Chapter 5 - The Name in the Ledger
Police moved them to a hotel before midnight.
Daniel did not sleep.
At 4:10 a.m., he sat at the small desk while Rachel and Emma slept in the other room. Officer Kim had allowed him to take one box after it was photographed and logged.
Inside were cancelled checks, property deeds, and a ledger with his father’s handwriting.
One name appeared every month for fourteen years.
L. MARCH.
Each payment went to Ashcroft Residential Services.
The amounts were too large for rent.
Daniel searched the company.
Ashcroft House had been a private psychiatric facility outside Rockford. It closed six years earlier after a state investigation into unlawful holds and falsified treatment records.
His stomach tightened.
At 6:02, Rachel woke and found him reading.
“What is it?”
He showed her.
“L. March.”
Rachel sat down slowly.
“Laura Mercer.”
“That’s what I think.”
Emma appeared in the doorway. “Grandpa paid to keep Grandma in a psychiatric hospital?”
Daniel’s anger hit so fast he stood.
“We don’t know that.”
Emma flinched.
He immediately lowered his voice. “Sorry.”
Rachel took the ledger.
“Look at the dates.”
The payments began two weeks after Laura’s funeral.
They stopped the month Ashcroft closed.
Then a different payment began.
BRIAR COUNTY STORAGE - UNIT 214.
Daniel stared at the line.
“Storage?”
His phone rang.
Martin Hale.
Daniel answered.
Martin sounded tired. “I heard somebody broke into the house.”
“Who told you?”
A pause.
“Small town.”
Daniel smiled without humor. “We live in Chicago.”
Silence.
Then Martin said, “Daniel, whatever you found in that basement, your father was not the man you think he was.”
Daniel looked at the ledger.
“What happened to my mother?”
Martin exhaled.
“Meet me alone, and I’ll tell you.”
“Where?”
May you like
“Briar County Storage. Unit 214.”
The line went dead.
