Chapter 9 - SHERIFF BELL
Silas Bell was seventy-one.
He still carried himself like a man who expected rooms to obey him.
He stood outside the boathouse wearing a tan jacket and a calm smile.
“Come out.”
Daniel whispered, “Stay behind me.”
Helena stepped outside anyway.
Bell smiled.
“You look like Rose.”
“Don’t say my mother’s name.”
His smile faded.
“I heard about the cabin. Terrible.”
“You burned it.”
“No.”
“Ray Nolan tried to kill us.”
Bell sighed.
“Ray always was an idiot.”
Anna emerged.
Bell’s eyes moved to her.
Something like recognition crossed his face.
“So that’s the baby.”
Anna’s jaw clenched.
“My name is Anna.”
“I know.”
Daniel came out last.
Bell stared at him.
“Well. Dead men everywhere today.”
Daniel took one step forward.
Bell opened his jacket.
A pistol sat at his hip.
Still legal.
Still deliberate.
Daniel stopped.
Helena asked, “Where’s Evelyn?”
“I don’t know.”
“You threatened her.”
“Prove it.”
“We have Ray’s phone.”
Bell shrugged.
“Then give it to police.”
“You are police.”
“Was.”
He smiled again.
“Important difference.”
Helena showed him Evelyn’s brooch.
Bell’s face changed.
Just slightly.
But Helena saw it.
“You recognize this?”
“No.”
“Bad lie.”
Bell looked toward the lake.
“Your sister made choices, Helena. So did your father. So did Daniel.”
“And Caleb?”
Daniel said.
“Did he choose to die too?”
Bell’s eyes hardened.
“That crash was an accident.”
“You left him breathing on the side of the road.”
“You were drunk.”
“I was nineteen. I was hurt. I remember everything.”
Bell leaned closer.
“No jury cared then.”
Daniel clenched his fists.
Helena stepped between them.
“What was in the steel box?”
Bell said nothing.
“The original report?”
Still nothing.
“Rose knew.”
Bell’s jaw tightened.
That was enough.
Helena smiled.
“You’re scared.”
He laughed.
“Of you?”
“Of a dead woman’s tape.”
For the first time, Bell lost control.
His hand shot out and grabbed Helena’s wrist.
“You listen to me.”
Anna raised her phone.
“I’m recording.”
Bell released Helena immediately.
His smile returned.
“Smart girl.”
He walked toward his SUV.
Then stopped.
“If Evelyn were alive, I imagine she’d tell you the same thing I am.”
“What?”
“Stop.”
Bell looked at Anna.
“Because once you learn what she signed, you may not want her back.”
He drove away.
Anna stared after him.
“What did he mean?”
Daniel looked sick.
“The statement.”
Helena frowned.
“We already know Evelyn lied about you driving.”
“No.”
Daniel shook his head.
“That wasn’t the only statement.”
He reached into his wallet and pulled out an old photocopy.
“I’ve carried this for nineteen years.”
Anna read it.
Then her hands began shaking.
Evelyn had signed a second sworn statement.
It claimed Daniel deliberately grabbed the wheel before the crash.
That statement hadn’t just sent Daniel to prison.
It had made Caleb Hart’s death a felony.
May you like
Anna stared at her father.
“She said you killed your own brother.”
