Page 139 of The Me I Left Behind

She gavethe McDowell’s the address of the self-storage facility and asked them to follow her there. She called Julia on the way, sharing what had transpired with the Olivers, telling her where she was going and why, and assured her she wanted, and needed, to do this alone.

And could she please see if the children needed food, or anything? “I’ll be there as soon as I take care of this.”

Maggie knew she needed to bring closure to one more piece of Max’s puzzling life.

She pulled up to the storage facility office. The McDowell’s parked their pickup truck next to her. She asked them to wait there while she dealt with Louise.

Ah, Ms. Louise. You do not want to mess with me today.

She looked up as Maggie crossed the threshold into the office.

“Good afternoon, Louise. Remember me? Maggie Oliver. Max Oliver’s wife. I’m here to get some of those things from Max’s unit.”

Louise blew out of breath. “I told you, Mr. Oliver said—”

“He’s dead.”

Louise’s mouth clamped shut.

“If you need proof, I can get you a copy of a death certificate. But let’s just cut through some of the shit and get on with it. Shall we? Max’s credit card payment won’t go through now. I’m the executor of his will, so everything will be cut off soon. You’ll want the unit emptied and I want the stuff that’s in there. Let’s kill a few birds and get things rolling. Shall we?”

Louise stared at her, holding her breath. She reached for the envelope and pulled out the key. “Fine. Unit sixty-seven.” She slapped the key down flat on the countertop.

Maggie placed her hand over it and slid it closer. “Great. I’ll be back.”

She left and asked the McDowell’s to follow her to unit sixty-seven.

Once there, Maggie unlocked the padlock and opened the unit. Louise, or whoever, had placed all the totes and other items in basically the same position as before. She guided the McDowell’s to the left side and turned to them.

“I found this storage unit a few weeks ago. Max never told me about it. I was looking for something we put in storage years ago and discovered all this.” She pointed to the row of blue plastic boxes. “These containers are all Caroline’s things, I believe. I don’t know what is there, but I thought you might want them. There is another one at my house. I will ship the contents to you if you leave me your address. I took it because I wanted to find out more about who Max had been married to before me. I never knew about your daughter. He never told me.”

She looked at Caroline’s mother, who was in tears. Her father stood beside her, sniffling.

“I’m so sorry for what happened. I know that Max’s anger and his drinking caused her death, whether or not he intended to kill her. And I’d already concluded that Caroline had planned to leave him, or why else would she have boxed things up and labeled them like this, and had them ready to move?”

Mrs. McDowell went to a tote at the end and laid her hand on it. “These things have been here for over twenty years?”

Maggie gave a nod. “Yes, apparently. Like I said, I just discovered them recently. Max had stored them away, with some other things I have yet to go through.”

“We asked and asked for her things…” Mr. McDowell said. “He would never give them to us.”

Maggie’s heart went out to them.

Mrs. McDowell faced her. “He hurt you too, didn’t he? I tried to warn you, you know.”

She didn’t know what the woman was talking about. “Excuse me?”

“The postcards. Did you get them? Every year on June 18? That was the day she died.”

Suddenly, it all came together. The postcards were a warning from Caroline’s mother? “Oh, my goodness. I got them, but I had no clue what they meant.”

Caroline’s mom grasped her hand. “I prayed you wouldn’t suffer the same fate. And those beautiful children…” She glanced at her husband. “We always wanted grandchildren, but it wasn’t to be.”

Maggie sucked in a breath and released it slowly. “Thank you for your concern, Mrs. McDowell, and the warnings.” She patted the back of her hand, then nodded toward the items in the unit. “I can help load these in your truck, if you like.”

“That won’t be necessary,” Mr. McDowell told her. “If all the same to you, let us take our time loading and looking at things. We can padlock it back when finished.” He reached in to give her a hug then. “Thank you,” he mumbled.

“You’re welcome. Take your time.” Maggie gave him a quick squeeze back, then left them to their memories and their task.