“That’s what gets interesting.”
The forty-two thousand had moved through Fallow Bridge and split three ways.
Twelve thousand to Dr.
Ellis Crane.
My throat tightened.
Ten thousand to a life-insurance broker.
And twenty thousand—
Quade paused.
“Went to a law office.”
“What law office?”
“Kessler, Rowe and Finch.”
My mother made a strange sound beside me.
I looked at her.
“You know them?”
She shook her head too quickly.
“No.”
Quade continued.
“They specialize in trusts, inheritance disputes and beneficiary litigation.”
I looked at the old trust documents on the table.
So Preston did know.
My death was financial architecture.
Every part had been arranged.
The doctor.
The policy.
The estate.
The certification.
The burial.
Then Quade said, “There’s more.”
I waited.
“Preston met someone from that firm seven times in five months.”
“Who?”
“I’m working on it.”
My mother suddenly stood.
“I need air.”
She went outside.
I watched through the window.
Her shoulders were shaking.
At the time, I believed she was grieving.
Later, I would remember that moment differently.
4. THE BOY WHO KEPT DRAWING THE DEAD
Julian stopped sleeping after my funeral.
Sabine told everyone he was traumatized because he had seen my body.
But children are inconvenient witnesses.
They remember things adults assume they will forget.
My mother arranged to see him.
She told Sabine she wanted time with her grandson.
Sabine agreed.
Probably because she was exhausted.
Deborah brought Julian to the cottage without telling him why.
When he stepped inside and saw me standing by the fireplace, he screamed.
Then he ran at me so hard he nearly knocked me over.
“You’re not dead!”
I held him.
“No.”
“I told them!”
“I know.”
“They said I was imagining it.”
“I know.”
He cried into my sweatshirt.
I hated Sabine then in a different way.
Not for trying to kill me.
For teaching her son not to trust his own eyes.
When he calmed down, I made him hot chocolate.
Julian kept staring at me.
“You’re a ghost?”
“No.”
“Then how?”
“Some people made a very bad choice.”
“My mom?”
Children can destroy you with three words.
I hesitated.
