“This is all I have left of the Mandy I knew before she dropped out of school and became the woman I’ve tried so hard to forget,” she said, guilt plaguing the very sound of her voice.
She set the box down on a table in the entryway and opened it. “I would like you to take this to her daughters if you don’t mind.”
“May I?” Trevor asked nodding toward the box for approval to search through it.
“Of course.”
Inside the box were pictures of a little girl looking up at him who remarkably looked like one of Carissa’s daughters. He couldn’t remember which one, but the face was the same. She was swimming, holding a sparkler on the Fourth of July, and sitting on her father’s knee in the pictures. The ribbon from the art show her mother had told him about was in the box along with small trinkets and memorabilia from Mandy’s youth.
“Are you sure you want to part with these?”
“Yes. I’m sure whatever those girls know about Mandy isn’t good. Maybe this will shed some light on who she started out as.”
And that, he thought as he assured her they would appreciate it, was what Hope had been looking for.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Hope turned off the lights in the store as Thomas and Carissa walked through the door.
“Ready to go?” Carissa stepped inside.
“Yes. Will you at least let me go by my place and get a few things?” Hope pleaded.
“Of course. But I’m going in with you,” Carissa demanded.
“I wouldn’t have expected anything else.” She followed Thomas and her sister out and locked the door behind them.
“Does this look familiar?” Thomas stood at the curb by the car, holding a wrinkled piece of paper that had a tire track on it. He handed it to Hope.
She studied it and felt the pang of guilt pierce her chest when she realized it was one of Trevor’s lists. Unwilling to share any more information, Hope folded it and tucked it into her purse and hoped there would be no more questions about it. “It must be something Trevor dropped when he left yesterday. I’ll talk to him about it when he gets home.” She opened the door to the car and climbed in back.
She hated keeping secrets from her sister. And how careless of Trevor to drop such an important piece of information. She’d give him some credit; he was rushing out when he’d left.
Thomas pulled to the curb in front of Hope’s apartment and parked the car.
“Why don’t you wait for us? We’ll be right out.” Carissa gave her husband a quick kiss along with the instruction before she climbed from the car. Hope followed her toward the apartment and let them in.
As soon as Hope turned on the light Carissa put her hand out. “Let me see it.”
“See what?”
“The paper Thomas found. What are you two up to?”
Hope huffed out a breath and shook her head. She reached into her purse and pulled out the paper.
“These are phone numbers and addresses of banks.” Carissa glanced at her.
“In the things that I have that were Mandy’s, we found a key to a safe-deposit box.”
“A safe-deposit box? Why would someone like her have one of those?”
Hope shrugged. “That’s what we’re trying to find out. Just a little piece to our puzzle.”
“Where’s the key?”
Hope hesitated. “In the box on the table.”
She led Carissa to the table, where the box she and Trevor had gone through still sat. She pulled out the key and the piece of paper from the wallet and handed them to Carissa. Her sister was frowning at the paper. “Is this an account number?”
“I don’t know. That was what Trevor was trying to find out when he left.”
“Hope.” She looked up. “Do you think this is why Trevor’s room was broken into?”
“What could be so important that they would break into houses and hotel rooms? She didn’t have anything.”
Carissa tapped her foot and bit at her lip. “Listen. I talked to Trevor about Mandy’s mother. If he’s looking into some of those leads, maybe someone realized he knew something about Mandy. Maybe Mandy had something.”
Hope’s eyes flew open wide. “You’re talking to Trevor about Mandy? I thought you didn’t want me to do this.” Anger shook in her voice with the betrayal of her sister’s confession.
“I just wanted him to be careful about who he sought out.”
“Wait.” Hope held her hand up to her sister. “You knew who Mandy’s mother was?”
Carissa cringed. “Hope, this isn’t important.”
“Yes it is.” She took the key from her sister and the piece of paper that Trevor had written on. “You can’t tell me not to find these people when you already know about them. That’s not fair.”
“Hope, let it go.”
“No! How do you know Mandy’s mother? I thought you didn’t know anyone but Mandy.”
“I didn’t. I mean I don’t.” She blew out a ragged breath. “Listen, when I was fifteen I looked up her mother. Yes, I wanted to know there was more to her than the coke addict who ditched me.” A crease formed in her forehead as her brows drew together. “Anyway, I called Mandy’s mother. She was mean and rude. She told me to never contact her again and then she hung up on me.”
“That’s it?”
“That’s it.” Carissa took a step closer to her. “Listen, if Trevor contacted her, then maybe she came after him.”
“Some seventy-year-old lady is going to go about destroying his home and office?”
“Maybe not personally.”
Hope nodded. “We need to find that safe-deposit box.”
“What about Trevor?”
“He won’t be back until Saturday morning. We have one day to do this.”
Carissa pressed the palm of her head to her forehead and rubbed. “Okay. But we don’t tell Thomas. He’ll freak out if he knows I decided to help you.”
Hope’s smiled, grateful to have Carissa’s help. “You’re amazing. You never have let me down.”
