“One stop,” Jack said into the telephone. “After that, I promise I’ll be home. I’ll come in and say good night.”
He dropped the phone into its cradle, satisfied that his wife and youngest daughter were placated for the evening. If he went home now, they would see the distraction in the creases of his face, the glaze in his eyes when he didn’t quite focus on whatever it was they would want to show him. It was better if he went now, even in the dark, to get the curiosity out of his system.
Jack stacked the four pages of notes he had written, stapled them to the marked-up copy of the will, and slid the whole packet into his briefcase. Then he spun the combination wheels to ensure it would not be an easy task for anyone to get into it.
This was the most interesting project he’d undertaken in more than a year. He was going to get it right.
It could unfold in one of several different ways, and Jack didn’t want to be surprised. Nicole Sandquist had paid for his time to search old records, and he’d done that. Almost certainly she hoped he would hand over a copy of whatever he discovered. Like other journalists Jack knew, Nicole likely thought she had entitlements. He didn’t agree. She needed his legal expertise, whether she admitted it yet or not. When the moment came, he wanted to be prepared with a foolproof interpretation of the facts, a rock-solid strategy for exposing the truth and all its ramifications.
If what Jack suspected was right, Hidden Falls would be stunned.
The downtown area was settling in for the night. Lights illuminated the occasional office window still occupied. Most of the shops had closed at six, and those that remained open through the dinner hour now prepared for the end of the business day. Signs flipped from Open to Closed. Ranks of overhead lights went off in favor of interior security lights. Window shades came down. Latches turned. Cars rumbled out of the alleys that ran behind the main streets. Jack backed his car out of his designated parking spot behind his building.
He had a general idea of where the cemetery was. Brown signs alerting drivers of the vicinity were everywhere.
Jack found the main entry easily. Before leaving his office, he’d studied the online map enough to know which turns to take even though he wouldn’t recognize the landmarks families might use to find graves of loved ones. The darkness would complicate the task. As soon as he was certain he was in the correct section, Jack pulled his car to the side of the road and grabbed a flashlight from under the driver’s seat. Gianna insisted that he keep one there in case of an emergency. Jack doubted she would call this an emergency, but it seemed like a fine time for a flashlight to him. He pushed the On button, and an intense beam rewarded his efforts. This would do nicely.
Sometimes old graves were marked only with words like wife or beloved son, and observers could only be certain of whose wife or beloved son by scoping out inscriptions on surrounding graves. The names Nicole had given him were only surnames. The family he’d found had been prominent and prolific going back almost to the earliest days of Hidden Falls. Jack needed confirmation of names, along with birth and death dates, before he announced that any of the graves matched up with what he’d been looking at for the last three hours.
He traipsed through the aisles of graves, flashing his light to read the lettering carved into limestone or marble and muttering to remind himself of his location. As Jack started his third aisle, he heard voices.
He turned off his flashlight.
“Nicole, you have to be careful. It’s only been two days since you broke your ankle.”
So Lauren Nock was in on this conspiracy.
Jack watched her drop her bicycle and stomp toward the two figures who had visited his office that afternoon.
She jabbed Ethan Jordan in the chest. “And you! You’re supposed to help take care of her, not lose yourself to her persuasive charms—much less bringing her here in the dark.”
Sitting in an open car door, Nicole laughed brightly. “It’s hardly the middle of the night.”
“I made her promise to stay in the car,” Ethan said.
“Good, because if she steps in a hole and breaks the other ankle, it’ll be up to you to explain to that orthopedist tomorrow.”
Ethan stood at attention and saluted. Nicole laughed again.
Jack turned his light back on.
“Who’s there?” Ethan called out.
Jack stepped forward. “It’s Jack Parker.” His light flashed across Lauren’s astonished expression and the flash of surprise in Ethan’s eyes.
Nicole pulled herself upright against the car’s door. “I knew it! If you’re here, that means I was onto something this afternoon.”
Jack had hoped to contain what he suspected at least until morning