Chapter 7 - THE MAN WHO SAW THE CRASH
Raymond Pike lived in a hospice facility forty miles away.
Evan, Claire and Helen arrived before sunrise.
Raymond was thin, gray and breathing through oxygen.
When he saw Helen, his eyes widened.
"You."
Helen stopped in the doorway.
"Do I know you?"
Raymond looked at Evan.
"Your mother was there that night."
Helen looked stunned.
"I wasn't."
Raymond shook his head.
"Not Mara. Her."
He pointed at Helen.
Helen sat down hard.
"I followed Robert."
"You followed him where?"
"He left the house after midnight. I thought he was meeting Mara."
"Was he?"
"No."
Helen's voice broke.
"I saw her car in the ditch."
Raymond closed his eyes.
"Black sedan had already gone."
Evan stepped closer to Helen.
"What did you do?"
"I called 911."
"And?"
"I went to her."
"Was she alive?"
Helen nodded.
"Did she say anything?"
"She said your name."
Helen pressed a fist to her mouth.
"She kept saying, 'My son. Tell him I tried.'"
Evan looked away because he could not bear Helen's face.
Raymond coughed.
"She also had a red folder."
Helen froze.
"What folder?"
Raymond stared at her.
"The one you took from the passenger seat before the ambulance arrived."
Claire whispered, "Mom?"
Helen's shoulders dropped.
"It wasn't the same folder from the hospital."
"What was in it?"
"Evidence."
"Of what?"
Helen stared at him.
"That Martin had been moving money out of the company for years."
"Where is it now?"
"Robert took it from me."
Raymond shook his head.
"No."
"You kept one thing."
Helen's face changed.
Raymond pointed weakly toward her necklace.
"She put something inside that locket."
Helen grabbed the silver locket at her throat.
Behind an old photograph was a tiny strip of microfilm.
Claire stared.
"You've worn that every day of my life."
Helen whispered, "I forgot it was there."
Raymond looked at Evan.
"Then remember fast."
His eyes shifted toward the hallway.
May you like
A man in a dark coat was standing outside the glass door.
Martin.
