Chapter 3 - Bellweather Lake
Brooks asked the officer to leave before she spoke.
Ten years earlier, Rachel Moore had drowned during a weekend at the Ward family's lake house. Andrew said she took a boat out alone after drinking. Rebecca insisted Rachel feared deep water and would never have gone onto the lake at night. The county sheriff called it an accident. Brooks, newly assigned and eager to prove herself, had found a broken clasp from Rachel's necklace on the dock.
"I gave it to my supervisor," Brooks said. "It disappeared from evidence. Two weeks later, he retired. Three months after that, he bought a house in Florida with cash."
"And you did nothing?"
"I complained. I was warned that a rookie accusing her command without proof would lose more than her badge. I kept a copy of the intake log. I told myself I would reopen it when I had authority. By the time I did, Rebecca had vanished too."
"The voice said not to trust you."
"She's right to say it. My silence helped them."
Elena studied her. Shame can be performed, she thought. Andrew had taught her that. He could produce tears when a waiter asked about his childhood. He could lower his voice when he lied. Brooks, however, did not ask for forgiveness. She simply placed the copied log on the table.
The clasp had been collected at 2:14 a.m. Its engraving read R and R.
"Rebecca and Rachel had matching necklaces," Brooks said. "Rebecca claimed Rachel wore hers that night."
Elena remembered a narrow silver chain she had found in Andrew's desk during their first year of marriage. He said it belonged to his grandmother. The pendant had been missing.
"The desk in his home office has a false bottom," Elena said. "He keeps property documents there. Maybe the chain is still inside."
Brooks wrote it down. "We'll get a warrant."
"By then his lawyer will have removed it."
"The office is sealed."
Elena gave a bitter laugh. "There is a passage behind the bookshelves. Andrew once appeared in the kitchen after I watched him enter his office and never come out. He said I was confused."
Brooks stood at once and called the estate team.
No one answered.
She called again. A dispatcher reported that power and radio communication at the property had failed seventeen minutes earlier. One patrol unit was responding.
Elena tried to rise. Pain exploded beneath her cast.
"Stay here," Brooks ordered.
"That house has passages your officers don't know about."
"Which is why you are staying here."
Brooks left two officers outside Elena's room and hurried away. For twenty minutes, Elena listened to the hospital breathe around her. Carts rolled past. A baby cried somewhere down the corridor. Rain hissed against the windows.
Then a nurse entered carrying medication.
"Something for the pain," she said.
Elena looked at the badge. The photograph showed a round-faced blonde. The woman standing beside her had dark hair tucked beneath a surgical cap.
"I'd rather wait."
"Doctor's orders."
The syringe was already uncapped.
Elena reached for the call button. The woman caught her wrist.
"Don't scream," she whispered. "I'm the one who sent the message."
Elena stared at the small scar across the woman's chin.
Rebecca.
"You were in the room."
"Not willingly."
"Why warn me about Brooks?"
"Because Bellweather Lake wasn't where Rachel died. It was where Detective Brooks helped Andrew move her body."
The door handle turned.
Rebecca pushed the syringe into Elena's blanket, leaving it hidden there, and slipped behind the privacy curtain.
One of the officers looked inside. "Everything okay?"
Elena glanced toward the motionless curtain.
"Yes," she said. "The nurse just left."
May you like
When the officer withdrew, Rebecca emerged and removed a key from her pocket.
"If you want to survive your husband," she said, "you need to leave this hospital before Brooks returns."
