Chapter 9 - The Body Beneath the Celebration
Investigators broke through the second slab at dawn.
The body belonged to a woman.
She wore a hospital bracelet with the name Emma Reed.
Colonel Marcus Reed’s wife.
She disappeared five years earlier.
Officially, she left him.
In reality, she had discovered the stolen military accounts.
Rachel recognized her.
Emma helped her escape Wade’s first attempt to imprison her.
Wade killed Emma and buried her beneath the house before Diane purchased it.
Diane claimed she never knew.
Thomas’s map suggested otherwise.
One red mark beside the basement read:
D SAW BURIAL.
Dad asked her directly.
“Did you watch him bury Emma?”
Diane began shaking.
“He said she was already dead.”
“That does not answer me.”
“Yes.”
I turned away.
My mother had walked over that floor for years.
She hosted dinners above Emma’s body.
She planned a wedding above it.
She knew.
Detective Mills arrested her for concealing a death, financial conspiracy, and obstruction.
Diane did not resist.
As officers led her outside, she looked at me.
“I did terrible things.”
I said nothing.
“I loved you.”
I still said nothing.
Love was not a password that opened every locked door.
The wedding guests left in silence.
Decorations remained hanging across the house.
Flowers surrounded a crime scene.
Dad and I sat on the front steps as the morning sun appeared.
He still wore his uniform.
I still wore the dress my mother chose for her wedding.
He asked why I attacked Wade.
I finally told him.
Before the ceremony, Wade found me near the basement.
He whispered:
“Your father buried Thomas, and your mother buried Emma. Be good, or I’ll put you between them.”
Then he grabbed my neck.
I punched him until he let go.
Dad held me carefully.
“You did not try to slaughter him.”
“No.”
“You survived him.”
A military vehicle stopped at the curb.
Colonel Marcus Reed stepped out.
He looked at the house where his wife had been found.
Then he looked directly at Dad.
“You were ordered to stay away from this investigation.”
Dad stood.
May you like
Marcus’s hand moved toward his sidearm.
And behind him, Thomas Hale emerged from the vehicle.
