Chapter 10 - The Second Bouquet
Cold storage held biological research records, not flowers.
Rachel had hidden a second evidence package there eight years earlier.
Why biological facility?
Because Halcyon medical samples were archived through Carter Foundation partnership.
Packet labeled RR-24.
Red Rose Twenty-Four.
Inside were copies of:
Melissa Grant’s medical records.
Foundation transportation contracts.
Photographs of financial ledgers.
And a blood sample.
Whose?
Melissa’s.
Why preserve it?
Rachel suspected Melissa’s death identification might later be challenged.
DNA could prove who died.
Modern testing confirmed burned body buried as Rachel Carter was Melissa Grant.
That ended doubt.
Rachel had not died in crash.
But why Rebecca looked so much like Rachel?
Coincidence amplified by darkness, injury and Ethan’s shock.
No twin.
No secret relative.
Rebecca and Rachel simply shared similar coloring/features.
Then investigators found second item.
A blood-stained scarf.
DNA belonged to Rachel.
Collected night after crash.
She had been injured in separate incident.
Rebecca explained.
After learning Melissa died, Rachel returned secretly to Halcyon.
Someone broke in.
Rachel escaped through rear window, cutting arm.
Attacker searched for financial evidence.
Who knew she survived that quickly?
Someone inside Halcyon network.
Suspicion returned to Eleanor.
But Rachel’s notes excluded her:
Eleanor lies to protect family, but she did not send him.
“Him.”
Male attacker.
Henry?
Gabriel Shaw?
Adrian Grant?
Adrian became obvious suspect.
But records showed Adrian was arrested in Chicago that night on unrelated domestic-violence complaint.
He could have hired someone.
No proof.
Then Rachel’s four-month-old archive access revealed she copied one document:
1998 Carter Foundation employment roster.
Why go ten years before crash?
One employee name highlighted:
DANIEL CROSS.
Security coordinator.
Daniel later changed surname.
To Hale.
Rebecca Hale’s husband.
Rebecca had said she was divorced.
She had not said former husband worked Halcyon security.
Police confronted her.
Rebecca went pale.
“Daniel is dead.”
“When?”
“Seven years ago.”
“How?”
“Suicide.”
Did Daniel attack Rachel?
Rebecca believed so.
Years earlier she found Henry’s private report.
Daniel had accessed Halcyon address logs without authorization around Melissa transfer.
He may have sold information to Adrian Grant.
After crash, Henry confronted him.
Daniel denied.
Then vanished.
A year later found dead.
But Rachel recently found something suggesting Daniel was not lone leak.
His login had been used after he was fired.
Someone inherited credentials.
Who?
Margaret Bell.
Claire’s mother.
Again.
Claire whispered:
“My mother knew Daniel.”
Rebecca looked at her.
“More than knew him.”
Before marrying Claire’s father, Margaret Bell had been engaged to Daniel Cross.
Now two families were linked long before Ethan met Claire.
But Claire knew none of it.
Then police found Rachel’s current motel.
Empty.
On bed lay twenty-four fresh red roses.
One stem was broken.
May you like
And bathroom mirror carried message in lipstick:
HE FOUND ME BEFORE ETHAN DID.
