Chapter 12 - THE MAN WHO CAME BACK
Evan had escaped.
The ambulance was found abandoned seven miles from Millbrook.
One paramedic was unconscious.
The other was missing.
Dad heard the news and smiled.
“Evan always was dependable.”
Mara pushed him toward the stairs.
“Not helping yourself.”
“I’m seventy-one. How much worse can life get?”
Lily stepped close.
“You could live a long time.”
His smile faded.
State police searched the house.
Mom gave a statement.
So did Clara.
So did Lily.
I sat on the back steps with Eva wrapped in a blanket.
She leaned against me.
“Is Grandpa bad?”
I didn’t know how to explain evil to a seven-year-old.
So I told her something simpler.
“Grandpa made choices that hurt people.”
“Is he going to jail?”
“I think so.”
She thought about it.
“Good.”
I almost laughed.
Then she looked at me.
“Is Aunt Lily staying?”
I looked across the yard.
Lily stood beneath the maple tree.
Mom was beside her.
Two women I had mourned.
Both alive.
“I hope so.”
That night, Mara put us in a protected hotel under state supervision.
At 3:12 a.m., I woke to the sound of our room door clicking.
I reached for the lamp.
Nothing.
The power was out.
“Clara.”
She woke instantly.
Eva slept between us.
A shadow moved beneath the door.
I grabbed the metal lamp.
The door slowly opened.
Evan stepped inside.
His left arm was bandaged.
His right hand held a gun.
“Don’t.”
Clara went still.
“How did you find us?”
He smiled.
“You keep asking the wrong question.”
He closed the door.
“The better question is how your father kept finding everyone for twenty years.”
I stared.
“You.”
“No.”
He shook his head.
“Me, Bell, Thomas—we were workers.”
“Who was running it?”
Evan laughed quietly.
“You still think this was Thomas’s operation.”
My stomach dropped.
He reached into his jacket and tossed a photograph onto the bed.
It showed Dad standing beside three men at a fundraiser.
One was Dr. Bell.
One was Evan.
The third man was somebody I recognized from television.
County Judge Henry Wallace.
The man who had signed hundreds of emergency guardianship orders.
Evan said, “Thomas got greedy.”
“So Wallace is behind this?”
“Partly.”
“Why tell me?”
“Because they’re cleaning house.”
He pointed toward the hallway.
“And I don’t want to be next.”
Clara stared.
“You kidnapped Lily.”
“I followed orders.”
Lily’s voice came from the connecting doorway.
“That excuse getting old yet?”
Evan spun.
Lily stood with Mara behind her.
Gun raised.
“Drop it.”
For once, Evan obeyed.
Mara cuffed him.
Then Evan looked at me.
“You want to protect your daughter?”
I said nothing.
“Get that ledger before Wallace does.”
“It’s at the house.”
“No.”
He shook his head.
“Lily moved it eighteen years ago.”
I looked at my sister.
She stared at the floor.
“Lily?”
Evan smiled.
“She never hid it in your childhood house.”
My sister finally looked at me.
“I hid it somewhere Dad would never search.”
“Where?”
She swallowed.
“In your college dorm.”
I stared.
“That building was torn down fifteen years ago.”
“I know.”
“Then the ledger is gone.”
Lily shook her head.
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because before they demolished it, someone took it.”
“Who?”
She looked toward Mom.
May you like
Our mother whispered one name.
“Clara.”
