Chapter 10 - The House on Alder
Mara did not speak to June for several minutes after hearing the news. The bathroom fan rattled overhead. Somewhere in the apartment, the refrigerator clicked on.“You said Daniel was my father,” Mara finally said.June’s face tightened. “Daniel Bell was Rose’s husband.”Mara stood. “Rose’s husband?”“They were separated when she died.”“You had a child with him?”“Before Rose married him.”The facts arrived in pieces, each one making the next more painful.June explained that she and Daniel had been together briefly in 1979. He left for another state before Mara was born. Rose met him later, after June had ended the relationship. They married without knowing about the pregnancy.“Rose knew when you were born,” June said. “She chose not to tell Daniel because she believed Harold would use the information against us.”“Did Daniel know eventually?”“I don’t know.”“You don’t know?”“He died in a construction accident when you were three.”Mara walked to the window. Across the street, the courthouse looked solid and indifferent.“Harold knew.”“He found out through Pike.”“And he adopted me anyway.”“He wanted to control the story.”“He wanted to own me.”June did not correct her.The next morning, Detective Ortega arranged for Mara and June to meet Reggie Sloan, a retired maintenance supervisor who had worked for Barlow Property Services in 1993. He lived in a narrow house on Alder Street with a porch crowded by potted plants.Reggie opened the door before they knocked twice.“June Bell,” he said.June stopped on the walkway.“Nobody has called me that in a long time.”“I know.”Reggie invited them inside. He had a hearing aid in one ear and a framed photograph of the old Barlow office above the fireplace.“I kept the picture because the building was beautiful before they ruined it,” he said.Mara studied the photograph. Rose stood near the entrance, holding a clipboard. June stood beside her. Behind them, a blue metal ledger cabinet was visible through an open office door.“You knew about the ledger?” Mara asked.“I knew Rose kept one. She trusted numbers more than people.”“What happened the night of the fire?”Reggie poured coffee into three chipped mugs. “I was called to shut off the gas line. The fire department said the blaze began near the loading bay, but the electrical panel was on the other side of the building.”“Did you tell anyone?”“I told Harold.”“What did he say?”“He said I should be grateful to have a job.”Reggie went to a filing cabinet and removed a plastic folder. Inside was a maintenance ticket.“This was for Rose’s car,” he said. “She brought it in two days before the crash.”Mara read the note. BRAKE FLUID LOW. CHECK LINE BEFORE RELEASE.“Who worked on it?”“Nobody.”“Why not?”“Harold told me to leave it. Said she was taking the car to another shop.”“Did she?”“Not according to the invoice.”Reggie handed Mara a second paper. It listed a cash payment to a mechanic named Curtis Vale.“Vale wasn’t employed here,” Reggie said. “He showed up after midnight the evening before the crash.”“Did you see him?”“I saw Harold let him into the garage.”June gripped the edge of the table.“Why didn’t you go to the police?” she asked.Reggie looked at her. “Because I had two daughters, a mortgage, and no proof that a rich man had done anything except make a bad decision.”“You knew Rose was alive after the crash,” Mara said.“I drove past the hospital.”“Why?”“Because Harold was there. He told me she had been asking for me.”“Did you speak to her?”“No. Pike stopped me in the hall.”Reggie opened a drawer and removed a sealed envelope.“He gave me this,” he said. “Told me to keep it until someone asked the right question.”Mara looked at the envelope. Her name was written across the front.“Why would Rose write to me?”“She didn’t. Pike did.”Priya had instructed Mara not to open anything alone, so she photographed the envelope and called Ortega. He arrived twenty minutes later with a second investigator.Under the envelope flap was a hospital visitor pass dated three days after the crash. The name printed on it was Nolan Pike.Inside was a photocopy of a hospital discharge note. Rose Bell had suffered severe injuries but was conscious and oriented. The note recorded that she had requested to speak with an investigator and had refused visitors except Evelyn Bell.The final page was a handwritten statement from a nurse.Rose told me the man who damaged her car was not a stranger. She said he was the father of her sister’s child.Mara read the sentence until the words blurred.“Harold was my father,” she said.June reached for her, but Mara stepped away.“Why did Rose call him the father of her sister’s child?”“Because that was what he was.”“You and Harold were together before you married him?”June’s silence answered.“You had me with Harold,” Mara said.“Yes.”“And then he let you believe I was Daniel’s child?”“He threatened to take you from me.”Ortega took the statement from Mara. “This is significant.”“It’s also incomplete,” Mara said. “It doesn’t tell us why Rose died.”Reggie looked toward the fireplace.“She died because the hospital transferred her,” he said.Everyone turned to him.“Transferred her where?”“A private rehabilitation facility outside the county. Pike said it was better for her.”“Was it?”“No. The facility had a contract with Voss Holdings.”Reggie’s voice dropped. “Rose never wanted to go. She had a fever. She kept asking for Evelyn.”Mara felt the room tilt.“Who signed the transfer?”Reggie looked at June.“You did,” he said.June’s face went white.At the bottom of the nurse’s statement, beneath the final line, someone had added a note in blue ink.Transfer authorized by E. Bell, witnessed by N. Pike.Mara looked at her mother.For the first time, June seemed afraid not of Caleb, not of Pike, but of the possibility that she had helped send Rose toward her death.
