Released at 24, She Went Back to Her Father’s Old Body Shop — Under the Lift Sat a Welded Trunk
Chapter 6
Dr. Howard Bell lived in a quiet Pennsylvania town.
Claire found him sitting on his porch.
He recognized her immediately.
“You look like your father.”
Claire sat opposite him.
“You performed his autopsy.”
Bell’s hands trembled.
“Yes.”
“You wrote that he may have been poisoned.”
“I did.”
“Why was the report changed?”
Bell looked away.
“Because I was ordered to change it.”
“By whom?”
He didn’t answer.
Claire placed Daniel’s photograph on the table.
Bell stared at it.
“Where did you get that?”
“My father’s shop.”
Bell whispered:
“Then he finally found it.”
“Found what?”
Bell stood.
He walked inside.
When he returned, he carried a small cassette recorder.
“I kept this for six years.”
Claire pressed play.
Her father’s voice filled the room.
“If you’re hearing this, Claire, I’m probably gone.”
Claire’s eyes filled with tears.
Her father continued.
“I know you will want revenge.”
A pause.
“Don’t.”
Claire covered her mouth.
“The people involved are more powerful than you realize.”
The recording crackled.
“Daniel knows part of the truth. Sheriff Reed knows another part.”
Then her father’s voice became quieter.
“But neither of them knows who started this.”
Claire leaned closer.
“Who?”
Her father’s voice said:
“Someone inside our family.”
The recording ended.
Claire looked at Bell.
“Who?”
Bell’s face had gone pale.
“I don’t know.”
“You’re lying.”
Bell shook his head.
“I know who.”
“Tell me.”
He whispered:
“Rachel.”
Claire froze.
Her aunt.
The woman who had raised her after her mother died.
Bell continued.
“She was there the night your father died.”
Claire couldn’t breathe.
“Why?”
Bell looked at her.
“Because your father had discovered that she was stealing money from the business.”
Claire stared.
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“It does if you know where the money was going.”
“Where?”
Bell looked toward the road.
“Daniel.”
Claire’s blood ran cold.
Her brother hadn’t been protecting her.
He had been protecting their aunt.
