At least twenty of Stephanie’s paintings now bobbed in the water. Ten of the larger works still leaned against the boxes, their weight holding them in place while the bottom foot of each canvas was submerged. Could they be salvaged? Restored? Jason honestly had no idea.
He’d deal with that later. He ran to the bedroom. He checked the closet, then the bathroom, then the garage.
Clear. He started to go upstairs to check the main living areas.
“Don’t bother. I already looked. There’s no one else here,” Mr. Crawford said. “Me and the missus went to the early service at church. She likes to stay for a ladies Sunday school class sometimes, and then they all go to lunch and gossip. I stopped over at the flea market before I came home. Walked in to find all this. I cut the water off at the main. Thought a pipe had burst somehow, but it was the bathtub. The plug was in. The water was on. It overflowed,” Mr. Crawford said. His words pulled forth another sob. “We never use that bathroom,” he said. “Can’t remember the last time that tub was used. How you reckon it got plugged and the water turned on? It sure wasn’t me or the missus.”
Jason wanted to look away. Had he ever seen a grown man so shattered? Mr. Crawford probably didn’t want his sympathy, but he couldn’t stand here without addressing his pain.
“I am so very sorry.” He put one hand on his shoulder. “Mr. Crawford, Caroline and Henry are in the car. Let me go explain what’s going on and I’ll be right back.”
A barely perceptible nod was the only response. It would have to do.
Jason took the stairs two at a time. Caroline had done as he asked. When she saw him, she threw open the passenger door.
“It’s okay,” he said. Well, it wasn’t. “Put it in Park. We need to talk.”
He walked to the driver’s side and explained what had happened.
“You don’t think it was an accident? Could they have forgotten…?”
“Not a chance.”
“But if someone did this deliberately, how could they have known we were coming here to look through Stephanie’s things today? Kyle swept my house for bugs. And they haven’t messed with Stephanie’s family or her belongings before.”
“It could be a coincidence…but that doesn’t seem likely.”
“What do we do now?”
“I’ll call the guys and help Mr. Crawford reach his insurance agent. They have companies that specialize in this kind of thing. Drying stuff out, restoring art.”
“Stephanie’s paintings?”
“All wet. Some of them might be salvageable.”
Caroline blinked back tears. “I have a couple of her pieces at the house, in Henry’s room,” she said.
“Caroline, Henry can’t be downstairs. Everything is wet. There’s no place to put him down, and I don’t want him out of our sight,” he said.
“I’ll hold him,” she said. Her chin jutting out, her mouth in a line. “I want to see it.”
“Fine. Let me call Kyle first. He needs to figure out how they knew we were coming.”
He stepped away from the car, scanning the driveway and the woods around the house. Could Kyle be trusted? He hadn’t trusted the FBI agent at first, but he had to admit that was mostly because of the way Kyle looked at Caroline. Like he had a special relationship with her. Like he wanted it to be more than it was.
But now? He needed to be able to trust Kyle. And he wasn’t sure he could count on his own judgment to be impartial.
He called Heidi.
She answered on the first ring, and he filled her in. “I need to know how much you trust Kyle,” he said. “He swept the house and said there were no listening devices, but this happens an hour before we show up to go through Stephanie’s things,” he said. “If they know about the ring…”
“I trust him with my life,” she said with no hesitation. “I appreciate your questioning it. It’s a valid concern.” He had to give it to her; she wasn’t dismissing his worries based on her history with Kyle alone. “But we’re dealing with a sophisticated enemy. Talk to Kyle. Have him recheck the house, the car, everything.”
Jason looked back at the car, where Caroline now stood with Henry, the diaper bag over her shoulder.
The diaper bag.
It couldn’t be.
“I have an idea of how they may be listening,” he said, walking farther away from Caroline. “But that’s not the most important thing. If they know where we are, we’re sitting ducks. I need to get some backup over here.”
“Agreed. Call me back when things are secure.”
He called in a request for backup to the Crawfords’ residence. Then called Kyle.
“I think there might be a bug in the diaper bag,” he said.
“What?”
“Have you checked the diaper bag for bugs?”
Kyle huffed. “The scanner would have—”
“Even if the diaper bag was in the car?”
“What?”
“She’s been leaving it in the car a lot.”
Kyle muttered something under his breath. “I’ll be there in fifteen minutes,” Kyle said. “I’ll check the car, the diaper bag, the car seat, your clothes, Caroline’s clothes, Henry’s pacifier, everything.”
Jason pulled out the notepad he kept in his pocket and wrote a few quick lines.
The diaper bag might be bugged. Leave it in the car.
When he showed Caroline the note, her eyes popped wide, but she gave no other reaction. She removed the bag from her shoulder and returned it to the backseat of the car.
She gave him a weak smile. “Let’s go see if we can help Mr. Crawford.”
He reached for Henry. “May I?” Henry lunged for him, and Caroline handed him over with no argument.
“Thanks. He’s getting heavy.” She massaged her arm and then leaned closer to him. “How bad is it?”
“It’s bad. My guess is most of her things are ruined.”
