Chapter 9 - The Locksmith Finds A Hidden Key
The locksmith returned because I wanted one final lock inspected.
Thomas’s home office had an old interior deadbolt.
While replacing it, the locksmith found a magnetic key box attached beneath a drawer.
Inside was a small brass key.
I had never seen it.
Police used it, with my consent, on Thomas’s locked filing cabinet.
It opened the bottom drawer.
Inside were copies of every document Claire had collected.
And a handwritten letter to me.
Evelyn,
If you are reading this because something happened, I made the mistake of waiting until I could give you certainty.
You deserved the truth before certainty.
I stopped.
That sentence hurt more than the fake affair text.
Thomas wrote that Daniel had been siphoning money and preparing fraudulent land-transfer documents.
Thomas believed someone inside our bank was helping.
He feared telling me would cause Daniel to accelerate the scheme.
So he involved Claire.
He knew I would interpret their secrecy badly if I discovered it.
He did it anyway.
The letter ended:
May you like
I am not having an affair with Claire. But if I come home safely, you still have every right to be furious with both of us.
For the first time that morning, I cried.
