CHAPTER 6 — THE PRICE OF SILENCE
CHAPTER 6 — THE PRICE OF SILENCE
Clara gripped the phone so tightly her fingers hurt.
The police traced the call.
It came from a disposable phone near the Richmond highway.
Richard tried to remain calm.
“He’s bluffing.”
Audrey shook her head.
“No. Sienna said George always threatened the person someone loved most.”
Clara looked at her husband.
“You’re not going anywhere alone.”
Richard’s face darkened.
“There’s something I need to tell you.”
The room became still.
Three years earlier, after Sienna died, Richard had hired a private investigator.
Clara stared at him.
“You never told me.”
“I thought Julian was losing himself. He stopped sleeping. He kept insisting the accident was murder.”
“What did the investigator find?”
Richard hesitated.
“That the brake line had been damaged.”
Audrey covered her mouth.
Clara stepped backward as if struck.
“You knew?”
“I knew it might not have been an accident.”
“And you said nothing?”
“The investigator disappeared before he could complete the report.”
Clara’s voice rose.
“You let Sienna be buried under a lie!”
“I was afraid.”
“Of George?”
Richard looked ashamed.
“Of what the truth would do to Julian.”
Audrey’s expression turned bitter.
“So you protected Julian from the truth, and George filled the empty space with lies.”
Richard lowered his head.
The police sergeant asked for the investigator’s name.
“Elena Marlow.”
Audrey recognized it.
“Sienna mentioned her.”
Richard looked up.
“What?”
“She wrote Elena’s name in an email draft. I thought she was another engineer.”
The sergeant searched the national records.
Elena Marlow was not dead.
She had entered federal witness protection after testifying in an unrelated financial case.
Richard stared at the screen.
“She didn’t disappear. She was hidden.”
Clara faced him.
“Did George know you hired her?”
Richard did not answer quickly enough.
Clara understood.
“You told him.”
“He was my brother.”
“And Sienna trusted him too.”
The sergeant received a message.
His expression changed.
“Elena left witness protection six months ago.”
“Where is she now?” Audrey asked.
The officer looked toward the dark windows.
“Oakhaven Springs.”
A vehicle pulled into the driveway.
Everyone froze.
A tall woman in a tan coat stepped from the car.
She carried a thick red folder beneath one arm.
Richard whispered, “That’s Elena.”
Before anyone could open the door, a dark SUV sped past the house.
A gunshot was not heard.
There was only the sharp crack of glass.
Elena dropped behind her car as the front window shattered.
The red folder slid across the wet driveway.
Audrey ran toward it.
May you like
And from the shadows beyond the gate—
George stepped forward.
