.
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