Chapter 15 - THE PRICE OF SILENCE
Elise spent the night blaming herself.
Thomas had helped Helena for years.
He had hidden crimes.
He had lied.
But he had also come to Northbridge knowing someone might kill him.
Now those people had him.
Sheriff Reeves coordinated with Maine State Police and federal agents.
At dawn, Elise received a video.
Thomas sat tied to a metal chair.
His face was bruised.
A distorted voice spoke behind the camera.
“The third letter. Twenty-four hours.”
The video ended.
June stood in the doorway.
“You can’t give it to them.”
“I don’t even know where it is.”
“You will.”
Elise looked at her daughter.
June had Jonathan’s calmness.
Sometimes that terrified her.
“What makes you so sure?”
“Dad wanted you to.”
June pulled something from her pocket.
A silver music-box key.
Elise recognized it instantly.
Jonathan had given June a wooden music box on her eighth birthday.
June ran upstairs.
Minutes later, she placed the music box on Elise’s bed.
The melody was Brahms.
Elise wound the key.
The music played.
June pressed one of the decorative wooden stars.
A hidden compartment opened.
Inside lay another envelope.
Elise almost laughed through her tears.
“Your father was impossible.”
June smiled sadly.
“He liked puzzles.”
Letter three read:
Elise,
If Thomas is still alive when you find this, understand something important.
He betrayed many people.
But he saved June before she was born.
Ask him about the hospital.
Do not condemn him until you know why.
The next key is where music first brought us together.
Elise remembered immediately.
Westbridge Conservatory.
She had met Jonathan there during a charity concert twelve years earlier.
But another line followed.
Trust the woman who hates me most.
Elise read it twice.
Jonathan’s enemies were numerous.
But only one woman had ever openly hated him.
His younger sister.
Rebecca Marlowe.
Rebecca had not spoken to Elise since Jonathan’s funeral.
She blamed Elise for everything that had happened to him.
At noon, Elise drove to Rebecca’s apartment in Manhattan with federal protection nearby.
Rebecca opened the door and stared at her.
“You have nerve coming here.”
“I need help.”
“No.”
“Jonathan left your name in a letter.”
Rebecca’s expression changed.
“What letter?”
Elise handed her a copy.
Rebecca read the final line.
Her face slowly drained of color.
“He knew.”
“Knew what?”
Rebecca walked inside.
“Close the door.”
Elise did.
Rebecca turned around.
“I hated Jonathan because I thought he abandoned me.”
“Abandoned you how?”
“When I was twenty-one, Helena told me Jonathan had used my inheritance to cover gambling debts.”
Elise frowned.
“Jonathan never gambled.”
“I know that now.”
Rebecca opened a safe.
Inside were financial statements.
“Three years ago I discovered Helena stole the money. Jonathan had actually replaced it from his own account.”
“Why didn’t you tell him?”
Rebecca looked away.
“I was ashamed.”
Then she removed a photograph.
It showed a newborn baby inside a hospital nursery.
On the back was written:
JUNE MARLOWE — PROTECTED.
Elise stared.
“What is this?”
May you like
Rebecca’s eyes filled with tears.
“Someone tried to kill June the night she was born.”
