Chapter 4 - CELESTE’S OLD EMPLOYEE FILE
Celeste Crowe denied everything.
Daniel called her from Lakehaven’s living room and placed the phone on speaker.
“I’ve never worked for a company called Northstar,” Celeste said.
“Vanessa told us you did,” Daniel replied.
“My daughter is under enormous stress.”
“Did you know my father?”
“I met Robert Hale at a charity dinner.”
“When?”
“Perhaps twelve years ago.”
Margaret sat beside the fireplace, listening carefully.
Robert had attended dozens of charity events. Meeting Celeste at one of them was possible.
But Celeste’s answer had come too smoothly.
“Which charity?” Margaret asked.
Silence followed.
“I don’t remember.”
“Who hosted it?”
“I said I don’t remember.”
“Robert disliked charity dinners. He attended only when I went with him.”
Celeste’s voice hardened.
“Are you calling me a liar?”
“I am asking you to help us understand why your daughter entered my husband’s locked study.”
Vanessa shouted in the background.
“I did not enter that room!”
Daniel closed his eyes.
Celeste continued.
“This conversation is over. Margaret, you have never welcomed Vanessa. Now you are inventing crimes to frighten Daniel away from his wedding.”
“No one has mentioned canceling the wedding,” Margaret said.
“Not yet.”
Celeste ended the call.
Daniel stared at the dark phone screen.
Margaret expected him to defend Vanessa.
Instead, he asked, “Do you believe Dad knew Celeste?”
“I believe she is afraid of us finding out how well.”
Owen entered carrying a small metal lockbox.
“I found this in the boat shed.”
Margaret recognized it.
Robert had used the box to store old receipts and insurance records.
The lock had been cut.
Inside were water-damaged documents, a pocket notebook, and a photograph.
Daniel picked up the photograph first.
Robert stood near the Lakehaven dock beside three people.
One was Owen.
One was a younger Celeste Crowe.
The third man wore a Northstar Holdings jacket.
The date printed along the bottom was fourteen years earlier.
Daniel turned the photograph over.
Robert had written four words on the back.
Celeste knows the entrance.
“What entrance?” Daniel asked.
Owen sat heavily in a chair.
“I hoped that note no longer existed.”
Margaret looked at him.
“You know what it means.”
“I know what I was told.”
“Then tell us.”
Owen opened the water-damaged notebook.
Most pages were unreadable, but one contained a rough drawing of the lake. A line ran from the southern woods to a marked circle beneath the water.
“Decades ago, before your family purchased Lakehaven, there was a limestone quarry beneath part of the property,” Owen said. “The quarry flooded when the lake expanded.”
Daniel studied the drawing.
“What does that have to do with Northstar?”
“Robert believed there was a sealed access tunnel beneath the southern ridge.”
“For what?”
“I don’t know.”
Margaret looked at the photograph.
“Why was Celeste involved?”
“She worked as a land acquisition consultant. Northstar attempted to buy several properties around the lake. Robert refused every offer.”
“Did he know why they wanted this land?”
“He discovered something in the old quarry records.”
“What?”
Owen shook his head.
“He never told me.”
Daniel turned to the back of the notebook.
A folded document had been taped inside the cover.
It was an employee directory from Northstar Holdings dated fifteen years earlier.
Celeste Crowe’s name appeared on the second page.
Her title was Director of Private Acquisitions.
Below it was another familiar name.
Adrian Cole.
Daniel recognized him immediately.
Adrian was Vanessa’s family attorney.
He was also the lawyer preparing Daniel and Vanessa’s prenuptial agreement.
Daniel pulled out his phone.
“I need to call Adrian.”
Margaret stopped him.
“Not yet.”
“Why?”
“Because if he is involved, calling him tells him what we know.”
Daniel looked toward the employee directory.
“What do we do?”
Margaret picked up the photograph of Robert and Celeste.
“We let them believe we know nothing.”
She placed the photograph back into the box.
“And we watch what they do next.”
That night, while Daniel slept in his childhood bedroom, Margaret received a text from an unknown number.
There was no message.
Only a photograph.
May you like
It showed Margaret, Daniel, and Owen standing around the metal lockbox in the living room.
The picture had been taken through the window less than ten minutes earlier.
