PART 16 — WHEN MARK WAS EIGHTEEN

Mark stared at his wife.

“What happened when I was eighteen?”

Alicia looked at Thomas.

Then at me.

“I don’t know everything.”

“Then tell us what you do know.”

She pointed toward Raymond’s letter.

“The man Dorothy mentioned. The forensic accountant. I called him after I found that page.”

Thomas frowned.

“When?”

“October eighth.”

The day I was in Charleston.

The day people were inside my house.

“What did you tell him?” I asked.

“I said Raymond Harper was dead and I was his daughter-in-law.”

“And?”

“He hung up.”

Despite everything, that sounded like someone Raymond would trust.

“But then he called back,” Alicia continued.

“He asked whether Mark knew about the missing money from 1971.”

Mark blinked.

“1971?”

Thomas looked at me.

I sat down on the cedar chest.

Mark had been eighteen in 1971.

I remembered that year very well.

He graduated high school.

Bought his first car.

And nearly destroyed his relationship with Raymond.

Mark slowly shook his head.

“I don’t know anything about missing money.”

I did.

Or at least I remembered something.

“Your grandfather.”

Mark looked at me.

Raymond’s father, Walter, had owned twelve acres outside town.

In 1971, he sold six.

Raymond handled some of the paperwork because Walter’s health was failing.

For months afterward, Raymond had been furious.

I never understood why.

He told me it was family business.

And I let him keep it that way.

Thomas crouched beside the chest.

“How much money?”

“I don’t know.”

Then I remembered a night I’d almost forgotten.

Raymond standing in our kitchen.

His father shouting from the hallway.

And one sentence:

You find out where it went, Ray.

I looked at Thomas.

“There was money missing from Walter’s land sale.”

Mark sat beside me.

“What does that have to do with me?”

“I don’t know.”

Alicia answered.

“The accountant asked about an account opened in your name.”

Mark stood again.

“My name?”

“Yes.”

“When I was eighteen?”

“Yes.”

His confusion looked genuine.

Thomas asked, “What kind of account?”

“I don’t know. He wouldn’t tell me.”

“Then how do you know this?”

“Because after he hung up, I searched Raymond’s papers.”

My anger returned.

“You searched my husband’s private papers.”

“I was trying to understand what we’d found.”

“No. You were trying to understand what might be worth money.”

She didn’t deny it.

Thomas took the photocopy from my hand.

“What’s the accountant’s name?”

I read it.

“Samuel Pike.”

Thomas nodded slowly.

“I remember Raymond mentioning him.”

“Can we call him?”

“We can.”

Thomas dialed.

A man answered on the fourth ring.

“Pike.”

Thomas introduced himself.

There was a long silence.

Then Thomas said:

“I’m sitting with Dorothy Harper.”

Another silence.

Thomas handed me the phone.

“Mrs. Harper?”

The man’s voice was older.

“Yes.”

“I wondered if this day would come.”

My fingers tightened around the phone.

“What day?”

“The day someone started asking about Raymond’s records.”

I looked at Alicia.

She lowered her eyes.

“Mr. Pike, what happened in 1971?”

He exhaled slowly.

“Your father-in-law sold land. Part of the proceeds disappeared.”

“How much?”

“Twenty-eight thousand dollars.”

In 1971, that was a fortune to us.

“Where did it go?”

“That was the problem. On paper, it went into an account established for your son.”

Mark whispered, “No.”

Samuel heard him.

“Is Mark there?”

“Yes.”

“Then he needs to hear this too.”

I put the phone on speaker.

Samuel continued.

“Raymond spent years believing someone had used Mark’s identity to move money.”

Mark gripped the edge of the cedar chest.

“Who?”

“We never proved it.”

Thomas asked, “Why did Raymond keep the investigation secret?”

“Because Walter begged him to.”

“Why?”

Samuel paused.

“Because the person Raymond suspected was family.”

Nobody spoke.

Then I asked:

“Who?”

Samuel’s answer came quietly.

“Raymond’s younger brother.”

My breath caught.

“Frank?”

“Yes.”

Frank Harper.

Mark’s uncle.

A man who had disappeared from our lives more than thirty years ago.

Mark looked at me.

“I thought Uncle Frank moved west.”

“So did I.”

Samuel continued.

“He did. Eventually.”

“Then what does any of this have to do with Alicia?”

A long pause.

“I don’t know who Alicia is.”

“My daughter-in-law.”

Silence.

Then Samuel said something strange.

“What is her maiden name?”

Alicia’s face changed.

Thomas noticed.

So did I.

I looked at her.

“Alicia?”

She didn’t answer.

Mark did.

“Bennett.”

The phone went completely silent.

“Mr. Pike?”

He finally spoke.

“Dorothy…”

“Yes?”

“Frank Harper didn’t use the Harper name after he left.”

My heart began pounding.

“What name did he use?”

Samuel answered.

“Bennett.”

Mark slowly turned toward his wife.

Alicia stepped backward.

And suddenly the mystery inside Raymond’s cedar chest wasn’t fifty-five years away anymore.

It was standing directly in front of us.