“I don’t plan to start either, no matter how I feel about doing this. C’mon. Get your stuff and get what you need of Mandy’s, and let’s go.”
Trevor sat at the kitchen table with his father and Bryce. They each took pulls from their beers as they studied the cards in their hands.
“Who dealt this?” Brandon Jacobs shook his head.
“That would be you, old man.”
“Watch it, Bryce, or you’ll wake up naked in the ditch with no sign of your money.”
“There is already no sign of my money,” he whined, and Brandon laughed. “Okay, slacker.” He nodded toward Trevor. “You in or out?”
“Out.” He threw his cards on the table, picked up his beer, and paced the kitchen.
“This is no fun if you’re not in with us.” Brandon set down his cards. “What’s wrong, son?”
“Nothing.”
“He misses his girlfriend.” Bryce threw down his cards and swigged his beer. “I think we need to take him out back and beat him, just for the sport.”
Brandon raised his brows in consideration.
“You’ll do no such thing.” Violet walked through the kitchen, slapping Bryce on the back of the head. “He’s allowed to miss her.”
“Thanks, Mom.”
Violet smiled and patted his cheek. “So is that what’s wrong? You miss your girlfriend?” she asked in the same patronizing tone Bryce had used, and they laughed at Trevor’s expense.
He shook his head and finished his beer. Then he said quietly, “Yeah. I really do.”
“Well, you patched things up with the redhead. I guess you can go back.” Bryce rolled his eyes at him.
“Thanks,” he said with a nod in Bryce’s direction. “But I’m staying there.”
“ I thought you’d changed your mind.”
“You’re moving to Kansas City?” Violet opened the refrigerator and took out a beer. She handed it to Trevor, who opened it for her and passed it back. She took a
sip, her eyes still steady on his.
“I am. It’s where I want to be. I want to be with her, Mom.”
She nodded and then a smile slid across her lips. “For some reason when you took this case I knew you were never coming back. Fate is a strong thing.”
“I know.”
“As long as you’re happy.”
“I am.”
“Great.” Bryce lifted his beer. “Your dad has all my money. Your girl gets you for a roommate, and what do I have?”
“A new lead on a hit and run?” Violet interjected.
“You have a job for me?” When she nodded, he jerked his thumb over his shoulder and grinned at Trevor. “Go. I don’t need you.. Mom will take care of me now. She always did love me more.” Bryce winked at Violet.
Brandon slapped him on the back of the head just as Violet had done earlier. “Better deal another hand of cards so I can take more of your money, and then you can think about winking at my wife again.”
Hope watched her sister take command of the morning ritual at their home from her place at the kitchen table. Thomas hadn’t questioned Carissa when she’d instructed him to take the kids to school, the little ones to her mother’s, and get to work early. As soon as he left, Carissa dropped a box on the kitchen table. Hope watched silently as her sister filled a cup of coffee then piled her hair atop her head and secured it with band before sitting down at the table.
Hope gave a nod to the box. “What is this?”
“It’s what I have.”
Carissa took the lid off the box, and Hope leaned forward to look inside. There were a handful of photographs of Carissa as a little girl. A few scribbled drawings she’d made with crayons.
Carissa pulled out a large envelope, which was tucked inside. She handed it to Hope.
“Dad gave this to me when I was eighteen. It’s between you and me now. I don’t think he ever even told Mom about it.”
Hope opened the envelope with shaky fingers and let the contents slide onto the table. She let out a sigh. It was another secret between her family.
There was the original copy of Mandy’s death certificate, copies of the newspaper clippings from her death notices, and two envelopes with Carissa’s name on them.
“What are these?” Hope held up the envelopes.
“This one is a letter from Katie,” she said as she took the envelope with their grandmother’s handwriting on it. “She wrote it about the time you were born, but I didn’t get it until she died. Mom found it in her things.”
Carissa opened the letter and scanned her eyes over it before handing it to Hope.
My Dearest Carissa,
Today you became my legal great-granddaughter. I am so pleased to call you that, though I have felt that you held that place in my heart since you arrived when you were seven years old. Now we have your sister too, and I consider myself doubly blessed. I want you to know how much I love you and I want you to make sure your sister knows how much I love her too. I may not be around long enough to let her know myself.
Hope wiped at the tears that had run down her face, and looked up to see Carissa wiping her eyes too.
“Yes, I’m crying. I know what the thing says,” she said with a smile. Carissa nodded to the letter. “Keep going.”
I wanted to tell you that I’ve done something, and perhaps it was a mistake, but I thought you should know. After Hope’s birth and your mother’s death, I wrote to Mandy’s mother and told her that Mandy had died. I thought she might have liked to know. I told her that she’d had another baby too.
As of yet I haven’t heard from her.
The reason I’m telling you this is in case my fate to join my Charlie and my dearest friend Millie is soon, I wanted you to know what I’d done. If Mrs. Marlow comes looking for you, you’ll know how she found you.
I don’t know how anyone could know they have granddaughters as wonderful as you and your sister and not want to meet you. I suppose that is her loss and my gain.
I love you and your sister very much. I want only the best for you both.
