Boreal owned the property near where her mother’s car was found.
Maxine didn’t wait for David to return her call. She ventured out into the wind and drove back to Oyster Bay.
* * *
Abel Parsons, the caretaker of the property owned by Boreal, Inc., clearly didn’t want to talk to Max.
“This is private property,” he said after answering the door of the caretaker’s house. “How did you get through the gate?”
“I left my car there and walked in.” Which was clearly obvious since she was soaking wet and freezing cold, even though she wore a lined trench coat. “I’d like to talk to the owner.”
“No one’s here but me. I manage the property, nothing more, nothing less. Good-bye.”
“Who owns this property?”
“None of your business. Go, or I will call the sheriff. You’re trespassing. Didn’t you see the signs?”
“My name is Maxine Revere,” she said. “I would like to talk to the CEO of Boreal about his investment in Havenly, the resort in Cape Haven.”
“Ain’t going to happen.”
“I’ll have my producer contact him.”
“Go—” He stopped. “What’s your name?”
She handed him her business card. “Maxine Revere. I’m with NET, a cable television station. I’m just looking for information.”
“I’ll pass it along. But if I see you here—anywhere on this property—I’m calling the sheriff. Understand?”
“Thank you, Mr. Parsons,” she said, but he had already slammed the door in her face.
Max walked back down the long driveway through the fierce wind. By the time she got back to her car she was shaking from the cold. Yet she considered the excursion a success. Parsons was certainly interested when he found out she was a reporter, and she was confident he would pass on her interest in the resort to someone at Boreal. In the meantime, she would continue asking questions about who might have been at the house the month her mother disappeared.
And she would learn everything she could about both Jimmy Truman and his “saintly” brother Gabriel.
Chapter Fifteen
Max showered under a stream of hot water but couldn’t seem to get herself warm. Served her right, she supposed, for going out in the wet this morning. She decided to stay in for the rest of the day and continue researching Boreal, the paintings from the postcards, and learn everything she could about her half sister.
She couldn’t wait to meet her.
Eve.
Max wondered if her mother had named her after Martha’s grandmother, Genevieve Sterling. She wouldn’t be surprised. Though Martha had shunned her family, she had never once said anything negative about her grandmother. Max’s middle name was Genevieve, and it wouldn’t surprise her to learn Eve was short for Genevieve as well.
All Martha’s hostility was directed toward Eleanor. Max often wondered if there was something else going on there, something neither Martha nor Eleanor ever talked about.
Max made herself a sandwich because she had no desire to go back out into the foul weather today. She bundled up in soft, well-worn jeans and a warm, bulky sweater, and sat on the couch by the window, listening to the wind and watching the waves roll violently to the shore, only a hundred feet from her raised cottage.
After she ate, Max read carefully through the Haven Point Junior Sailing Club prospectus again. Everything seemed on the up-and-up. Her quick internet search yielded no red flags, but she sent the information to David and Rogan just in case she’d missed something.
Then she stared at Eve’s photo.
Max had never thought about having siblings. She’d idly thought through the years that maybe she had a half sibling—through her unknown father. But Martha had taken the secret of her father’s identity to the grave, and Max doubted she’d ever know the truth.
Her family was complicated enough. Her cousin William was the closest to a brother she had, and they had been very close until last year. They were the same age, they’d gone through school together, and Max cared for him. She wished they could mend fences because he, out of everyone in their family, was someone she could talk to about both her mother and her half sister.
She considered calling her grandmother, but until she knew for certain that Eve was a Revere, she wasn’t going to involve her family. While she generally knew how her family would react in any given situation—both the good and the bad—she didn’t know how they would handle another heir.
The Sterling Family Trust was a thriving, albeit conservative, trust. They didn’t invest heavily in anything too risky, and had a checks and balances system that her great-grandfather created to avoid any shenanigans. She’d never met her great-grandfather Sterling—he’d died before she came to live with Eleanor. But he had created his wealth from nearly nothing, partnered with his wife Genie. When he died, she took over his businesses and investments and grew the Sterling family’s wealth and reach through her own ideas and ingenuity. Max wanted to laugh when someone said, “I wish I’d invested in IBM or Apple way back when,” because Richard and Genevieve Sterling had been those visionaries.
Eve deserved her share of the family wealth. Max didn’t doubt that her great-grandmother would have insisted, and at a minimum, Eve should receive the same allowance that all board members’ offspring received starting on their eighteenth birthday. It would pay for her college and give her a nest egg on which a frugal person could then live on for the rest of their life.
Why would Gabriel deny that to Eve? Max suspected money wasn’t important to him, but what about college? Education was critical, especially in this day and age when a degree meant even more than thirty or forty years ago. Did he hate Martha so much that he wouldn’t give Eve her rightful inheritance?
She shouldn’t read so much into the situation. Maybe Gabriel hadn’t known the extent of Martha’s wealth. Maybe he thought, because she lived so lavishly, that she had no more money for her child. Maybe Martha lied to him. That certainly wouldn’t be unheard of.
A pounding on the door downstairs made Max jump, followed by the buzzing of the doorbell. It stopped, then seconds later started again.
