Chapter 6 - MIDNIGHT
The photograph changed everything.
Helena wanted to call the FBI.
Daniel wanted to call every cop in the state.
Anna wanted to drive straight to Silas Bell’s house and put a tire iron through his window.
Instead, Helena forced them to think.
“What does he want?”
Daniel pointed at the police report.
“That.”
“It’s a photocopy.”
“He may not know that.”
Anna paced.
“Midnight for what?”
Helena flipped the photo again.
There was more writing under the first sentence.
BRING THE REPORT TO RIVER STREET LOCKER 214.
NO POLICE.
Daniel looked at the clock.
9:17 p.m.
They had less than three hours.
River Street Station had closed fifteen years earlier. The old bus terminal now contained storage lockers and abandoned offices.
At 11:40, Helena entered alone.
Daniel hated the plan.
Anna hated it more.
But Helena refused to risk them.
She carried the report inside a manila envelope.
Locker 214 stood at the end of a dark hallway.
Helena placed the envelope inside.
Then waited.
Nothing.
Her phone vibrated.
UNKNOWN NUMBER.
LEAVE.
Helena walked away.
Thirty seconds later, Daniel whispered through the earbud hidden beneath her hair.
“Someone’s coming.”
A man in a baseball cap entered the hallway.
Not Bell.
He opened the locker.
Daniel and Anna came through the rear entrance.
Helena turned.
“Hey!”
The man ran.
Daniel tackled him near the exit.
They slammed into a wall.
The man punched Daniel, broke free and reached inside his jacket.
Helena saw metal.
“Gun!”
Anna grabbed a fire extinguisher and blasted him in the face.
He cursed.
Daniel drove him to the floor.
Helena kicked the handgun away.
Anna stood over him.
“Where is Evelyn?”
“Go to hell.”
Anna lifted the extinguisher again.
“Try me.”
“Anna.”
Helena pulled it away.
Daniel ripped the man’s cap off.
Helena recognized him.
Ray Nolan.
Former sheriff’s deputy.
Bell’s driver during his last years in office.
Daniel searched his pockets.
Car keys.
Cash.
Burner phone.
No Evelyn.
Helena picked up the phone.
One message sat on the screen.
BELL: GET THE REPORT. THEN CLEAN UP THE WOMEN.
Anna read it.
“That’s enough.”
“For what?”
“To go to the police.”
Daniel shook his head.
“Bell will say someone used his name.”
Ray started laughing.
“You people really think this is about some nineteen-year-old car crash?”
Helena crouched.
“What else is it about?”
Ray smiled through blood on his lip.
“Ask Evelyn why your mother died.”
Helena stopped.
“My mother had a stroke.”
Ray laughed again.
“That what Daddy told you?”
Daniel grabbed his shirt.
“What happened to Rose Crawford?”
Ray stared at Helena.
“Your mother found the letters.”
Helena’s stomach turned.
“What letters?”
“The ones Richard spent eighteen years hiding.”
“What did she do?”
Ray’s smile faded.
“She called Evelyn.”
Helena could barely hear herself.
“When?”
“Three days before Rose Crawford died.”
Helena stared at him.
Her mother had spoken to Evelyn.
May you like
Her mother had known she was alive.
Ray whispered, “And somebody made sure she never got the chance to tell you.”