Love,
Grandma Katie
Hope put the letter down in front of her and ran her fingers over it. She swallowed the last of her tears, missing her great-grandmother.
“So Mandy’s mother knows about us?”
Carissa nodded. “Feeling a little let down?”
Hope shrugged. She wasn’t sure what to feel.
“Here,” Carissa said, handing her the other envelope. “This one’s from Dad.”
Hope opened the envelope with their father’s handwriting on the front.
Carissa scooted her chair closer to Hope. “Since Mandy died a few months before I turned eighteen, he waited to close out some of her things. He turned power of attorney over to me so I could do it. I think he thought it would help me not be so angry at her. That’s the book to her savings account. When I closed it out there was enough money for me to go to college on.”
Hope remained silent and again her hands began to shake.
Carissa let out a breath. “I took the money. I was mad. That’s how I paid for college because I felt she owed it to me. She’d pawned me off from the moment I was born until I found Dad, and then she vanished a few years later. I thought I’d take what I could. But Hope, I never thought to find out why she had that much money in her account.”
“Do you think this is where the safe-deposit box is?”
“It would be a great place to start looking. And…” She smiled. “The bank isn’t in Kansas City, so Trevor might have never found it.”
“Where’s the bank?”
“Jefferson City.”
Hope listened as Carissa made the phone call to the bank where she’d closed out Mandy’s accounts almost twenty-three years ago. The man on the phone confirmed the number Carissa had read to him was an account number, but without identification and proof of power of attorney, he wouldn’t confirm that the number belonged to Mandy.
Carissa reached for Hope’s hand and gave it a squeeze. “We have a two-and-a-half-hour drive ahead of us. We should make it by one o’clock.”
Hope nodded. Her mouth had gone dry.
Twenty minutes from Jefferson City, Hope’s phone rang. Carissa shook her head before Hope answered the phone. “Don’t tell him what we’re doing. Not yet.”
Hope nodded, then answered. “Hello, handsome.”
“I called your shop. Your mom said she was covering for you today. Are you okay?” There was a hint of worry in his voice and she didn’t like it.
“I’m fine. Carissa and I are spending the day together. You know, girl stuff.”
“Sounds nice. I had some man time myself last night. Cost me fifty bucks. Hurts more when you play cards and lose to your own father.”
Hope laughed. She was missing him terribly. “When do you get in tomorrow?”
“Ten. I know you’re working so I’ll either get a car or a cab.”
“Dad said he’d cover for me. I’ll be there. I’ve missed you too much not to be waiting for you.”
“I never thought I’d have someone who longed to pick me up from the airport.”
“You have me,” she said softly then said goodbye as Carissa took the exit from the highway that would lead them toward the bank.
“Keep your eyes peeled,” Carissa instructed as she slowly drove down the street in search of the bank. “Some of these buildings weren’t here twenty-three years ago.”
“So, seriously, there was enough money for you to go through school on?”
“Seriously. There was over a hundred thousand in the account when I closed it. I never told Dad just how much was in there. I put a lot of it away, paid my way through school, and when I was ready to open the school I used the money I had left to put a down payment on the building.”
That was a lot of money for a woman who’d lived in a cheap motel.
“There it is,” Carissa said as she made the turn into the parking lot.
Hope’s heart ra
te picked up as they neared the bank. “I’m afraid to go in here.”
“Why? She can’t hurt us know.”
Hope nodded and turned to her sister. “What do we do if we find something?”
“Then we deal with it.” She covered Hope’s hand with hers. “Whatever we find is only material and belongs to someone who didn’t care about us. Let’s go see what it is.”
Hope nodded in agreement and then raised her hand to the charm that hung from her neck. The Saint Nicholas medal had kept her mother, sister, and her safe for years. She gave it a squeeze, hoping it would still work even though she was grown.
Peter Westfall met them in the lobby of the bank and escorted them to his office.
“I have her death certificate as well as the power of attorney papers with me,” Carissa said as she laid them on his desk. “She had an account here that I closed, about twenty-three years ago.”
“But you didn’t close out the safe-deposit box?”
“I didn’t know about it until we found the key. I don’t even know if it’s from this bank. It was just a place to start.”
“The number you gave me this morning on the phone did match a box we have here. Do you have the key with you?”
Hope reached into her purse and pulled it out. She set it on the desk and Peter Westfall nodded.
“Wonderful. Well, let me get the other key and we’ll go into the vault and get your box.”
He left them in the office while he went for the other key. Hope grabbed for Carissa’s hand. “Why am I so scared?”
“It’s okay. Maybe the box is empty,” Carissa offered as Peter returned to the office and they followed him out.
They followed the man into the vault, passing a security guard at the door. Peter put in the key from the bank, and Carissa, with shaky hands, inserted the other key into the box. Each of them turned their keys and the box slid into Peter’s hands. He handed the box to Carissa.
Carissa shot Hope a glance and she knew it wasn’t empty.
Peter showed them to an adjacent room where they could open the box and go through it in private. He left them to the contents, shutting the door behind him.
Hope's Discovery (THE MATCHMAKER TRILOGY) Page 13