Irritated and a little concerned, she jogged down the stairs and looked through the side window.
Gabriel Truman. Wet, eyes wild, angry.
She shouldn’t open the door. But she did.
“You could have called.”
He walked in without asking. “What the hell are you up to?” he demanded. He stood inches from her.
She stepped back. David was right—she should have stayed far away from Gabriel. But he’d come here, to her cottage.
Gabriel slammed the door shut and Max said, “You need to go.”
“How dare you start asking questions about my daughter. How dare you pry into my life. I want you gone by tonight. Right now, pack up and leave and never come back.”
Though Max was beginning to grow scared—something that was rare and foreign to her—she said quietly but firmly, “No.”
He stared at her, obviously confused and highly emotional. “My daughter is a minor and if you talk to her, go near her, I will have you arrested.”
“You lied to me about Martha Revere. You said you didn’t know her, but I know that Eve is her daughter, which makes Eve my sister.”
It was clear he hadn’t realized she’d figured out the truth. He stared at her—angry and terrified. “You don’t know anything.”
“I will prove it, Gabriel. Eve is my sister, and she deserves to know the truth about her mother, just like I do.”
“You want the truth? I’ll tell you the truth! Martha Revere was a selfish bitch who left her three-month-old daughter with a dying woman because she was too busy to be bothered. She has no rights to Eve, none, and if you think you can come here and throw your name and money around like you’re the fucking Queen of England, you’re wrong. Leave it alone. Eve doesn’t need to know anything about her mother.”
Three months … tha
t meant Eve was born in January. Good to know. Max would send that information to David.
“Martha left me as well, Gabriel. I did all right, and it’s clear you’ve gone a great job with Eve.” She was trying to appeal to his logical side. “But Martha is dead.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I do know that. Because you’re right—Martha was selfish. She only cared about herself and her money. She was declared legally dead nine years ago this month—because for seven years she didn’t touch her money. I think she died here in Northampton County.”
He was stunned and thinking—maybe because his emotions were so close to the surface, she could clearly read him.
“Did you kill her?” Max asked bluntly. She didn’t think so, he’d been deployed until September, but maybe he had a leave.
He was staring at her with surprise. Surprise that she asked the question? Or surprise that he hadn’t thought she’d go down that path?
“Kill Martha?”
He sounded confused.
“You were angry she dumped your baby on your mother, maybe you tracked her down and lost your temper.”
As she spoke, he sank into the love seat next to the door. This room on the bottom floor wasn’t as cozy and comfortable as the one upstairs, but she had no intention of inviting him up where he could see her office and all the work she’d been doing. Not yet, at any rate.
“I didn’t kill Martha,” he said quietly.
“Who did?”
He shook his head. “Until you came here, I had no idea she was dead or missing. I thought she left Eve because she didn’t want to be a mother, and while at first I hoped and prayed she’d come back, it wasn’t long before I was grateful that she didn’t.”
Max believed him. Maybe because his emotions were so raw and so real, or maybe because she was good at weeding through the lies to find the truth. But she wasn’t going to get too comfortable, because Gabriel Truman was a protector. He would do anything to protect his daughter. He might even kill.
“The month before I turned ten, Martha left me with my grandparents. She never came back. She sent me periodic postcards from all over the world, but she never wanted me with her and while at first I was angry and upset, soon I was relieved. I hated the life she led. No place to call home. No stability. A new boyfriend every month or two. She seduced a lot of men. She was pretty and rich and fun. But I’m learning a lot more about her now, and I don’t understand her. I think she and your brother Jimmy got involved in illegal schemes. Why? I don’t know. For fun? She didn’t need the money. I haven’t figured it all out, but I will.”
“Leave it alone, Ms. Revere.”
“Gabriel, you can call me Max. Okay? And I can’t leave it alone. Martha is dead. I need to know why. How. Who.”
“If Martha is dead, let her stay dead. You’re talking to that FBI agent. He’s been around for years, digging into my life because Jimmy was a criminal. He thinks I helped my brother, but I didn’t. Hell, I don’t know, because that damn fed won’t tell me anything. I don’t even know why he’s looking for Jimmy.”
Max was surprised Maguire didn’t tell Gabriel. “He didn’t tell you?”
“The first time he came around, ten years ago, he thought I helped Jimmy escape the country. Harbored a fugitive. I asked what Jimmy was wanted for, and he said questioning. He didn’t even have an arrest warrant, how could he be a fugitive? So I told him to take a hike. Every year or so he comes here, to my house, talks to my friends and family. Once he even tried to talk to Eve, two years ago, and I told him if he spoke to her again without a warrant that I would file a report for harassment. She doesn’t need to be dragged into Jimmy’s life.”
“I appreciate that you want to protect her, but Maguire has compelling evidence that Jimmy is a thief.”
She left out “art thief” because she didn’t want to give too much away, not yet. And Maguire had shared some things that made her want to keep his confidence, at least insofar as he didn’t burn her.
