Chapter 8 - WHAT ROSALIE SAW
Voss asked for immunity.
He didn’t get it.
He asked for protection.
The sheriff gave him that.
Then Harlan Voss talked for four hours.
Emmett Durham had hired him twenty-two years earlier.
At first, Voss falsified medical reports.
Then prescriptions.
Then psychiatric evaluations.
Lorelei discovered it.
She threatened to expose both men.
But Lorelei had another problem.
She had found evidence connecting Emmett to Daniel Mercer’s disappearance.
Daniel had discovered millions diverted from public construction contracts.
He planned to testify.
Emmett arranged a meeting.
Daniel never returned home.
“Did Emmett kill him?” the sheriff asked.
Voss looked at the table.
“I never saw the act.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
“Yes.”
Rosalie closed her eyes.
“And my mother?”
Voss hesitated.
Manuel leaned forward.
“Answer her.”
Voss looked at Rosalie.
“Your mother planned to leave Pinecrest with you.”
“She copied the evidence.”
“Catherine knew?”
“No.”
“She only knew Lorelei was afraid.”
Rosalie’s voice was flat.
“What happened that night?”
Voss swallowed.
“Emmett found the packed suitcases.”
“He confronted her.”
“You came downstairs.”
Rosalie’s hands began shaking.
“You were eleven.”
“You tried to stop him.”
Manuel reached for her hand.
Rosalie let him.
Voss continued.
“Emmett restrained you.”
The scars.
Rosalie looked down at her wrists.
“He took Lorelei away in the car.”
“And me?”
“You saw something.”
“What?”
Voss’s eyes filled with shame.
“You saw your mother in the garage.”
Rosalie’s breathing stopped.
“She was injured.”
“How?”
“Emmett struck her.”
“Once?”
Voss said nothing.
Rosalie understood.
“Then what?”
“He ordered me to sedate you.”
“You erased my memory.”
“I tried.”
“You drugged a child.”
“Yes.”
“For six years.”
“Yes.”
Rosalie stood.
Her chair scraped backward.
Manuel stood too.
Voss flinched.
Rosalie didn’t touch him.
She simply looked at him.
“Did my mother die in that car?”
“No.”
Everyone froze.
Rosalie’s eyes widened.
“What did you say?”
Voss looked at the sheriff.
“The body in Lorelei Durham’s car was never conclusively identified.”
Rosalie stared at him.
“But there was a funeral.”
“Closed casket.”
Catherine stood.
“Emmett told us the injuries were too severe.”
Voss nodded.
Rosalie gripped the table.
“Then where is my mother?”
“I don’t know.”
Maya spoke from the corner.
“But you know something.”
Voss looked at her.
Maya had noticed what everyone else missed.
He wasn’t surprised by the question.
Voss finally whispered.
“Lorelei was alive when Emmett drove away.”
Rosalie’s knees nearly collapsed.
Manuel caught her.
Voss continued.
“Three months later, I saw a payment.”
“To where?”
“A private psychiatric facility in Vermont.”
Rosalie stared at him.
“What facility?”
Voss gave them the name.
Maya searched.
The facility had closed fourteen years earlier.
Its patient records were sealed.
But one archived employee directory remained online.
Maya enlarged a photograph.
A nurse stood beside three patients.
One woman was turned partly away from the camera.
Rosalie stepped toward the screen.
The woman had dark hair.
Older.
Thin.
May you like
And along her left cheek was a wine-colored birthmark.
The same shape as Rosalie’s.
