Chapter 16 - The Dead Man’s Package
Savannah went pale when Claire showed her the signature.
“My father knew your mother?”
“He witnessed the letter.”
Savannah sat down.
“That’s impossible.”
“Search his things.”
“My mother threw most of them away.”
“Most?”
Savannah stopped.
There was one thing Daniel Reed had forbidden anyone to touch.
An old green suitcase.
It had been placed in a storage unit after his death.
Savannah reached the facility forty minutes later with federal investigators.
Inside the suitcase were tax files.
Family photographs.
A broken watch.
And a sealed FedEx package addressed to Claire Whitmore.
It had never been sent.
Savannah opened it under instructions from Rebecca.
Inside was a flash drive.
And a letter.
Claire,
If Eleanor is gone and you are reading this, Malcolm succeeded in frightening everyone who could help her.
I cannot prove he caused her accident.
I can prove he knew her travel route, altered the company driver schedule, and paid a private contractor forty-eight hours before she died.
Claire’s knees weakened.
Rebecca continued reading.
The contractor’s name was Raymond Pike.
Savannah searched the old records.
Raymond Pike was alive.
He lived in Delaware.
And he owned an air charter company.
Claire looked at the flight information from Malcolm’s Maryland property.
The aircraft was registered through a company subsidiary.
Pike Coastal Aviation.
Agents moved immediately.
A location ping placed the plane at a small private airfield outside Wilmington.
Claire did not wait this time.
She went with them.
Adrian arrived separately.
Neither spoke.
They reached the hangar after dark.
The aircraft was there.
Malcolm was not.
But Noah’s red backpack sat on the rear seat.
Claire pressed it to her chest.
Adrian turned away.
An agent approached.
“We have surveillance footage.”
A camera had captured Malcolm moving Noah into another vehicle.
Raymond Pike was driving.
The vehicle traveled north.
Delaware Route 9.
Savannah looked at an old map inside her father’s files.
Then she pointed.
“My father owned a fishing cabin here.”
Everyone looked at her.
“He sold it after Eleanor died.”
“To whom?”
Savannah’s face drained.
“Raymond Pike.”
Claire stared at the location.
Marshland.
Isolated road.
No neighbors.
Adrian took the map.
“Let’s go.”
The agent stopped him.
“You don’t give orders here.”
Claire looked toward the dark highway.
For the first time, the company did not matter.
The fortune did not matter.
Even Malcolm’s crimes did not matter.
May you like
Somewhere ahead was her four-year-old son.
And this time Claire intended to be there when they opened the door.
