Chapter 12 - Lily's Promise
"Did Grandma steal Mommy's money?" Lily asked.
Mark turned from the laptop.
He hadn't realized she was standing in the doorway in her pajamas, clutching Claire's old knitted rabbit.
He closed the screen.
"Some money is missing. I'm finding out why."
Lily climbed onto the couch beside him.
"Grandma said if I told you about the well, you'd go away like Mommy did."
Mark's throat tightened.
"Listen to me. What happened to Mommy was an illness. What happened at the well was something an adult should have prevented. None of it was your fault."
"Are you mad at me for looking?"
"Never."
He held her until her shoulders relaxed.
Later, when she was asleep, Mark called Ellis and reported the threat.
The detective had an update of her own.
"Mercer's phone contains instructions from an unlisted number to lock the pump-room entrance if anyone came looking for records."
"From my mother?"
"We don't know yet."
A clerk at the bank confirmed Red Door Holdings had received transfers from multiple Whitcomb family accounts.
Mark sent the records to Samir, who asked why Claire's policy proceeds would have been routed through the estate at all.
"Mom said she was helping invest them for Lily," Mark replied.
"Then she needed authority she may not have had. Find the account-opening documents."
Beatrice called after midnight.
Her voice shook.
"I found Claire's second recipe card. It was behind the loose panel in the pantry."
"Read it to me."
"It says, 'The first well catches rain. The second catches lies. Follow the house's shadow at noon.'"
Mark pictured the west wall and the four tunnel windows.
"Beatrice, don't go near that room."
"I'm not in the pantry anymore," she whispered.
May you like
A door creaked in the background.
"Somebody is in the house."
