Chapter 5 - Aunt Elise's Husband Who Didn't Exist
Aunt Elise had been “single” my entire life.
Quiet.
Private.
Always traveling for consulting work.
She never brought partners to family gatherings.
Now she told us she married Raymond Pike nineteen years ago.
Secretly.
Mom stood.
“You said you stopped seeing him.”
“I tried.”
“Why hide a marriage?”
Elise looked at Walter.
“Because Pike worked for Jonathan.”
Walter frowned.
“No. He worked for Marjorie.”
“Later.”
Before Jonathan disappeared, Pike had been his private investigator.
Jonathan suspected someone inside Mercer Holdings was altering property deeds.
Pike gathered evidence.
Then Jonathan vanished.
Pike changed sides.
Or appeared to.
He began working for Marjorie.
Married Elise.
Kept both facts concealed.
“What does he want with me?”
Elise whispered:
“He believes Jonathan left you something.”
“The blue room?”
“Yes.”
Jonathan never trusted computers for his most sensitive records.
He kept physical ledgers.
Audio tapes.
Original signatures.
If the blue room still contained them, they could prove who framed him.
Then why didn’t Pike simply search it?
Because Jonathan built a locking system requiring two physical keys.
One belonged to Walter.
The second—
I looked at the keys on the Thanksgiving table.
Walter nodded.
“Yours.”
The brass house key I had carried for twelve years was not actually for our front door.
It worked because the locks had been deliberately matched.
The older teeth also opened Jonathan’s archive lock.
Mom had tried to stop Serena from grabbing it because she knew.
“Why does Serena want it?”
Serena looked furious.
“I didn’t.”
“You lunged across the table.”
“Because Mom told me never let you take that key outside the family.”
“Why?”
Serena looked at Marjorie.
Mom closed her eyes.
“Because Serena has the other one.”
Walter stared.
“What?”
His own key had disappeared eight years earlier.
Marjorie had given it to Serena.
My sister reached into her necklace.
A tiny brass key hung behind a diamond pendant.
I stared.
“So you got the trust key and I got the mortgage requests.”
Serena flinched.
“I didn’t know what it meant.”
“Did you know I owned this house?”
“No.”
“Did you know Clara Mercer was legally dead?”
“Yes.”
That hurt.
“How long?”
“Since I was twenty-five.”
Seven years.
She said nothing.
“Why?”
“Mom told me you were in danger.”
Of course.
Then the front door opened.
Nobody had heard a knock.
A man entered using his own key.
Tall.
Late sixties.
Weathered face.
Elise stood so quickly her chair toppled.
“Raymond.”
Pike looked around the destroyed Thanksgiving table.
Then at me.
“You finally told her.”
Mom stepped backward.
He smiled.
“Good.”
I asked:
“You’ve been taking my money?”
“Yes.”
No denial.
“Why?”
“To see whether you still behaved like Jonathan predicted.”
My skin crawled.
“What did he predict?”
Pike looked at the gravy staining my Navy uniform.
“That no matter how badly this family treated you, you would still keep them housed.”
He smiled sadly.
“Your father knew you very well.”
I stared.
“You’ve seen him.”
Pike stopped smiling.
May you like
Then answered:
“Yesterday.”
