Mara did not speak during the drive back to the city. Daniel drove with both hands tight around the steering wheel, while Lena sat in the back seat with her injured leg stretched across the seat. The black envelope lay between them. The photograph inside had been turned face down. Nobody wanted to look at it again. The road passed beneath the headlights in long empty stretches, and every few minutes Daniel checked the rearview mirror.
"You remember something," Mara said.
Daniel's eyes stayed on the road.
"About what?"
"The night David died."
"I remember parts."
"You remember more than you've told me."
He sighed.
"Yes."
"Tell me now."
Daniel glanced at Lena.
"Not while she's listening."
Lena spoke from the back seat.
"I'm already involved."
Daniel had no response.
Mara turned toward her daughter.
"What do you remember about that night?"
Lena frowned.
"Nothing."
"Try."
"I remember being at the lake."
Mara's stomach tightened.
"You were there?"
"I think so."
"You told me you stayed home."
"I know."
"Who brought you?"
Lena looked at Daniel.
He closed his eyes.
"I did."
Mara stared at him.
"You took our six-year-old daughter to the lake?"
"I didn't know Robert would be there."
"You knew she was there?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because David asked me to bring her."
Mara's voice sharpened.
"Why would David ask for a child?"
"He didn't. Your mother did."
Silence filled the car.
Lena whispered, "Why?"
Daniel shook his head.
"I didn't understand it at the time."
Mara looked out the window.
A memory surfaced.
A red sweater.
Lena's small hand inside hers.
The smell of smoke.
Someone telling her, "Don't let her see."
Mara closed her eyes.
"I remember."
Daniel looked at her.
"What?"
"I was there."
"At the lake?"
"Yes."
She pressed her fingers against her forehead.
"I remember Lena crying."
Daniel slowed the car.
"You remember?"
"Someone was shouting."
"Who?"
"I don't know."
"Try."
Mara breathed slowly.
Then she remembered David.
He had been holding a folder.
He had looked terrified.
Robert stood opposite him.
And her mother stood between them.
Then someone had struck David.
Mara opened her eyes.
"Robert hit him."
Daniel nodded.
"Yes."
"Why did you tell me it was an accident?"
"Because Robert threatened us."
"You should have told me."
"I tried."
"When?"
"That night."
Mara looked at him.
"You never told me."
"I did."
"No."
"You don't remember because you were drugged."
The words landed heavily.
Mara turned toward him.
"What?"
"Your mother gave you something."
"Why?"
"She believed you were in danger."
"She drugged me?"
"Only enough to keep you asleep."
Mara's hands began trembling.
"Why would she do that?"
"Because Robert was looking for the file, and he knew you had seen where David hid it."
Mara stared at the road.
"What file?"
Daniel's answer came quietly.
"The original records proving Robert had been stealing money from David's company."
Mara remembered something.
A blue folder.
David handing it to her.
"Keep this."
She had forgotten the words until now.
She suddenly understood why the hidden room had photographs of her.
She had been the person David trusted to hide the evidence.
But she had never remembered doing it.
"Where did I put it?"
Daniel looked at her.
"You hid it."
"Where?"
"I don't know."
"Then why did Robert think you knew?"
"Because he believed I had helped you."
Mara looked toward Lena.
"That's why he targeted you."
Daniel nodded.
"He couldn't reach you without making you afraid."
Lena swallowed.
"So the messages were meant to make Mom remember."
"Yes."
"But why hurt me?"
Daniel hesitated.
"He needed something from you."
"What?"
"The place where you hid the second copy."
Lena stared at him.
"I don't have anything."
"You might."
"What does that mean?"
Daniel pulled the car to the side of the road.
He turned around.
"When you were six, David gave you something."
Lena frowned.
"What?"
"A small metal key."
Mara remembered it.
The same key they had found in the house.
Room 3.
She looked at Lena's hands.
"Do you have it?"
Lena shook her head.
"I don't remember."
Mara reached toward her.
"Think."
Lena closed her eyes.
"I had a necklace."
"What happened to it?"
"I lost it."
"When?"
"After the lake."
Daniel looked at Mara.
"The key was attached to it."
Mara stared at him.
"Then Robert thinks Lena still has the key."
"He does."
"And the key opens Room 3."
Daniel nodded.
"But Room 3 was never a bedroom."
"It was the hidden room."
Lena looked frightened.
"Then why was the key in the house?"
"Because someone wanted us to find it."
Mara understood.
Robert had not merely been threatening them.
He had been guiding them.
He wanted them to return to the lake house.
He wanted them to open the hidden room.
He wanted them to discover the clues in the order he chose.
"But why?" Mara asked.
Daniel looked toward the dark road.
"Because the final copy of the evidence is still there."
"Where?"
"I don't know."
Lena suddenly gasped.
"I do."
Both adults turned.
She reached into the pocket of her shorts and pulled out a tiny metal object.
Mara stared.
A key.
Lena's hand shook.
"I found this in my room yesterday."
Daniel took it.
It had a small worn tag attached.
Room 3.
Mara felt the blood drain from her face.
"You had it all this time."
"I didn't know what it was."
"Where did you find it?"
"Inside an old box of photographs."
Daniel looked at Mara.
"Whose photographs?"
Lena hesitated.
"Grandma's."
Mara's breath caught.
She took the box from her daughter.
Inside were photographs from the lake house, family birthdays, school events, and old holiday trips.
Then she found a photograph of herself as a young woman.
On the back, in her own handwriting, were three words.
Remember the blue door.
Mara stared.
"There was a blue door."
Daniel looked at her.
"Where?"
"I don't know."
She closed her eyes.
The memory came again.
A blue door beneath the lake house.
A basement.
David telling her to hide.
Her mother crying.
Then Robert shouting.
Mara opened her eyes.
"The evidence wasn't in Room 3."
"Where was it?"
"Behind the blue door."
Daniel's face tightened.
"There is no blue door now."
"Then someone removed it."
Lena looked at the photograph.
"Maybe they didn't."
Mara turned.
"Why?"
Lena pointed to the corner.
Behind Mara, in the old photograph, the blue door was visible.
But beside it stood a person.
The face had been scratched away.
Lena whispered, "That's the person Grandma warned you about."
Mara looked at the damaged face.
Then she noticed the handwriting beneath it.
This time, the words were not written by her.
They were written by David.
Trust the person you least expect.
The car remained silent.
Mara looked at Daniel.
Then at Lena.
She realized the message did not identify an enemy.
It identified an ally.
And there was only one person left who could possibly fit that description.
Her mother had died six years ago.
Unless the person David meant had been beside them all along.
Click Here to continue read next: PART7: The Last Pieces of David’s Message Led Them Back Into the House Where Mara Finally Discovered Whose Face Had Been Hidden
The Small Red Stain That Turned an Ordinary Evening Into a Question Nobody in the House Was Ready to Answer
Part 6 of 16
