Chapter 10 - Before the Wedding
Harold knew Nathan before Nicole did.
That was the secret hidden at the end of the tape.
Not personally.
By name.
In 2009, Harold testified quietly in a civil environmental case involving a construction company subcontractor.
The company name was Hayes Infrastructure.
Owned by Nathan’s father.
Margaret remembered Nathan’s father vaguely.
Carl Hayes.
Dead now.
Heart attack in 2018.
According to Harold’s tape, Carl had once worked security at Black Pine.
Margaret replayed the sentence three times.
“Carl knew Victor. Carl knew where Samuel was buried.”
Evelyn stared at her.
“So Nathan didn’t discover Black Pine through Harold’s papers.”
“No.”
“He married into it.”
Margaret hated the thought instantly.
“No.”
“You heard the tape.”
“That doesn’t mean he married Nicole because of Black Pine.”
Evelyn was silent.
That was worse.
Margaret thought back fourteen years.
Nicole meeting Nathan at a charity 5K.
Nathan charming.
Polite.
Attentive.
Harold disliking him immediately.
Margaret had blamed Harold.
“You don’t trust anybody,” she said once.
Harold answered, “I trust plenty of people. I don’t trust that one.”
“Why?”
“His questions.”
“What questions?”
“About my work. About the county. About old property.”
Margaret had dismissed it.
Now she wanted to go back and shake herself.
The storm drain behind Susan’s property was excavated under police supervision.
Harold’s map led to a sealed PVC tube wedged behind an old concrete culvert.
Inside were twelve photocopied ledger pages.
Payments.
Dates.
Officials.
Corporate accounts.
Evelyn identified her father’s handwriting.
Detective Mendes photographed everything.
Federal agents took custody.
One name appeared repeatedly.
E. CALDER.
Judge Everett Calder.
Another appeared only twice.
W. CALDER.
William.
The senator.
The entries dated 1989.
Amounts were smaller.
But real.
Margaret stared.
“What was William paid for?”
Evelyn pointed to a handwritten notation.
P contacts.
“What does P mean?”
Nobody knew.
A federal investigator named Agent Thomas Bell arrived that evening.
Tall.
Careful.
He spoke little.
“We will need the original.”
Margaret looked at him.
“Why?”
“Photocopies are useful. Original provenance is stronger.”
“Harold said the original is somewhere else.”
“And the final page?”
“Elsewhere again.”
Bell nodded.
“Did Harold give clues?”
“Not yet.”
“Not yet?”
“There’s more tape.”
The cassette continued after several minutes of silence.
Margaret nearly missed it.
Harold’s voice returned.
“The original ledger is where Nicole first learned to swim.”
Margaret stared at the recorder.
Evelyn looked confused.
Margaret was not.
Lake Avery.
A family cabin.
Sold twenty years ago.
Or so Margaret thought.
The cabin had belonged to Harold’s sister, June.
Nicole learned to swim from Harold at the dock when she was five.
Margaret called June.
No answer.
Again.
No answer.
Then Susan phoned.
“Margaret?”
“What?”
“There’s someone at your house.”
“Who?”
“I can’t tell.”
Margaret stood.
“What are they doing?”
“Your back door is open.”
Margaret’s blood went cold.
Police still had the property taped off.
“Call Mendes.”
“I did.”
A crash sounded through Susan’s phone.
Then she whispered, “Oh, no.”
“What?”
“They’re coming out.”
“Who?”
Susan breathed.
“Victor.”
Margaret gripped the phone.
Victor Danner stepped out of her house carrying Harold’s old wooden toolbox.
But he was not alone.
Nicole was with him.
Margaret’s mind rejected the image.
Nicole was supposed to be at her attorney’s office.
Susan whispered, “She’s getting into his car.”
Margaret closed her eyes.
Harold’s voice returned in memory.
Do not trust her because she is our daughter.
Trust what she does when telling the truth costs her something.
Nicole entered Victor’s car.
The sedan drove away.
May you like
Margaret whispered:
“What did you choose this time, Nicole?”
