Chapter 5 - The Girl in the Back Seat
“You were in Nicholas's car?”
Adrian spoke so quietly that Caroline almost didn't hear him.
She nodded.
“The night he disappeared.”
Daniel moved toward her.
“What did you do to my father?”
Caroline flinched.
“Nothing.”
“Then why didn't you tell anyone?”
“Because Father made me promise.”
Daniel laughed bitterly.
“Twenty-three years. That's how long you kept his secret.”
Caroline lowered her head.
“I know.”
Adrian wanted to shout.
He wanted to ask a thousand questions.
But Sophie stood nearby, her injured ankle trembling beneath her.
Her mother was waiting in Providence.
And whatever Caroline knew could help them reach Linda safely.
“Get in the car,” he told his sister.
Marcus drove.
Adrian sat in the back with Caroline.
Sophie and Daniel rode in the vehicle behind them, accompanied by a security officer and the doctor who had examined Sophie's ankle.
Her injury was a severe sprain, with no fracture visible on the initial imaging.
She had been given a brace and crutches.
Adrian had insisted she receive medical care before leaving Newport.
Sophie hadn't argued.
But she had asked him one question.
“Are you going to believe my mother if she tells you something terrible?”
Adrian had answered carefully.
“I'm going to listen.”
Now, as the cars traveled toward Providence, Caroline stared out the window.
“Start talking,” Adrian said.
She folded her hands.
“Father told me Nicholas was stealing from the family.”
“Father told us a lot of things.”
“I believed him.”
“Did you see Nicholas steal anything?”
“No.”
“Then what did you see?”
Caroline swallowed.
“Nicholas came home that afternoon. He was furious. He said Father was using Harbor Crest to move money through fake shipping accounts.”
Adrian frowned.
“What kind of money?”
“Money taken from a workers' compensation fund.”
Adrian slowly turned toward her.
Their father had established the fund after a warehouse accident killed several employees.
He had publicly promised that injured workers and their families would never be abandoned.
Caroline continued.
“Nicholas found out the fund had been drained.”
“By Father?”
She nodded.
“And a man named Richard Bell.”
Adrian recognized the name.
Richard Bell had been their father's financial adviser.
He was now chairman of Harbor Crest Logistics.
One of the most respected businessmen in Rhode Island.
And Caroline's closest business partner.
Adrian stared at her.
“You've been working with Bell all these years?”
“He told me he was trying to repair what Father did.”
“And you believed him?”
Caroline didn't answer.
Adrian rubbed his forehead.
“Tell me about the car.”
Caroline's eyes filled.
“Nicholas told me to get in. He said we were going to pick up something important.”
“What?”
“A ledger.”
Adrian looked at her sharply.
“Where?”
“At the harbor.”
She stared at her hands.
“On the way there, Nicholas told me he had a son.”
Daniel.
Adrian looked toward the headlights following them.
“He said Evelyn had been threatened. He wanted to get her and the baby out of Rhode Island.”
“What happened when you reached the docks?”
Caroline began shaking.
“Father was waiting.”
Adrian said nothing.
“There were two men with him. One was Bell.”
“And the other?”
“I couldn't see his face.”
She wiped her tears.
“Nicholas told me to stay in the car. He went to talk to Father.”
“Then?”
“They argued.”
“About the ledger?”
“Yes.”
Caroline hesitated.
“Father said Nicholas had betrayed the family.”
Adrian closed his eyes.
He had heard those words before.
His father had repeated them at Nicholas's funeral.
“What happened next?”
“I heard a gunshot.”
Adrian opened his eyes.
Caroline was crying openly now.
“I ducked down. Nicholas came running back. He opened the driver's door and told me to get out.”
“Was he injured?”
“Yes. His shoulder.”
Adrian felt a sharp pain beneath his ribs.
For twenty-three years, he had imagined Nicholas dying alone on those docks.
Now he knew his brother had still been alive after the gunshot.
Caroline continued.
“He gave me an envelope and told me to take it to Linda Whitcomb.”
“The nurse?”
“Yes. He said she would know what to do.”
“Then why didn't you?”
Caroline's voice broke.
“Because Father found me.”
Adrian waited.
“He told me Nicholas had shot one of his men. He said Nicholas was dangerous and Linda was helping him destroy the family.”
“You believed him?”
“I was seventeen.”
“That doesn't explain the next twenty-three years.”
Caroline looked away.
“No.”
They drove in silence.
Finally, Adrian asked, “What happened to the envelope?”
“I gave it to Linda.”
“Then how did it end up inside the painting?”
“Because she returned it to me after Father died.”
Adrian stared.
“When?”
“Six years ago.”
“Why?”
“She said it wasn't safe in her house anymore.”
“And you hid it?”
Caroline nodded.
“I didn't know whom to trust.”
Adrian's voice hardened.
“You could have trusted me.”
Caroline looked directly at him.
“Could I?”
He said nothing.
“You took over Father's business, Adrian. You kept Bell in charge. You continued the same arrangements.”
Adrian felt the accusation land.
He had spent years convincing himself that controlling his father's organization was better than letting worse men inherit it.
But he'd rarely questioned the businesses that already existed.
And perhaps that had been exactly what Bell counted on.
The cars pulled up outside a modest brick house near the Providence waterfront.
Dr. Samuel Keene waited on the porch.
Inside, Linda Bennett sat in a recliner beside the fireplace.
She looked exhausted.
When Sophie entered, Linda began crying.
“My baby.”
Sophie hurried toward her on crutches.
“Mom, you scared me.”
Linda held her tightly.
Then she looked over Sophie's shoulder.
Her eyes settled on Adrian.
For several seconds, she simply stared.
“You look like him,” she whispered.
“Like Nicholas?” Adrian asked.
Linda shook her head.
“Like your grandfather.”
Adrian approached.
“Dr. Keene says you have my brother's watch.”
Linda nodded.
She reached for a small jewelry box.
Inside lay the matching silver pocket watch Sophie had described.
Adrian opened it.
The cover was scratched.
The hands were stopped at 11:17.
But the engraving inside was different.
Two words.
For Adrian.
Adrian felt his throat tighten.
His grandfather had given him that watch when he turned eighteen.
He had lost it shortly after Nicholas disappeared.
Or so he'd believed.
Linda watched him.
“Nicholas wanted you to have it.”
Adrian looked up.
“When did he give it to you?”
Linda began trembling.
“That night.”
“What night?”
“The night everyone said he died.”
She reached into the jewelry box again.
This time she removed a small, folded piece of paper.
It was a child's drawing.
A yellow house.
A blue boat.
Three stick figures holding hands.
On the back, in an adult's handwriting, were the words:
Tell Daniel his father loved him.
Daniel stepped forward.
His face collapsed.
“My father drew that?”
Linda shook her head.
“No. Your mother did.”
Daniel reached for the drawing with trembling hands.
Linda looked toward Adrian.
“There was something else in the envelope Nicholas gave Caroline.”
“What?”
“A photograph.”
Adrian nodded.
“We found one.”
Linda shook her head.
“Not the one of Nicholas and Evelyn.”
Her eyes moved toward Caroline.
“The photograph of the man who fired the second shot.”
Adrian turned to his sister.
Caroline's expression was filled with horror.
May you like
Linda whispered:
“And Caroline knows exactly where that photograph is.”
