Chapter 4 - THE SECRET INSIDE LILY'S FAVORITE BOOK
Grace Harper had never seen Michael look so shaken.
She stood in the doorway of his study, still wearing her housekeeping uniform, while he held Thomas's final note.
“Why didn't you tell me about the book?”
Grace's face went pale.
“Thomas's book?”
“Yes.”
She looked toward Walter.
Then back at Michael.
“I didn't know you were supposed to receive anything.”
Michael handed her the note.
Grace read it slowly.
Her hand moved to her mouth.
“Oh, Thomas.”
For several seconds, she couldn't speak.
Then she explained.
Shortly before his death, her husband had come home carrying a children's picture book called The Little Lighthouse.
He told Lily it was a special present.
He also made Grace promise that she would never throw it away.
“I thought he wanted Lily to have something to remember him by.”
“Where is it?”
“In her bedroom.”
Grace hesitated.
“Mr. Bennett, what exactly is happening?”
Michael looked at her.
“I believe Thomas found evidence against the people who attacked me.”
Grace grabbed the back of a chair.
Her expression changed from confusion to fear.
“Then his death wasn't an accident?”
“I don't know yet.”
He refused to offer certainty he didn't have.
Grace took a long breath.
Then she went upstairs.
Lily returned holding a worn blue picture book with a drawing of a lighthouse on its cover.
“Mommy says you need Daddy's book.”
Michael smiled gently.
“May I look at it?”
“Only if you don't tear it. It's my favorite.”
“I'll be careful.”
With Grace's permission, they examined the book.
The pages looked ordinary.
A little lighthouse keeper.
A storm.
A boat returning home.
Then Grace noticed something strange about the back cover.
The cardboard was slightly thicker than the front.
Thomas had carefully glued two layers together.
Hidden between them was a folded sheet of paper.
And a small storage key.
Grace began crying when she recognized her husband's handwriting.
The paper listed several dates.
Payments.
Company names.
And one location.
Locker 204, Union Station.
Michael studied the financial entries.
Some matched the suspicious foundation transactions Daniel had described.
One payment had been made three days before Michael's ambush.
Another appeared immediately afterward.
A third was dated the night Thomas died.
All three went through a contractor called Northpoint Protective Services.
Michael looked at Daniel.
“Who owns Northpoint?”
His brother checked his phone.
Then went very still.
“Richard Fletcher has an interest in it through a holding company.”
Michael closed his eyes.
For two years, he had believed the ambush was retaliation from a rival crew.
Now it appeared the money used to organize it had moved through his own foundation.
His own charitable institution.
The one created to help vulnerable families had apparently helped finance violence against him.
Grace sat beside Lily and held her tightly.
“I want to know what happened to Thomas.”
Michael looked at her.
“So do I.”
But as Daniel examined the paper, he noticed one more detail.
There was a fourth payment.
Much larger than the others.
It had been authorized after Thomas died.
The recipient was not Northpoint.
It was a private account bearing Daniel Bennett's own name.
Michael slowly turned toward his brother.
“Daniel, why did you receive two million dollars three days after Thomas's funeral?”
May you like
Daniel's face drained of color.
For the first time, Michael wondered whether the betrayal had begun much closer to home than Richard Fletcher.
