Chapter 6 - THE SECOND ENVELOPE
Police obtained a warrant for Arthur’s office after Celeste’s photograph and the forged post-death signature.
The wall safe was empty when they arrived.
Arthur said Celeste staged the image to damage him after an argument.
Celeste disappeared from her apartment.
Her car remained in the garage.
Her passport was missing.
Nora warned us not to decide whether she was frightened, guilty, or both.
The first envelope stayed sealed while Arthur’s appeal continued.
The notebook had been photographed page by page but was written in abbreviations, dates, and number strings.
The recorder required a six-digit code.
Mom had not left the code anywhere obvious.
I became obsessed with solving it.
Rachel wanted me to stop.
“Every time you look at Mom’s papers, you stop hearing us.”
She was right.
I had begun acting as if solving the secret could bring Mom back.
The next morning I made my worst mistake.
I left Grandpa’s house without permission and took a bus to Mom’s old storage unit. I believed the recorder code might be hidden in a birthday box she kept there.
Someone followed me.
I heard footsteps between the storage rows and locked myself inside the unit.
A man tried the handle.
“Lucy,” he called. “Your father just wants the purple bag.”
I called 911.
Police arrived before the door opened.
The man escaped through a loading exit.
Security footage showed only a baseball cap and gray jacket.
Grandpa found me sitting among Mom’s boxes.
He did not yell.
His disappointment was worse.
“You have two younger sisters watching whether danger is something we face together or something you carry alone.”
“I thought I could help.”
“You endangered yourself and made them fear losing another person.”
I apologized to Rachel and April.
Inside the birthday box, police found no code.
They found a hotel receipt dated eight months earlier.
Mom had stayed there with Daniel Mercer, the missing trust lawyer.
Arthur used the receipt to accuse her of an affair.
The hotel’s meeting-room log gave a different explanation.
Mom, Mercer, a forensic accountant, and a notary had met for three hours.
The booking title was:
PROTECTION OF MINOR BENEFICIARIES.
Arthur’s affair accusation had hidden a financial meeting.
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Then the police found Celeste.
She was at the same hotel, waiting to speak with the forensic accountant.
