Chapter 5: The Envelope
The parking area outside was cold and grey, the kind of flat afternoon light that makes everything look slightly unreal.
Noah's car was parked at the far end, away from the other vehicles.
He walked fast.
Claire kept pace beside him, one hand resting lightly on Lily's shoulder.
Lily hadn't asked where they were going.
She just walked.
Noah unlocked the car and opened the passenger door for Lily, then moved around to the driver's side and popped the glove box.
He pushed aside the registration papers and a folded map — he was the only person Claire knew who still kept a paper map — and pulled out a plain white envelope.
His name was written on the front in Marcus's handwriting.
Nothing else.
He held it out to Claire.
"It's addressed to you," she said.
"Open it," he said.
"Please."
She took it.
The seal had never been broken.
She slid her finger along the flap and pulled out a single folded sheet of paper and a small card.
The card had two lines on it.
An email address and a password.
The paper had more.
Claire read it standing beside the open car door, the cold air moving through the parking area.
She read it once quickly, then again slowly.
Noah watched her face.
"What does it say?"
She looked up.
Lily was in the passenger seat, her feet not quite reaching the floor, looking out the windshield at nothing in particular.
Claire lowered her voice.
"He knew something was wrong.
He wrote this two weeks ago." She looked back at the paper.
"He says Evelyn has been telling him that Lily's behavior has been getting worse.
That Lily has been lying, stealing, acting out.
He says he started watching the camera footage from Lily's room and what he saw didn't match anything Evelyn was describing."
"What did he see?"
"He doesn't say exactly.
He says the footage will speak for itself." Claire held up the card.
"This is the login for the camera account.
He says there are forty-two saved clips." She paused.
"He also says that three days before he wrote this letter, Evelyn told him something about his finances.
About the family trust.
He says he needs to verify it before he says anything to anyone.
He says if she's right, he may need to disappear for a short time to protect Lily."
Noah stared at her.
"Disappear."
"Those are his words."
"So he left on purpose?"
"I don't know." Claire folded the paper carefully.
"I don't know if he left or if he was made to leave." She looked at the envelope in her hands.
"But he prepared for the possibility that he wouldn't be reachable.
And he left this with you."
Noah sat down in the driver's seat.
He put both hands on the steering wheel and didn't say anything for a moment.
Lily turned her head.
"Is that Daddy's writing?"
Claire looked at her.
She couldn't lie to her.
She wouldn't.
"Yes."
Lily reached out and touched the edge of the envelope with two fingers.
She didn't take it.
She just touched it.
"He writes his sevens with a little line through the middle," she said.
"He taught me to do it that way too."
Claire's throat tightened.
"He's going to come back," Lily said.
Not a question.
A statement.
The kind children make when they need the world to confirm something they've already decided to believe.
"I'm going to do everything I can," Claire said.
It wasn't a promise.
But Lily nodded as if it was, and that was worse.
Claire straightened and looked at Noah.
"I need to access that account.
Can I use your phone?"
"Use mine," said a voice.
Claire turned.
A man was standing at the edge of the parking area.
Fifties, grey at the temples, a dark coat.
He was holding a phone out toward her.
His face was careful and still in the way of someone who has been waiting a long time to say something.
"My name is Gerald Foss," he said.
"I'm Marcus's attorney." He glanced toward the house.
May you like
"And I've been sitting in that car for two hours trying to decide whether to come in." He lowered the phone slightly.
"I think you just made the decision for me."
