Chapter 6 - The Letter from a Man Who Had Been Dead for Eight Years
Elena opened the envelope with shaking hands.
Inside was a photograph.
Henry.
Older.
Thin from chemotherapy.
Standing beside Marker 17.
Next to him stood a woman Elena did not recognize.
On the back Henry had written:
If Elena ever sees this, tell her I chose the wrong kind of protection.
There was no date.
A second paper was folded behind it.
Not Henry’s handwriting.
Mrs. Brooks,
Your husband did not discover White Harbor’s secret.
He became part of it.
Ask Thomas Caldwell about July 14, 1994.
Ask Julian why Serena knew about Marker 17.
Most importantly, ask who benefits if you die before September.
Elena read the final sentence twice.
“What happens in September?”
Nobody answered.
Thomas had gone completely pale at the mention of July 14, 1994.
Elena looked at him.
“What happened that day?”
“We should leave the facility.”
“No.”
“Elena.”
“You have hidden enough.”
Julian stepped between them.
“What happened?”
Thomas removed his glasses.
“In July 1994, there was an accident.”
“What kind?”
“A drilling accident.”
“Here?”
Thomas nodded.
“Henry authorized a test bore near Marker 17.”
Elena stared at him.
“Why?”
“He believed White Harbor had buried chemical drums.”
“And?”
“They hit something else.”
“What?”
Thomas looked toward the dark tunnel.
“A chamber.”
The investigators exchanged looks.
“What chamber?” one asked.
Thomas shook his head.
“I never saw it.”
Julian’s patience broke.
“You knew about this for thirty-two years?”
“I knew what Henry told me.”
“And you kept taking our family’s money.”
Thomas’s face hardened.
“I kept your father out of prison twice, protected your employees from lawsuits that would have destroyed the company, and prevented people with far more money than your family from taking Bellhaven.”
“That doesn’t answer me.”
“No,” Thomas replied. “It doesn’t.”
Elena stepped toward him.
“Who was the woman in the photograph?”
Thomas looked at it.
“I don’t know.”
She knew he was lying.
Before she could challenge him, shouting came from the staircase.
A security officer rushed down.
“Mrs. Brooks, your daughter-in-law is gone.”
Julian spun around.
“What?”
“The investigators allowed her to speak privately with counsel. Her attorney arrived, then there was confusion near the west gate.”
“She left?”
“The attorney claims she never entered his vehicle.”
Julian pulled out his phone.
No answer.
Elena’s mind raced.
“Where is my purse?”
Julian pointed to the archive desk.
Elena checked.
The Marker 17 key remained inside.
But something else was missing.
Henry’s letter.
Serena had taken it.
Elena ran upstairs.
The party had collapsed into chaos.
Guests were leaving.
Reporters were gathering outside the gates.
Police searched the property.
Near the main table, Serena’s phone had been found beneath a chair.
Julian picked it up.
The screen displayed one unsent message.
To an unidentified number.
SHE FOUND THE ARCHIVE.
MOVE THE WATER FILES.
Julian stared at it.
“Who was she sending this to?”
Elena looked toward the lake.
The water files.
“What water files?”
Thomas had followed them outside.
For the first time, Elena saw real fear on his face.
“Elena.”
“What?”
“The original contamination records weren’t kept underground.”
“Where?”
Thomas looked across the lake.
“Henry stored them somewhere nobody could reach without crossing the water.”
The old floating pump station.
It stood nearly half a mile offshore.
Abandoned.
Elena remembered Henry taking a boat there late at night decades earlier.
She had assumed he was repairing equipment.
Julian headed toward the marina.
Elena grabbed his arm.
“You are not going alone.”
“Serena might be there.”
“You don’t know that.”
“She’s my wife.”
“And tonight we learned you don’t know your wife at all.”
The words hurt him.
Elena saw it.
But he nodded.
Three investigators accompanied them.
They took Henry’s old launch.
As the boat crossed Bellhaven, fireworks from nearby towns reflected across the water.
Halfway to the pump station, Elena’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
She answered.
“Elena Brooks?”
A woman’s voice.
Older.
Weak.
“Yes.”
“My name is Caroline Vale.”
Elena looked at the photograph in her hand.
The woman beside Henry.
Somehow she knew.
“Were you photographed with my husband?”
Silence.
Then:
“Yes.”
“Where are you?”
“Do not go to the pump station.”
Elena looked ahead.
They were already approaching it.
“Why?”
“Because Serena isn’t running from you.”
Caroline’s voice trembled.
“She’s running from the man who financed your husband.”
The pump station lights suddenly switched on.
Someone stood inside.
Julian whispered, “Serena.”
Elena stared through the dark.
May you like
The figure was too tall to be Serena.
Then a gunshot cracked across the lake.
