My Sister's Keeper

Chapter 51

51

I DROPPED SYDNEY OFF at her dance school and found Sam Jones in his office picking through a muddy stack of canceled checks and file folders. There were several more mud-caked boxes on the floor around him. He leaned back in his chair. "I'm sorry about your sister, Richard. I never expected Martha to do anything like that. She must have been a lot worse off than everyone thought."

"She didn't do that to herself, Sam. Somebody pushed her."

"I know it's hard to believe she'd—"

"No, really, Sam. That's what I came to see you about. I found some things on her computer I think you need to see." I set the laptop on his desk. "And I think I know who did it."

"Did what?"

"Who tried to kill her."

"Oh, for Christ's sake, Richard. Now you're as bad as her—trying to play detective."

"Please. Just give me a minute. One minute." I dug the ring from my pocket and handed it to him. "Look at that and tell me what you see."

"It...looks like a class ring to me. UNC. There's a million of them around Wilmington."

"Look at the name inside."

He sighed, propped his elbows on his desk, and looked inside the ring. "Robert Scott McGillikin. The attorney?"

"I believe so."

He handed the ring back to me. "I'm sure he'll be glad to get it back. Now if—"

"Sam, Sydney Deagan found that ring this afternoon on that corner where Martha was hit."

"And I found all these boxes buried in a hole in the ground today along with a dead body and a 44 magnum. And it's all connected to that house that blew up. Dane Bonner's files." He grasped a handful of checks and waved them at me. "These checks have his signature on them. I have a record of his whole life here. So if you'll please let me get back to it, I'd like to see what I can make of it before another body shows up."

"That's the man! Please, Sam. Let me show you this one thing." I brought up the photo of Bonner and spun the computer to face Sam. "That's Dane Bonner." Sam stared at the monitor. "He was raised in the same orphanage as Scott McGillikin, only McGillikin died in a car wreck after finishing his undergrad work at UNC." Sam sighed, but I continued. "...and I think this man—Dane Bonner—took his identity. Went on to Wake Forest and used his scholarship."

Sam slumped back. "Are you out of your mind?"

"Damn it, Sam. I know it sounds crazy, but I believe McGillikin is Bonner." Sam picked up a document in front of him and began scanning it. "Remember what Martha said about a blue flash and an 'N3?' And how she had you try to figure out what that meant? Sam, look at the ring. Please?" I handed it back to him. "Turn it around." Sam sighed loudly and rotated the ring. "You're looking at it."

"Looking at what?"

"Upside down it becomes N3."

"If you use your imagination, you might be able to make an N3 out of it." He tossed the ring back at me.

"Sam, this ring was there the night Martha dropped from that window and it was at that intersection last night. Look at her computer files. Please. She figured out that Scott was Bonner. It's all right here. Look at it."

"I see it, Richard. I'm sorry about your sister, and I know you're just trying to help. But there is nothing here that proves anything."

"What about the pictures?"

"I'm sorry, Richard. You're going to have to come up with more than that."

My eyes dropped from his face to the checks on his desk. One stack had toppled over and were spread such that the signatures all lined up one on top the other. But one in the group was different. "Did you say these were Bonner's?" I reached for one of the checks.

"Don't touch that!"

I withdrew my hand and pointed. "I couldn't help but notice that the signature on that one is different from the rest."

Sam leaned forward and, using his pencil eraser, slipped the check out of the stack. It was signed Scott McGillikin. He compared the signature to a few of the others. "Well I'll be damned. Looks like Mr. Bonner forgot which checkbook he was using."

My cell phone rang. It was Mother.

"Hello?"

"Richie, you need to come now. Martha's taken a turn for the worse."