Chapter 5 - The Road Out of Bellhaven
They returned to Bellhaven before dawn two days later.
Lena had slept perhaps forty minutes.
Her father's voice followed her through every mile.
I never stopped being your father.
She wanted to believe those words.
She also wanted to scream at him.
Love, she was discovering, did not erase damage.
Sometimes people hurt you precisely because they loved you enough to become terrified.
At the cemetery, Nolan arranged for the caretaker to leave.
Jack brought tools.
Carlos stood watch.
Lena stared at the grave.
“Do it.”
They removed the soil behind the headstone rather than disturbing the coffin.
Two feet down, Jack's shovel struck metal.
They uncovered a waterproof container.
Inside were ledgers, photographs, flash drives, and a sealed envelope bearing Lena's name.
She opened it.
A handwritten note from her mother.
Lena,
Your father believed evidence could defeat evil.
I believed surviving evil mattered more.
We were both right, and both wrong.
If this box has been opened, survival is no longer enough.
Finish what we couldn't.
Lena handed the note to Jack.
He read it twice.
Nolan examined the files.
“This could destroy Vale.”
“Then why didn't Mom give it to the police?”
“Because we never knew who betrayed the original investigation.”
Lena looked at Nolan.
“And we still don't.”
“No.”
Carlos called from the cemetery gate.
“Company.”
A black SUV turned onto the road.
Jack closed the box.
“Move.”
But the SUV stopped.
One person stepped out.
A woman.
Late sixties.
Silver hair.
Elegant coat.
She raised both hands.
“My name is Evelyn Shaw.”
Nolan went pale.
Lena noticed.
“You know her?”
“Everyone did.”
Evelyn had been the federal prosecutor assigned to Daniel's investigation seventeen years earlier.
The prosecutor who officially closed the case after his death.
Evelyn approached slowly.
“I've been waiting a long time for that box.”
Jack positioned himself between her and Lena.
“That doesn't make me want to give it to you.”
“It shouldn't.”
Evelyn looked at Lena.
“You have your mother's eyes.”
“Everybody apparently knew my parents except me.”
Evelyn accepted the accusation.
“Claire was extraordinary.”
“Did you know my father was alive?”
“Yes.”
Another betrayal.
Lena almost laughed.
“How many people attended a funeral for a man they knew wasn't dead?”
“Five.”
“That's four too many.”
Evelyn looked at the box.
“Vale knows it's been recovered.”
“How?”
“Because he has someone close to you.”
Everyone became still.
“Who?”
“I don't know.”
Nolan raised an eyebrow.
“Convenient.”
Evelyn looked at him.
“You were always suspicious of the wrong people, Thomas.”
“And you trusted the wrong ones.”
Jack interrupted.
“Enough.”
Lena looked at Evelyn.
“What do you want?”
“To finish Daniel's case.”
“Why now?”
“Because Vale is dying.”
Silence.
“He has months, perhaps less. His organization is fragmenting. People who protected him are frightened. This is the first time in seventeen years that witnesses may talk.”
“Then arrest him.”
“Evidence first.”
Lena lifted the box.
“This?”
“Possibly.”
“Possibly?”
“Daniel had records. Vale had lawyers.”
Lena was exhausted by people who spoke in half-truths.
“What do you need?”
“The original account key.”
Jack frowned.
“What account key?”
Evelyn looked at Lena.
“Your father has it.”
The cemetery seemed to tilt.
“You know where he is.”
“No.”
“But you can contact him.”
“No.”
“Then how do you know?”
“Because Daniel designed the evidence so the financial records couldn't be opened without something only he possessed.”
Lena stared at the grave.
Her father had built an elaborate machine of secrets.
Now she was trapped inside it.
A phone rang.
Not hers.
Jack checked his pocket.
Nothing.
Nolan shook his head.
Carlos did the same.
The ringing came from the metal box.
Beneath the documents lay a cheap phone.
Its screen displayed:
UNKNOWN CALLER.
Nobody moved.
It rang again.
Lena picked it up.
“Hello?”
Silence.
Then breathing.
“Lena?”
Her knees weakened.
She knew the voice now.
She had heard it on the recording.
“Dad?”
Jack turned away, overcome.
Nolan closed his eyes.
The voice on the phone trembled.
“Baby girl.”
Lena began crying.
Seventeen years collapsed into two words.
She wanted to tell him she loved him.
She wanted to tell him she hated him.
Instead she whispered:
“Where are you?”
Daniel Harper answered.
“Closer than you think.”
May you like
Then a gunshot sounded through the phone.
And the line went dead.
