Chapter 5 - THE BRACELET
Arthur walked slowly toward us, his limp more pronounced than it had been twenty years ago.
Robert took a step back, the wooden rosary dangling forgotten from his fingers. “Arthur, shut your mouth. You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I know everything, Robert,” the old mechanic said gruffly. He turned to me, his eyes filled with decades of sorrow. “Caroline, your mother was a saint. Don't you ever believe differently.”
“Arthur, please,” I begged, my hands shaking as I held the bloody bracelet. “What happened that night? Did Dorothy move Evelyn’s body?”
“Evelyn wasn’t a body,” Arthur said firmly. “When Dorothy walked into that garage, Robert was standing over Evelyn with a wrench. Evelyn was bleeding, yes, but she was breathing. Robert was the one refusing to call an ambulance. He wanted her to bleed out so he could take her shares.”
I felt the air leave the room. My husband wasn't just a coward; he was a monster.
“Dorothy fought him off,” Arthur continued. “She threw him out of his own shop. Then she called me. We loaded Evelyn into the back seat of the Thunderbird. That’s how the bracelet got stuck in the seat tracks. Dorothy drove her three towns over to a private clinic.”
Answer one: My mother didn’t cover up a murder; she saved Evelyn’s life.
Open two: If Evelyn survived, where had she been for twenty years? And why didn't she ever contact Vanessa?
Robert let out a desperate, ugly laugh. “This is insane! If Evelyn lived, why didn’t she go to the police? Why did she let me keep the company?”
Arthur looked at Robert with pure disgust. “Because you threatened her daughter, Robert. You told Evelyn if she ever showed her face again, you’d make sure little Vanessa had a terrible accident. Evelyn stayed away to protect her child.”
A heartbreaking sob echoed in the lobby.
Vanessa was standing by the archway. She had followed Arthur. Her mascara was running down her cheeks, her champagne gown suddenly looking like a tragic costume.
“My mother gave me up... to save me?” Vanessa whispered, collapsing against the wall.
All the anger I had felt toward Vanessa evaporated. She wasn't a homewrecker tonight. She was an orphan whose tragedy had been manipulated by the very man who caused it.
“Arthur,” I said gently, walking toward him. “Where is Evelyn now?”
Arthur reached into his jacket pocket. “She passed away from cancer five years ago. Dorothy paid for her care until the very end.”
Arthur pulled out a folded piece of paper and handed it to my daughter.
“Dorothy asked me to hold onto this until the truth came out,” Arthur said. “It’s a child's drawing. Lily, you drew it for your Grandma when you were eight.”
Lily took the paper. I looked over her shoulder. It was a crayon drawing of the blue Thunderbird.
But when Lily flipped it over, there was no crayon.
It was a printed map.
A map of the sprawling Rosewood Cemetery on the edge of town.
A bright red X was marked over a specific mausoleum.
“That’s not where Evelyn is buried,” Vanessa said, wiping her eyes and staring at the map. “I looked up the public records years ago. She was cremated.”
“She was,” Arthur agreed. “The map isn't for a grave. It’s for what Dorothy hid inside that mausoleum.”
Robert suddenly lunged forward, knocking Arthur to the floor. He snatched the Thunderbird keys from my hands before I could react and sprinted toward the hotel’s front doors.
“He’s going to the cemetery!” Vanessa screamed.
But as Robert hit the revolving doors, I noticed something fall from his collar.
A heavy, gold necklace.
May you like
I recognized it instantly. It was the custom necklace Evelyn had worn the night she disappeared.
“Robert didn't just threaten her,” I whispered, staring at the gold chain on the floor. “He visited her at the clinic.”
