Chapter 3 - THE WOMAN IN THE PHOTOGRAPH
Police sealed the hidden room.
Eleanor was taken downtown for questioning.
She was not arrested immediately.
Her attorney arrived before the patrol cars had even left the estate.
Claire watched Eleanor disappear behind tinted windows.
“She knew that room was there.”
Ethan stood beside her.
“I know.”
“No.”
Claire turned to him.
“She knew what was inside.”
Ethan’s expression changed.
“You think she was watching you?”
“I think someone was.”
The police photographed every item.
Most of the pictures had no dates.
But one old photograph was different.
It showed Claire as a baby.
A dark-haired woman held her in front of a hospital window.
Claire recognized the woman immediately.
Her mother.
Anna Bennett.
Except her mother was not alone.
Beside her stood Ethan’s father.
Jonathan Whitmore.
Claire stared at the picture until everything around her seemed to disappear.
Ethan took it carefully.
“That’s my father.”
“I know.”
Ethan looked at Claire.
“My father knew your mother?”
Claire could barely speak.
“My mother told me she had never met the Whitmores.”
Ethan turned the photograph over.
There was handwriting on the back.
April 17, 1996.
Welcome to the world, Claire Bennett Whitmore.
Ethan’s face drained of color.
“That’s impossible.”
Claire looked at him.
“My middle name isn’t Bennett.”
Ethan frowned.
“What?”
“My legal name is Claire Anna Bennett.”
She pointed at the photograph.
“But that says Claire Bennett Whitmore.”
A detective approached.
“We found something else.”
He carried a small evidence bag.
Inside was a tarnished silver bracelet.
Claire recognized it.
“My mother wore that.”
The detective nodded.
“It was inside a locked drawer.”
Claire stared at the bracelet.
Her mother had been wearing it the night she died.
Claire remembered because she had identified the body.
Or she thought she had.
The funeral had been closed-casket.
The police had told eighteen-year-old Claire the crash had been too severe.
Her stomach twisted.
“Where did Eleanor get this?”
The detective did not answer.
Instead, he removed another plastic bag.
Inside was a cassette tape.
May you like
A handwritten label covered one side.
ANNA - IF CLAIRE EVER COMES BACK.
