Chapter 4 - The Sister Who Knew Too MuchRebecca arrived at Cedar Ridge shortly after nine the next morning.
She was forty-four, immaculate, controlled, and almost impossible to surprise.
Yet the photograph surprised her.
Daniel watched the color leave her face.
“Where did you get this?”
“That’s your first question?”
Rebecca placed the photograph on the kitchen table.
“You’ve been following me?”
“No.”
“Then who took it?”
“I was hoping you could tell me.”
Rebecca looked toward the hallway.
“Where’s Ethan?”
“At Tom’s with his wife.”
“Why?”
Daniel remained standing.
“Because Claire hurt him.”
Rebecca’s expression changed.
“What?”
“In the barn.”
For once, her reaction seemed genuine.
“What did she do?”
“I’m not discussing details with anyone until Ethan speaks to the proper people.”
Rebecca nodded slowly.
“That’s smart.”
Daniel pointed at the photograph.
“Why were you with Claire at a storage facility?”
Rebecca sat.
“She asked me to meet her.”
“Why?”
“She said she had found some of Dad’s documents.”
“What documents?”
Rebecca looked away.
Daniel felt the answer before she gave it.
“Documents about the farm.”
“What kind?”
“Old ones.”
“Rebecca.”
She exhaled.
“Daniel, not every piece of family history needs to be dragged back into daylight.”
He almost laughed.
“That sounds exactly like Dad.”
“He had reasons.”
“And those reasons involve Stall Nine?”
Rebecca’s silence answered.
Daniel sat across from her.
“Who was O.T.?”
Rebecca stared at him.
“You know.”
“I know initials. I know a photograph disappeared. I know the family stopped talking about someone. I want the truth.”
Rebecca’s voice lowered.
“Owen Turner.”
The name stirred an old memory.
A skinny boy.
Freckles.
A baseball cap.
Daniel had been twenty when Owen stayed at Cedar Ridge for part of one summer.
“He was Uncle Grant’s son.”
“Yes.”
“What happened to him?”
Rebecca clasped her hands.
“There was an incident.”
“In the barn?”
“Yes.”
Daniel felt anger building.
“What incident?”
“I wasn’t there.”
“Then why were we forbidden to mention him?”
Rebecca looked toward the window.
“Because Grant and Dad believed silence was best.”
“For who?”
“The farm.”
Daniel stared at her.
Rebecca immediately regretted the answer.
“The farm?”
“It was complicated.”
“He was a child.”
“I know.”
“How old?”
“Nine.”
Daniel thought of Ethan.
His stomach turned.
“What happened?”
Rebecca shook her head.
“I don’t know all of it.”
“That’s a lie.”
“Daniel—”
“Someone wrote your name on a photograph telling me to ask about Stall Nine.”
Rebecca stood.
“You need to stop chasing anonymous messages.”
“Why?”
“Because whoever is sending them wants to destroy this family.”
Daniel stood too.
“Maybe the family did that itself.”
Rebecca’s eyes hardened.
“You have no idea what Dad sacrificed to keep Cedar Ridge alive.”
“I’m starting to wonder what other people sacrificed instead.”
Silence stretched between them.
Rebecca picked up her purse.
Daniel asked, “What did Claire find?”
Rebecca stopped.
“What?”
“At the storage facility.”
“She claimed Dad had left a box in the farmhouse attic.”
“There was no box in the attic.”
Rebecca turned.
“How do you know?”
“Because I emptied it after he died.”
For the first time, Daniel saw fear in her.
“Rebecca.”
She said nothing.
“What was Claire looking for?”
Rebecca moved toward the door.
Daniel stepped in front of it.
“Tell me.”
“You’re upset.”
“Correct.”
“You need to focus on Ethan.”
“I can focus on two things.”
Rebecca lowered her voice.
“Claire believed there was an agreement.”
“What agreement?”
“Something Dad signed years ago.”
“About what?”
“The ownership of Cedar Ridge.”
Daniel frowned.
“I own Cedar Ridge.”
Rebecca stared at him.
Not pity.
Something worse.
Daniel felt the room become very quiet.
“I do own it.”
Rebecca said softly, “You operate it.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means exactly what I said.”
Daniel’s pulse increased.
“Dad’s will left me the farm.”
“The will left you the dairy company.”
“And the land.”
Rebecca did not answer.
Daniel’s mind raced through seven years of taxes, bank loans, equipment purchases and improvements.
“What are you telling me?”
“I’m telling you to call Thomas Keene.”
“You already know.”
“Call him.”
Daniel stepped closer.
“Rebecca, who owns the land?”
She looked at him for a long moment.
Then headlights appeared outside.
A sheriff’s department vehicle turned into the driveway.
Rebecca straightened.
Daniel glanced toward it.
When he looked back, she was already opening the door.
“Don’t leave.”
“I have work.”
“Rebecca.”
She paused.
“If Claire hurt Ethan,” Rebecca said, “then she deserves whatever happens next.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
Rebecca gave him a tired look.
“There are things Dad made me promise never to tell you.”
Daniel felt a chill.
“Dad’s dead.”
“Yes.”
“So why are you still protecting him?”
Rebecca opened the door.
“Maybe I’m not protecting Dad.”
She walked outside.
Daniel watched her vehicle disappear.
Then he noticed the photograph still lying on the table.
He flipped it over again.
ASK REBECCA ABOUT STALL NINE.
Only now did he notice faint writing beneath the black marker.
Almost erased.
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Three additional words.
SHE WAS THERE.
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