Hale.”

My mother nodded.

She didn’t try to stop me.

She just held my hand a little tighter.

I left an hour later.

I was almost at my car when my phone buzzed.

A text from a number I didn’t recognize.

*We need to talk before you speak to Hale again.

There are things about Eleanor’s estate you don’t know.

Things that won’t wait.

— R*

I stood in the driveway and read it twice.

I had no idea who R was.

Chapter 5: The Person Eleanor Never Mentioned

I called the number back immediately.

It rang four times.

Then a woman’s voice — clipped, careful, not unfriendly but not warm either.

“I wasn’t sure you’d call,” she said.

“Who is this?”

“My name is Ruth Calloway.

I was Eleanor’s neighbor for eleven years.

Before she moved into the hospice.” A brief pause.

“I was also the person she trusted with the other envelope.”