Caroline gulped and blew out a long breath. “Okay,” she said, squaring her shoulders. “I’m ready.”
SIXTEEN
She hadn’t been ready.
Not for the devastation. Not for Mr. Crawford’s tearful hug. Not for her own sense of loss.
Not for the guys from the sheriff’s office and local fire department who showed up with shop vacs and squeegees and who pumped out the downstairs and carried soggy boxes outside.
Not for Papa and Mama Drake to materialize in the driveway with snacks and toys and a pack ’n’ play for Henry.
She hadn’t been ready for Kyle to scan her, Henry, her purse, Henry’s car seat and the diaper bag, and for him to point to the diaper bag as the culprit.
The stupid diaper bag.
Someone had been close enough to her and to Henry to bug the diaper bag? When? How?
Who?
Why?
She tried to remember what they’d talked about when the diaper bag had been around. Did they—the mysterious and unidentified they—know about the ring?
Henry chattered happily from his spot on the porch. As the guys brought the waterlogged boxes out, she went through them.
She had no idea what she was looking for. She found Stephanie’s journals, but she was afraid to open them. Most of the pages were stuck together, and when she tried to separate them, they tore and the ink smeared.
There might be an answer hidden there, but it would remain hidden for now. Maybe she could look again when the pages had dried out a little.
She looked at the canvases that now rested all along the porch floor. There’d been an intense debate about how to try to salvage them. For now, they had them lying horizontally and they had touched them as little as possible.
The oils had held up okay, although the canvases would have to be restretched over new frames. But the watercolors had bled into swirls. One that she knew had been of the ocean now resembled something Henry might do with finger paints.
Someone brought sub sandwiches. When this was over, she might never eat a sub sandwich again.
>
Mrs. Crawford returned home and her anguish at the loss had been borne by Mr. Crawford, but they could all hear her cries. When the worst was over, Mama Drake had brought her a glass of tea and a slice of banana bread and now sat with her on the porch.
The guys took turns playing with Henry, who was having the time of his life. He was walked all over his grandparents’ property. He got wagon rides and long swings on the porch swing with Papa Drake, and Caroline kept looking.
“How’s it going?” She didn’t look up. Jason had checked on her every fifteen minutes. It was almost annoying.
Almost.
“I don’t know. Looking for a needle that may or may not exist? How do you ever know if you’re done?”
She pulled the lid off another box, and the sides gave way. Stuffed animals from Stephanie’s childhood spilled to the floor.
“Hey.” Jason knelt beside her, one hand resting on her knee. “You’re doing great. And you’re doing all you can do. No one can ask more of you, Caroline.”
She looked into his face. What would she do when he disappeared from her life again? She pulled a small metal box out of the stuffed animals. She opened it and found an assortment of paintbrushes and markers.
“What is it?” Jason asked.
“I remember this box,” she said. “Stephanie carried it all through elementary school. Some of these pens wrote in invisible ink. And one of them had a secret compartment. We used to pretend we were spies…”
She picked up the pen.
Could it be?
She pulled off the end and turned it upside down.
A mini SD card fell into her hand. As small as a fingernail. Still dry.
“I’m guessing you guys didn’t hide stuff on mini SD cards in elementary school,” Jason said, reaching for the tiny chip.
“No.”
“We may have found the needle.”
Caroline stared at it. If Stephanie were standing here, she would strangle her. Could she have made it any harder?
The ring in the teddy bear’s ribbon. The SD card in the box with all the other stuffed animals, in the pen that Caroline would recognize as a hiding place. That would have made sense to Stephanie. She probably thought it would be obvious. Or more likely, she thought she was hiding things no one would ever really need to find.
Kyle emerged with a laptop and a card reader and an adapter to plug the SD card into the USB port of the laptop.
Who kept something like that on them? “Were you a Boy Scout?”
“Eagle Scout.” He nodded toward the laptop. “This is what I do, Caroline. Now let’s see what this baby tells us.”
While he loaded the disk into the computer, Caroline asked, “Have you been able to find anything on the crest?”
He frowned at the screen. “No. I think it may be a proof.”
Jason seemed to like that statement, but it didn’t make any sense to her.
“A proof?”
“Like in the Bible when Tamar tricked Judah. The person who owned this is the man. That kind of thing. The ring has several very unique features. The crest may not be that unusual, but there are some old markings on the band that would be hard to fake or replicate. It would be difficult to backtrack the ring to the owner, but if we find out who Henry’s dad was, that ring may be the proof.”
“Seems like a paternity test would be a little more conclusive.”
“It would,” Jason agreed. “But the ring may make the family more willing to cooperate.”
Caroline’s mouth went dry. “The family?”
Henry had a family out there somewhere. She’d always known this. His father didn’t exist in a vacuum. He didn’t appear out of thin air. He had parents, maybe siblings. Maybe even other children. People who might be very interested in Henry.
But Stephanie hadn’t wanted them involved in Henry’s life. And here she was, hunting them down as if their lives depended on it.
Which they did.
“Here we go,” Kyle said. He turned the screen to Caroline. “Seems like you should read it first.”
