Chapter 5 - Robert Married Margaret for Protection
A letter from Robert explained the arrangement.
Samuel’s shares passed largely to Margaret because their divorce had
never been finalized.
Eleanor wanted those shares returned to Whitmore control.
Robert believed marrying Margaret would make it harder for Eleanor to
isolate or pressure her.
“At first, our marriage was practical,” Margaret admitted.
“Did you love him?” David asked.
“Eventually, completely.”
The answer was messy enough to sound true.
But Hannah’s existence complicated Samuel’s estate.
As his biological daughter, she should have inherited part of what
Margaret received.
Margaret knew that.
Hannah looked at her.
“You didn’t only hide me because you were scared of Eleanor.”
Margaret cried.
“No.”
“You also benefited.”
“Yes.”
No excuse followed.
That mattered.
Then investigators reopened the old warehouse-fire records.
The official cause had been an electrical fault.
But photographs showed the fire started near a locked records room.
Samuel and a night supervisor, Peter Walsh, died near that room.
Peter’s daughter Claire remembered her father calling home shortly
before the fire.
“He said, ‘Mr. Brooks found the books. If anything happens, Robert has
copies.’”
David turned to Margaret.
“Did Dad have them?”
Margaret went pale.
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
Laura remembered seeing Margaret searching David’s study before
Thanksgiving dinner.
“What were you looking for?”
Margaret finally admitted it.
“Robert’s old Bible.”
Behind a removable panel in David’s study bookcase, they found it.
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And inside the Bible were coded references to a bank box Robert had kept
active until his death.