“Thief? Sure. No doubt about it. He was a con artist and a bastard. God help me, but I hate my brother, and I never want to see him again. But he is a criminal, and I don’t want him around Eve. If you dig around in Martha’s life, you dig around in Jimmy’s because they were two peas in a pod. They deserved each other. Eve doesn’t need to be brought into this.”
“Eve is my sister.”
“Half sister.”
“She’s family. My family. She’s entitled to her part of the family trust. We’ll have to take a DNA test, but there’s no doubt in my mind that she’s my half sister. That trust will pay for her college. For her future.”
“Money,” he spat out. “Is that all you people care about? Money?”
“No,” she said slowly, but he wasn’t listening to her. He’d gone from half reasonable to completely ignoring her.
“I don’t want it. I don’t want anything to do with Martha’s family, and nothing to do with you. If you go near Eve, I will have you arrested. If you tell her any of this, I will destroy you. I don’t know how, but trust me, I will find a way. Leave Cape Haven. No one wants you here.”
“Gabriel, please—”
But he had already opened the door, and her words were lost in the wind.
And she didn’t have the opportunity to ask him about Boreal and their investment in the club.
Maybe the company had nothing to do with Martha’s disappearance. Just because they owned property in town, and half the club, and had no principals named on record didn’t mean squat.…
But it itched in the back of her mind that she needed to find out more about the business.
* * *
Gabriel walked into Brian’s office and closed the door.
He must have looked like hell, because Brian immediately asked, “What happened? Is Eve okay?”
Gabriel ran his hands through his hair and sat down heavily in the chair across from his best friend and business partner. “I should have told you earlier, but I didn’t want to believe it.”
“Told me what? You’re freaking me out, buddy. What’s wrong?”
“Everything. You know the guest here? The reporter? Maxine Revere.”
“Yeah, I met her, what?”
“Revere.”
Brian sat on the corner of his desk. “It’s just a name. It’s a coincidence.”
“She’s Martha’s daughter.”
“I don’t think so.”
“She is. And she knows Eve is Martha’s daughter, too.”
“Well. It’s—well, it’s not that bad, right? I mean, what can she do? She’s not fighting for custody or anything? Dear God, Eve is sixteen!”
Gabriel took a deep breath. “Brian, it’s a mess. She thinks Eve is my daughter. And if she finds out she’s not … if she tells Eve.…”
“Oh. Oh, no. She wouldn’t. How could she even think about that?”
“She has this war room in the cottage. I … I know I shouldn’t have, but I went in when she wasn’t there.”
“You went into a guest’s room? Gabriel, what the hell were you thinking?”
“I know! Look, I didn’t tell you, but Bartlett came by earlier this week, told me she was in town and what she was doing, and I couldn’t help myself. I went in and looked through her stuff. I’m sorry, it was wrong, I know that, but she has this timeline about Martha and Jimmy and she thinks that Martha was killed near Oyster Bay sixteen years ago. If she’s right it means that Martha left Eve with my mom and then died. Or she was killed. Or hell, I don’t know!”
“You need to calm down, Gabriel. First, very few people know that Jimmy is Eve’s real father. He didn’t want her, you did, end of story. No one needs to know that, least of all a reporter. She’ll never find out the truth—me and you, we’re the only ones who know. Hell, I didn’t even tell Annie.”
“You’re trying to make me feel better, and I appreciate it, but a lot of people suspect I’m not her dad. They might not know she’s Jimmy’s girl, but sixteen yea
rs isn’t that long in a small town. They know my mom was taking care of her for months before I showed up.”
“No one will mention it, even if they thought Jimmy was her dad. And didn’t you tell me that Martha didn’t fill out the birth certificate with Jimmy’s name?”
“Which makes it worse because she might not even be his. What was that woman thinking? She was insane.”
“Calm down, Gabriel. When the reporter doesn’t find anything about her mother, she’ll leave. Find another story to chase.”
“No, she’s different, Brian. I feel it in my gut. She says she wants to get to know Eve. I can’t—Eve doesn’t know anything about Jimmy or Martha. I don’t want her to know she came from two despicable people. She’s my daughter, Brian. Mine. I can’t let anything happen to her. What if those people Jimmy said were looking for him knew she was his blood? What if they thought I knew something about whatever the fuck they were looking for? Revere knows that Jimmy was a thief, and so does that federal agent, Maguire. What if Jimmy is still out there and they use Eve as a pawn to get to him? To try to force him to come out of hiding? He wouldn’t care about her! He’d let her die! He doesn’t care about anyone but himself!”
“Gabriel, you need to calm down.”
“This is my daughter, Brian.”
“A lot of what-ifs, Gabriel. You still need to be calm, think about things logically.”
Gabriel knew that Brian was right, but he couldn’t seem to get his head in order. Everything he’d done over the last sixteen years was to protect Eve, his daughter. He loved her as if she were his own child. He couldn’t love another child more.
“It’s my daughter’s life on the line. Your goddaughter, Brian. When Jimmy came here ten years ago he was going to take her away. I was ready to disappear with her to protect her, and he never came back for her. Either the people looking for him found him, or he listened to me and decided to let Eve grow up with a normal life.”
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