Chapter 7 - SARAH’S SECRET
Sarah had taught music at a public school in Yonkers.
Elliot knew that.
What he didn’t know was that she had volunteered at Ashbury Hall.
According to the documents, Sarah had led a weekend music program for scholarship students seven years earlier.
She had also filed complaints.
Many complaints.
Missing scholarship funds.
Disappearing students.
Pressure on low-income families.
Elliot stared at Sarah’s emails.
She had written to Caroline Hargrove.
To Principal Crowe.
To three board members.
She had accused them of discrimination.
Financial misconduct.
Retaliation.
Dana looked at Elliot.
“Did she ever tell you?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
Elliot knew the answer.
At the time, Mercer Industries had been in the middle of a major acquisition.
He had been flying constantly.
Working eighteen-hour days.
Sarah had stopped telling him small things because he always promised to listen later.
Later had become never.
Elliot found one final email from Sarah.
IF YOU CONTINUE TARGETING THESE FAMILIES, I WILL GO PUBLIC.
It had been sent three days before the car accident that killed her.
Elliot stared at the date.
His chest tightened.
“No.”
Dana understood immediately.
“You think her accident—”
“I don’t know.”
He stood.
“But I’m going to find out.”
Sarah had died when her car lost control on a wet road.
Police called it an accident.
No other vehicle had been identified.
Elliot had accepted it.
He had been too destroyed to question anything.
Now he called a retired investigator who had worked the case.
Detective Raymond Cole agreed to meet.
Cole brought the old file.
“There was something strange.”
Elliot leaned forward.
“What?”
“A witness reported seeing a dark SUV near Sarah’s car before the crash.”
Elliot’s heart pounded.
“Why wasn’t that in the final report?”
“It was.”
Cole opened the file.
“The witness withdrew the statement.”
“Why?”
“Said he was mistaken.”
“Who was the witness?”
“A gas station employee.”
“Can we find him?”
Cole nodded.
They located him in Connecticut.
His name was Brian Ellis.
At first, he refused to talk.
Then Elliot showed him Sarah’s photograph.
Brian’s face changed.
“I remember her.”
“What did you see?”
Brian looked nervous.
“A black SUV followed her out of the gas station.”
“Did it hit her?”
“I don’t know.”
Brian rubbed his hands together.
“But somebody came to see me after.”
“Who?”
“A woman.”
Elliot held up Caroline’s photograph.
Brian stared.
“That’s her.”
Dana went still.
“She threatened you?”
“She paid me.”
“How much?”
“Ten grand.”
Elliot’s voice became cold.
“To do what?”
“To say I was mistaken.”
There was no proof Caroline had caused the crash.
But she had paid a witness to disappear from the story.
That was enough to reopen everything.
When Elliot returned home, Lila was waiting.
“Was Mom involved?”
He didn’t want to burden her.
But he had promised the truth.
“Yes.”
Lila started crying.
“Did they hurt her?”
“I don’t know.”
Then the doorbell rang.
Security intercepted a package.
No return address.
Inside was a photograph.
Sarah.
Standing outside Ashbury Hall.
Across her face, someone had written one sentence in red ink.
SHE SHOULD HAVE STAYED QUIET.
May you like
And underneath it:
SO SHOULD YOUR DAUGHTER.
