Chapter 8 - The Funeral Without a Body
My mother died after what I was told was a sudden stroke while traveling.
I never saw her body.
She had been cremated before I arrived because my aunt said “it was what Carol wanted.”
At the time, grief made every explanation sound reasonable.
Now I saw a photograph dated two years after her death.
Carol Bennett.
Alive.
Standing outside a grocery store.
Beside Anna Reed.
My knees weakened.
Steven caught me.
I pulled away.
Too much had been hidden by too many people.
“Who took this?”
Margaret answered:
“Michael.”
Six years ago, Michael was investigating his mother’s disappearance independently.
He found Anna.
Or thought he did.
She used another name:
Diane Collins.
A woman living in Wisconsin.
Michael followed her.
Then Carol appeared.
That confirmed it.
But before Michael could approach them, both disappeared again.
“Why did he wait six years?”
“He didn't.”
Margaret explained.
Michael contacted Robert.
Steven’s father was still alive then.
Robert told him never to approach Anna.
Claimed people from the old network were still watching.
Michael believed him.
Then Robert died two years later.
Michael resumed the search.
That eventually led to our house.
Then Thomas frowned.
“Why would Carol fake her death?”
I knew my mother.
Or thought I did.
She hated confrontation.
Loved mystery novels.
Never broke a parking rule.
The idea of her living under a false identity sounded impossible.
Then I remembered her final phone call.
She said:
“If anything happens to me, don’t let anyone tell you who I was.”
I thought she was delirious.
She had been crying.
Then Lucy whispered:
“Maybe she wasn't talking about dying.”
Maybe she was warning me against the story that would follow.
We searched Michael’s files.
There was another document.
A death certificate for Carol Bennett.
Filed eight years earlier.
Informant:
Margaret Hale.
Everyone froze.
I turned slowly.
“You signed my mother’s death record?”
Margaret’s face went white.
“I can explain.”
“Try.”
Carol had contacted Margaret eight years ago.
She believed the old financial network had located Anna.
She needed to disappear publicly.
Margaret helped create a false travel-death narrative using a cooperative physician tied to the old safe-house system.
Not legal.
Not justified.
But Carol asked.
“Why?”
“To protect you.”
I laughed bitterly.
Everyone protects me by lying.
Margaret continued.
Carol believed I had inherited the archive key unknowingly.
If enemies knew she was alive, they would eventually trace her to me.
So she became officially dead.
“Where is she now?”
“I don’t know.”
“You helped fake her death and don’t know?”
“She cut contact.”
Then Steven whispered:
“What enemies?”
Margaret looked at him.
“The people Robert never escaped.”
“What people?”
She hesitated.
Then:
“The Halston Group.”
Steven went still.
I had heard that name before.
Not from him.
May you like
From Thomas.
My brother’s employer.
