Chapter 5 - what anna hid)
Nathan returned home after sunrise accompanied by two police officers.
Lily stayed at the hospital under Marcus's security team and Detective Bennett's supervision.
Nathan hated leaving her.
But the black stag card had become too important.
The house looked ordinary from the driveway.
That bothered him.
Somebody had photographed it three days earlier.
Nathan checked every window before entering.
Inside, the silence felt wrong.
He went upstairs to the bedroom he had once shared with Anna.
Most of her belongings were packed away.
Not because Nathan wanted to forget.
Because he had been unable to breathe around them.
A storage box sat at the back of the closet.
Nathan opened it.
Scarves.
Books.
A perfume bottle.
Old photographs.
Then an envelope containing the items police returned after the crash.
Anna's watch.
One earring.
Part of her wallet.
And the black card.
Nathan lifted it.
A silver stag was embossed on one side.
The other side contained numbers.
4 17 38.
Nothing else.
One officer photographed it.
"Mean anything?"
"No."
Nathan turned it over again.
4 17 38.
Anna had been thirty four when she died.
Their anniversary was June fifth.
Lily's birthday was February eleven.
Nothing fit.
Nathan searched deeper through the box.
At the bottom was Anna's old tablet.
He had forgotten it existed.
Battery dead.
The officer bagged it for forensic examination.
Nathan was about to close the box when something caught his attention.
A photograph.
Anna stood outside their old house holding three year old Lily.
Nathan remembered taking it.
He smiled despite himself.
Then he noticed the corner.
A black sedan parked across the street.
A man stood beside it.
The image was distant.
Nathan brought the photo closer.
Dark hair.
Black coat.
Impossible to identify.
Yet his posture resembled the man at the wedding.
Nathan flipped the photograph.
Anna had written a note.
If something happens, start with April 17, Room 38.
Nathan stopped.
The numbers.
4 17 38.
April seventeenth.
Room 38.
He called Bennett immediately.
She answered on the second ring.
"I found something."
Twenty minutes later Nathan was in the passenger seat of Bennett's unmarked car.
"Arden House had forty two guest rooms," she said.
"You found records?"
"Partial records. Most were supposedly destroyed in the fire."
"Supposedly?"
"There are inconsistencies."
Nathan looked over.
"Such as?"
"The fire report claims the security servers were destroyed."
"So?"
"The servers were stored off site."
Nathan stared.
"Who wrote the report?"
"A private investigator hired by the owner."
"Who owned the hotel?"
Bennett paused.
"A holding company registered in Delaware."
"Controlled by?"
"We're working on it."
Nathan already knew.
"Harrison."
"Maybe."
"Marcus said the Vales sold it."
"Corporate ownership can become complicated."
"That's a polite way of saying hidden."
Bennett did not disagree.
They reached the remains of Arden House before noon.
The property had never been rebuilt.
A chain link fence surrounded a blackened stone structure partially hidden by weeds.
Nathan stepped from the car.
Above the ruined entrance, barely visible beneath soot, was the outline of a stag.
Lily had been here.
Anna had brought her.
Why?
Bennett's team entered through a section cleared by local authorities.
Inside, the air smelled of wet stone.
Room numbers had survived on portions of the first floor.
Thirty one.
Thirty two.
Thirty three.
Nathan walked carefully through debris.
Room thirty eight stood at the end of the corridor.
Its door was gone.
The room itself was almost completely burned.
Nathan stepped inside.
Nothing remained except part of a metal bedframe and a cracked bathroom wall.
"Why would Anna send me here?"
Bennett scanned the room.
"Maybe something survived."
Nathan looked around.
April seventeenth.
Room thirty eight.
His eyes moved toward the wall.
One tile appeared newer than the others.
He crouched.
The grout around it was different.
Bennett called an evidence technician.
The tile was removed carefully.
Behind it was a narrow cavity.
Inside sat a metal container.
Nathan forgot to breathe.
The technician opened it.
A flash drive.
A folded photograph.
And a sealed envelope.
Nathan recognized Anna's handwriting instantly.
NATHAN ONLY.
His hands began shaking.
Bennett looked at him.
"We need to process it first."
"That's my wife's letter."
"I know."
"For eighteen months."
"I know."
He wanted to argue.
Instead he stared at the envelope.
Twenty minutes later Bennett allowed him to read it wearing gloves.
Nathan unfolded the paper.
Nathan,
If you are reading this, I failed to stop them.
Do not trust anyone connected to Arden House.
Do not trust the official story about the Vale Foundation.
And whatever you do, keep Lily away from Harrison Vale.
Nathan stopped.
His vision blurred.
He read the sentence again.
Keep Lily away from Harrison Vale.
Below it Anna had written:
There are things about our daughter you do not know.
Nathan's heart pounded.
May you like
The letter continued.
But the bottom half of the page had been burned away.
