Chapter 12 - THE MAN WHO WAS SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD
Thomas Bennett survived the night.
Doctors said he had been kept heavily sedated for years.
His muscles had deteriorated.
His memory came and went.
But he was alive.
Clara sat beside his hospital bed.
Thomas looked at her.
“You have your mother's eyes.”
Clara didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
“You knew me?”
“From a distance.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Cowardice.”
His answer surprised her.
“I kept telling myself I would fix everything first.”
He swallowed.
“Then Eleanor poisoned me.”
Clara leaned forward.
“What happened?”
“I woke in the lodge.”
“She told everyone you died.”
Thomas nodded.
“Whose body was buried?”
“I don't know.”
Police later answered that question.
The body belonged to a homeless man Victor had obtained through a corrupt morgue employee.
Dental records had been falsified.
Thomas looked toward Clara's stomach.
“My grandchild?”
“Yes.”
He smiled.
Then tears filled his eyes.
“I missed everything.”
Clara didn't comfort him.
Some losses were too large for easy words.
“Did Eleanor cut the carriage brake?”
“Yes.”
Clara stared.
“How do you know?”
“She visited me two days before.”
“What did she say?”
Thomas closed his eyes.
“That Daniel's wife had become inconvenient.”
Clara felt sick.
Thomas continued.
“She talked when I was sedated.”
“She believed I couldn't understand.”
“What else did she say?”
Thomas looked at her.
“That she had convinced Daniel the baby wasn't his.”
Clara froze.
“What?”
“She told him you had an affair.”
Clara stood.
“No.”
“Daniel believed her.”
“That still doesn't excuse what he did.”
“No.”
Thomas's voice hardened.
“It doesn't.”
Clara looked toward the window.
Daniel had never accused her.
Never asked.
He had simply decided her death solved his problem.
Thomas spoke again.
“Eleanor's greatest weapon was never poison.”
Clara turned.
“It was suspicion.”
The evidence against Eleanor became overwhelming.
Yet police still couldn't find her.
Then Victor asked for a deal.
In exchange for immunity from certain financial charges, he would reveal Eleanor's location.
Prosecutors refused full immunity.
Victor negotiated.
Finally, he talked.
Eleanor had gone to the old Bennett textile mill.
Clara recognized the name.
The mill was scheduled for demolition.
Police surrounded it.
This time Clara stayed away.
She had finally learned she didn't need to personally walk into every trap.
But Eleanor wasn't inside.
Only another note.
YOU KEEP LOOKING WHERE I HAVE BEEN.
TRY LOOKING WHERE YOU ARE GOING.
Clara read it twice.
Then understood.
“The hospital.”
She called security.
No answer.
She called Margaret.
Nothing.
Rose.
Nothing.
Clara ran.
At the hospital, alarms were sounding.
She reached Thomas's room.
Empty.
A nurse lay unconscious in the hallway.
Clara's phone rang.
Eleanor.
“You took my company.”
Clara's hands shook.
“You took my husband.”
“You exposed my son.”
“You brought Rose back.”
Eleanor laughed softly.
“So I took something from each of you.”
“Where is Thomas?”
“Where our story should have ended twelve years ago.”
Clara knew.
The cliff.
The same cliff where Eleanor had tried to kill her.
Police raced there.
Clara followed.
By the time she arrived, sunset had turned the sky red.
Thomas sat in a wheelchair near the edge.
Eleanor stood behind him with a gun.
Rose was on her knees nearby.
Margaret was beside her.
Daniel stood several yards away.
Clara stared.
“How did Daniel get here?”
Eleanor smiled.
“He was transferred for questioning.”
Daniel's guard lay unconscious near a car.
Clara understood.
Eleanor had arranged everything.
One final gathering.
One final attempt to erase everyone who knew the truth.
Eleanor pressed the gun against Thomas's head.
“Welcome home, Clara.”
Clara looked toward the cliff.
The broken tree branch was still visible below.
May you like
Eleanor smiled.
“Shall we finish what we started?”
