Nora told me that the ledger might eventually clarify whether the disputed vehicles had been stolen, improperly titled, or transferred through deceptive transactions.
She warned me against treating every suspicious entry as a proven crime.
I had learned enough by then to appreciate her caution.
The more complicated the evidence became, the more important it was to separate what we knew from what we feared.
That evening, Rebecca called me.
She had spoken with Daniel again.
He wanted to come back to Pennsylvania.
He wanted to visit their mother’s grave.
And he wanted to see the Mustang.
Chapter 31: The Return to Briar Glen
Daniel arrived on a rainy Thursday in a rental car with Ohio plates.
He looked older than the photograph Rebecca carried, but his eyes had the same watchful expression.
Rebecca met him outside a small church near the cemetery.
I stayed across the parking lot because the reunion belonged to them.
Daniel embraced his sister and held on longer than either of them expected.
They stood beneath a narrow awning while rain tapped against the metal gutter.
Afterward, they drove to their mother’s grave.
Daniel carried yellow flowers because Rebecca said they had been her favorite.
He remained there for nearly an hour.
When he finally came to my house, he stopped at the edge of the driveway and looked toward the garage.
I had moved the Mustang inside to keep it out of the rain.
Daniel asked whether he could see it.
I opened the garage door.
He walked around the car without touching it.
He paused beside the passenger mirror and noticed the tiny scratch my father’s ring had left.
He asked whether I had ever repaired it.
I said no.
Daniel smiled sadly and told me my father had once complained about making that mark.
He said my father had joked that it proved he actually worked on the car rather than paying someone else to do it.
The memory was so specific that I felt the years between us narrow.
Daniel looked at the dashboard and asked whether the envelope had been found.
I said it had.
He closed his eyes for a moment.
He told me my father had promised to keep the papers until Daniel was ready to speak.
I asked why my father had hidden them instead of giving them to authorities.
Daniel said he had asked himself the same question for years.
