PART TEN — A GUEST AT THE WRONG FUNERAL
Luis brought an old photograph to Daniel’s house the next day.
He had taken it after Maren’s memorial service, when neighbors gathered on the sidewalk outside the church.
Several people stood near a table with flowers and donation cards.
Celia was visible in the background, wearing a black coat and speaking to a woman with short blond hair.
Luis identified the woman as Beverly Sloane.
Daniel recognized her immediately.
She had helped pack school supplies at his house three days after the funeral.
Luis pointed to Beverly’s handbag.
A silver bird-shaped pin was attached near the strap.
Daniel remembered Nora’s description of Eleanor’s bag and felt a chill.
He wondered whether Nora had confused two different women.
Bell examined the photograph later that afternoon.
He said identical accessories were not proof that the women were connected, but the image could help establish Beverly’s presence and associates.
Rachel Pike interviewed several people who had attended the memorial.
One remembered Beverly asking detailed questions about whether Maren kept spare keys in her desk.
Another recalled Celia introducing Beverly as a professional estate organizer.
A third remembered that Beverly left the gathering early after receiving a phone call.
Investigators obtained records showing that Beverly Sloane was an alias used by a woman named Karen Baines.
Karen was Harold Baines’s former wife.
She had worked briefly at Voss Meridian’s contracted document-storage service.
Daniel looked at the photograph again and saw not a kind volunteer but someone whose access might have been arranged.
He asked Bell whether she had stolen the notebook.
Bell said they did not yet have enough evidence to make that claim.
They had, however, located a storage unit Karen rented under another name.
The unit had been emptied after investigators began interviewing former employees.
A nearby security camera showed a van removing four boxes and one small metal file cabinet.
The camera angle did not establish what was inside.
Daniel asked how someone could hide a crime behind so many ordinary transactions.
Bell said the same things that made recordkeeping useful to honest people could make falsified records convincing when viewers trusted their appearance without checking origins.
A signed form meant little if the signature was not authentic.
A date meant little if the document had been rewritten afterward.
A delivery receipt mattered only when it could be connected to the actual item delivered.
He said that was why they were pursuing the original records instead of treating every accusation as settled.
That afternoon, Daniel received another anonymous text.
THE BOX WAS MOVED BEFORE THE FUNERAL.
He forwarded it to Bell without responding.
Less than an hour later, an old acquaintance of Warren Voss called Daniel from a number he did not recognize.
The man introduced himself as Peter Laird, a retired facilities supervisor who had maintained several of Warren’s properties.
Peter said he had been told Daniel was asking questions about a missing lockbox.
Daniel refused to discuss details.
Peter then mentioned Maren’s science club and the industrial loading station with the yellow door.
He said he had watched Warren visit that station late one evening, carrying a narrow metal case.
Daniel asked when.
Peter gave a date approximately five weeks before Maren entered the hospital.
He said a woman had been waiting there beside a blue pickup truck.
He could not identify her face, but her coat resembled one Celia often wore.
Daniel asked why he had not reported the meeting years ago.
Peter admitted he had received cash to keep the loading station accessible after normal business hours.
He had assumed the meeting involved undisclosed property negotiations.
When investigators began asking about old environmental maps, he recognized the place and grew afraid.
Daniel told Peter to speak with Bell immediately.
Peter said he would.
Daniel called the inspector and reported the conversation, including Peter’s number.
Bell’s voice became sharp when he heard the name.
He said investigators had been trying to locate Peter for several days.
Daniel asked whether he had made a mistake by answering the call.
Bell replied that reporting it promptly was helpful, but he warned Daniel not to coordinate any witness accounts himself.
Two hours later, Peter’s pickup truck was found abandoned at a highway rest area.
His phone lay beneath the driver’s seat.
The keys were still in the ignition.
No signs of an assault were reported, but Peter could not be located.
Daniel read the news on a local television website that evening.
The article described Peter as a missing elderly man who might be confused or disoriented.
Daniel knew nothing about his medical condition.
He did know that the man had contacted him about a meeting Celia might have wanted forgotten.
The thought made it hard to sleep.
At 2:36 in the morning, Daniel heard a metallic click outside his bedroom window.
He sat up, reached for his phone, and checked the camera feed.
A person wearing a hood stood near his side gate, partially hidden by the utility shed.
The person lifted something toward the gate latch.
A motion light came on.
The figure turned and moved quickly away.
Daniel called the police rather than go outside.
By the time officers arrived, the person was gone.
They found fresh scratches near the latch but no evidence that anyone had entered the house.
Daniel gave them the video.
He stayed awake until morning with every light downstairs turned on.
When Nora called from Rebecca’s house, he told her he missed her.
He did not tell her how grateful he was that she had slept somewhere else.
