Chapter 4 - THE WOMAN EVERYONE THOUGHT WAS DEAD
Elizabeth Whitaker lived under another name in Virginia.
I stared at Evelyn.
“You held a funeral.”
“We buried an empty casket.”
“Why?”
“Because someone tried to kill her.”
I almost laughed from disbelief.
“Your entire family disappeared professionally.”
“We learned from yours.”
Fair.
Evelyn explained.
After Owen’s death, Elizabeth became obsessed with proving the barn fire was deliberate.
She found pieces of his financial research.
Then her car brakes failed on a mountain road.
She survived.
A family attorney arranged her disappearance.
Only Evelyn, the housekeeper, and two lawyers knew.
“Did she know about Sadie?”
“Yes.”
“Does Sadie know she’s alive?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because children cannot reveal secrets they don’t carry.”
I hated how sensible that was.
I hated more that it was necessary.
We called Elizabeth through an encrypted line.
Her first words:
“Is Sadie safe?”
“Yes,” Evelyn said.
Then I spoke.
“Mrs. Whitaker.”
Silence.
“Caleb.”
Not surprise.
Disappointment.
Familiar.
“You sound like your father.”
“People keep saying that.”
“You should hope they stop.”
Evelyn closed her eyes.
“Mom, Grant knows about Sadie.”
“He always knew.”
My jaw tightened.
“Why would he lure her onto the road now?”
Elizabeth hesitated.
“Because Owen’s ledger is about to surface.”
“What ledger?”
“The original horse-sale ledger.”
She explained that Owen tracked dozens of fake buyers used by Mercer companies.
Millions washed through inflated thoroughbred sales.
Grant organized much of it.
Thomas Mercer approved enough to make himself complicit.
“Owen planned to turn it over to federal investigators.”
“And died.”
“Yes.”
“Where is the ledger?”
“I don’t know.”
That surprised me.
“Owen never told you?”
“He said he hid it somewhere nobody from your world would ever look.”
Then Elizabeth said something stranger.
“Sadie may know.”
Evelyn stared.
“She was not even born.”
“No.”
“But Owen left a package addressed to Evelyn’s first child.”
My skin went cold.
“What?”
Elizabeth had kept it sealed.
Owen apparently suspected Evelyn was pregnant before she knew.
Inside the package was a carved wooden horse and a letter.
“When did you open it?” Evelyn asked.
“Last week.”
“Why?”
“Because someone broke into my house looking for it.”
Now the timing made sense.
Grant learned the Whitakers still possessed something.
Then suddenly Sadie received directions leading her onto a road.
“Where’s the horse?” I asked.
Elizabeth went quiet.
“Missing.”
“Taken?”
“No.”
“What does that mean?”
“I mailed it to Evelyn three days ago.”
Everyone looked toward the estate mail table.
Nothing had arrived.
Then the housekeeper entered.
“Miss Evelyn?”
Her face was pale.
“There was a package yesterday.”
Evelyn stood.
“Where?”
“I put it in the library.”
We ran.
The cardboard shipping box sat on a side table.
Opened.
Empty.
Someone inside Ashbourne had already taken the wooden horse.
Then Jonah called.
Grant Mercer had not come to Lexington.
His private plane left Kentucky forty minutes earlier.
Destination unknown.
But before departing, he sent one encrypted message to my phone.
Your father should have ended the Whitaker problem eight years ago.
May you like
Then another.
I won’t make the same mistake.