“Thanks.”
She adjusted the monitor. A basic word processing document filled the screen.
She read.
Lee told me never to write it down. But tonight, I feel compelled to share the story. Just in case something ever happens to me. More than likely this file will wind up in a landfill somewhere when my kids toss all my old stuff after I die. So be it.
I loved Lee so much. He swept me off my feet, and even after everything that happened, I have no regrets.
I don’t know the full story. I know that he was born out of wedlock. His mother adored him and didn’t tell him who his birth father was until she was dying. Finally she admitted she’d fallen in love with a married man. When she found out she was pregnant, she never thought twice about whether or not she would keep him.
Lee’s father knew about him, but he’d returned to his wife and family, and Lee’s mom never had any contact with him. Still, every now and then some money would be deposited into her checking account. Sometimes as much as several thousand dollars. She suspected it was Lee’s father. She never saw it as bribery to keep silent. She still loved him and had no desire to ruin him. She saw it as his attempt to help take care of his son.
She saved every dime of it and used it to pay for his college education.
Lee’s father’s wife passed away six years ago. After her death, he approached Lee’s mom and asked about meeting Lee. She refused. He told her he respected her decision, but that he intended to put Lee in his will, and she should at least let Lee know so it wouldn’t be a complete shock upon his death.
The night he told me this story, he confessed over the years he’d suspected that he was being watched from time to time. He wanted to believe it was his father, keeping an eye on him. But he also feared it might be his half brother, scheming to make sure Lee’s existence didn’t come to light.
A few nights before he was arrested, he told me he’d been certain someone was watching him as he drove to work. He was worried. We’d just found out I was pregnant, and he was afraid for me and the baby. He begged me to go home for a month or so while he figured out what was going on.
I was heartbroken. If it hadn’t been for Henry, I would have refused. But I decided I could visit Mom and Dad for a week.
Two days later, he called me from jail. He’d been arrested. Broken taillight and drugs in his car. He’d never even smoked a cigarette, much less a joint. He told me they kept calling him Charles. That they had a driver’s license with his picture but not his name. He told me he didn’t know what was going on, but to stay away.
Then I saw in the news that he’d been killed in jail. I panicked. I know I should have told someone that I suspected he’d been killed deliberately. But I didn’t.
I knew his main concern would have been that I protect Henry. My prayer is that someday there will be justice for Lee. If you are reading this, the man you want to talk to is Frederick Larrabie Jr. He’s from Raleigh. He’s Henry’s grandfather. He shouldn’t be too hard to find. He’s one of the richest men in the country.
Caroline leaned back in her chair.
“It’s the money. He’s the heir to a fortune.” She looked at Jason. “And somebody doesn’t want him to have it.”
*
Jason stared at the screen. Freddie Larrabie? His palms twitched as he considered the implications. He wanted to tell Caroline she was wrong, but he had a bad feeling that Caroline was dead-on. Someone had figured out that Lee was the illegitimate son of Frederick Larrabie. And they knew about Henry.
But there was no way Frederick Larrabie was involved in the attacks. Please don’t let him be involved in this.
“Now what?” Caroline glared at the computer, then at him and Kyle. “I’ll tell you one thing. Nobody had better suggest we meet with these people. They are not getting Henry. Not a chance.”
“I need to make a phone call,” Jason blurted out.
Caroli
ne narrowed her eyes at him. “Now?”
“Now.”
“Who do you need to call?”
Jason couldn’t believe he was saying this. “My father.”
He didn’t hang around to talk to her about it. He didn’t give himself time to talk himself out of it. He walked into the yard and dialed the number.
“Jason?” His father didn’t hide his delight. “I’m glad you called.”
Jason fought to keep his tone polite and respectful. He needed information. “I’m calling on official business, sir.”
“Okay.” A trace of disappointment lingered in the word. “How can I help?”
“I need to know everything you know about Frederick Larrabie. Particularly about his family.”
“Freddie? Why?”
“I…can’t get into it right now.”
He waited. His father had played golf with Freddie Larrabie for the past twenty years. He knew his dad had gone on several business trips with the man—mainly because his father never missed an opportunity to brag about it.
“Okay. Want to meet for supper?”
Jason gulped. He’d known his father would do this—agree to help only in exchange for something he wanted. It was always this way. But this was not the time to fight with his birth father.
He glanced back at Caroline. He’d do it for her. He’d do anything for her. Even have supper with his birth father. “Where?”
“How about Hot Dog World. In an hour?”
At least he’d get a decent meal out of it. “Okay. See you there.”
He slid the phone into his pocket. Caroline’s hand on his arm startled him.
“Why did you call your father?” Caroline never referred to his birth father as his dad. She’d always respected the distinction.
“He knows Freddie Larrabie.”
Her breath caught. “How do you know?”
Fair question. He’d spent most of his childhood, and adulthood for that matter, trying to stay as far out of his father’s business as possible.
“My father is a name-dropper. Freddie Larrabie is a big name to drop.”
Caroline didn’t say anything. “Do you think he’ll help us?”
Hidden Legacy Page 13