Page 75 of The Girl in the Mist

“They got it in their mind that he was the one responsible for this. It was all his master plan to take Mary Ellen away from them and to seek revenge against the town that had ostracized him. Of course, there was no evidence. There was nothing to show he had anything to do with Mary Ellen at all, let alone the massacre. But the well was poisoned and they came to hate me. They didn’t want anything to do with me now that Mary Ellen was gone, and they had no reason to keep up the charade anymore. So, their minds went to the same place that it did when she waspregnant.”

“Cornelia’s,”Isay.

“Yes. They concocted the plan that they would tell everyone we were traveling, they would bring me back down to Garnet and leave me at the home. Then they would tell everyone I had gotten very sick and had died. No one was going to question or try to get answers out of my mother who was suffering the loss of so many of her children. Remember, her son was still in Vietnam at thetime.

“In what they probably saw as a very convenient turn of events, the train accident happened right at the time when they were bringing me to Georgia. Rather than bringing me to the orphanage and having to possibly explain anything, they just left me among the wreckage. They told me not to tell anybody my name. That I wasn’t who they said I was, and I wasn’t allowed to ever say the name Casey Conner again. And then theyleft.”

“I’m so sorry,” I whisper. “I’m so sorry that happened toyou.”

Mike nods. “Eventually I was gathered up with all the other children who had been orphaned by the accident. They asked me who I was and I did exactly as my parents had told me to, tell him I didn’t know and then I didn’t have parents anymore. Because they couldn’t figure out who I was, they couldn’t find any relatives to take care of me, and so I ended up with everybody else at theorphanage.

“Fortunately for me, the women there were the same ones that had been there when I was born. One of them recognized a birthmark I have on my back. She helped deliver me and had seen the same birthmark. She eventually convinced me to tell her who I was, and I explained what happened. I don’t know exactly the chain of events after that, but it wasn’t long before I met the Kirklands. They were friends of that woman and had been wanting a child for a long time. They already had two, but had been unable to conceive another. It didn’t bother them that I wasn’t a baby. As soon as they saw me, they knew I wastheirs.”

“So, you grew up knowing you were adopted?” Iask.

“Yes and no. I still had memories of my mother, of Mary Ellen, and some of Gemma and Frank. But I was so young that they started to fade and I came to not really know what they meant. I forgot most of them. My parents, the Kirklands, never talked about my adoption. Neither did my brother or sister. Both of them were very young at the time, so I just became their reality. It was that simple. But then when I was thirteen, Mary Ellen’s body was found and Reginald Merriweather was put in prison.

“I overheard my father talking about it and I confronted them. They didn’t really have a choice but to tell me. They thought I deserved to know. They were planning on telling me when I turned eighteen, but now that this had happened, it was time. They gave me all the letters Mary Ellen had written me. It took years before I found out that Frank and Gemma had briefly changed their minds and considered moving to Georgia, away from all the sadness around Mary Ellen, so they got in touch with Cornelia’s and found out I had been adopted. They’d found the letters from Mary Ellen to me and gave them to my parents to try to get them to me. It was the one true kindness that came from them after her disappearance.

“They never opened any of the letters. I have to wonder if they would have still been willing to give them to me if they’d read everything that Mary Ellen poured out to me. But it didn’t matter. I had the letters and I finally knew who I was. But I had to accept that my mother, the woman who gave birth to me but who I only saw as my beloved sister, was dead. And I didn’t know who my fatherwas.

“My parents were extremely supportive. They tried to help me find out everything I could, but they stopped at letting me reach out to Frank and Gemma. They figured that would be too hard for me at still such a young age. As soon as I turned eighteen, I came here. I wanted to find them and see what they had to say about me. But more than anything, I wanted to be close to Mary Ellen again. I missed her so much. Finding out about her death had unlocked so many memories and reading the letters just made her even more real. I wanted to come to the camp and feel like I was near her. And possibly find my father. She never said who he was. It was the one secret she didn’t tellme.”

Idon’t tell him what I think I know about his father. That will have to come later. Instead, I thank him for telling meeverything.

“I would never hurt anybody for finding this out. Just like I’m not ashamed to be adopted, I’m not ashamed that Mary Ellen Conner is my mother. I don’t care if that might change the way people look at me. She was wonderful and she loved me. I don’t know if Anthony actually knew the entire story. I had already told him I was adopted, but he might have figured out that I was in an orphanage. I don’t know how he could have found anything else. It’s possible. He might have known everything. But even if he had, it wouldn’t have mattered. I would have happily told him the entire story and let him tell anybody who wanted to hear it. It wouldn’t have been a reason for me to killanybody.”

He looks at me clearly now and speaks with purpose and resolve that seems clear that he’s finally telling the truth. And I believehim.

“I wanted that camp reopened because my mother loved it. Because it was the last place she was ever happy. When Frank and Gemma brought me with them to search for her, I thought I was playing hide and seek with my sister. I just wanted to keep that alive.”

Instead of going back to the police station, I drive directly to Jacob Merriweather’s house. He, too, looks hesitant when he opens the door.

“I’m not here to arrest you or cause you any trouble. I just have a question,” Istart.

“What is it?” heasks.

“What do you know about CarsonBenoit?”

It’s the same question I ask Detective Garrison later, and armed with everything both men told me, I make my way back to the library. The materials Anthony stole have been restored to the collection and I request many of them along with anything Maude can find me about Benoit.

My mind is still spinning when I get home. Sam had brought home takeout Chinese food because he is a glorious husband and always knows exactly what I need even before I say anything. At least a good portion of the time. He’s spreading out all the containers across the kitchen table when I walk in.

“Oh, my god, that smells amazing,” I groan.

“I wasn’t sure what you’d be in the mood for, so I ordered basically everything,” hesays.

“That’s what I’m in the mood for,” I say.

He gets down plates while I pour us drinks and set them at our places. He sits down and we fill our plates with the massive assortment of food.

“What did you find out today?” he asks.

I tell him everything Mike told me. It’s almost amusing to see the way his eyebrows shoot up with every twist and turn in thestory.

“I needed to know more about Carson Benoit,” I say. “What if this man really was Mike’s father? We know for a fact he didn’t commit the murders. Merriweather had Brad’s ring. The only way he could have gotten that was by taking it out of the woods after he killed him. That lays that to rest. But there’s still so many questions. I went and asked Jacob and Detective Garrison about Benoit, then I went to the library to get anything else I could find.

“Since I haven’t heard anything about him during this entire investigation, I figured he might have died. It turns out the story isn’t quite that simple. When Mike told me Mary Ellen’s parents had started to suspect Carson Benoit of being involved, I didn’t realize the extent of that suspicion. He mentioned that the town had ostracized the man, that they thought he was strange and didn’t understand how he lived. That there were rumors about crimes he had committed and things that hadhappened.

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