Chapter 8 - THE MOTHER WITH TWO LIVES
At the hospital, Clara asked the question Victoria had avoided for years.
“What are you really doing for the federal government?”
Victoria sat beside her bed.
“I was asked to serve as special counsel to a joint corruption task force.”
“You told me you were retired.”
“I retired from private practice. I did not stop being an attorney.”
The task force had begun after three whistleblowers reported that Bellweather police officers were protecting Dominic’s illegal dumping operations.
Two whistleblowers later withdrew their statements.
The third disappeared.
Victoria had agreed to help because the investigation overlapped with Thomas’s death.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Clara asked.
“The case was sealed.”
“I’m your daughter.”
“And you were living with the primary subject.”
The truth hurt.
Victoria continued before Clara could turn away.
“I also feared Dominic would punish you if he knew I was investigating him.”
“He punished me anyway.”
“I know.”
For the first time, Victoria’s composure broke.
“I knew he was corrupt. I did not know he was hurting you. That failure belongs to me.”
Clara shook her head.
“He made sure you couldn’t know.”
The task force had tracked Dominic’s payments for months. They had obtained warrants for his businesses, the police station, and several private accounts.
The operation was scheduled for the following week.
Clara’s arrival forced them to move early.
Federal agents were already searching Dominic’s estate.
Others had taken control of the police evidence room.
Chief Pike was missing.
Dominic had been detained but not arrested.
“He’ll walk away,” Clara said.
“Not this time.”
Victoria opened the digital recorder recovered from Clara’s purse.
Dominic’s threats were clear.
So were Pike’s instructions to retrieve her from Victoria’s home and label her unstable.
The recording supported charges for conspiracy, domestic violence, unlawful restraint, and obstruction.
But Victoria needed Clara to understand the danger.
“Dominic knows the task force exists now. If Pike reaches him before we locate the missing evidence, they may destroy whatever connects them to your father.”
Clara placed a hand over her belly.
“What evidence?”
“Thomas kept a duplicate investigation file somewhere on the preserve.”
“Where?”
“He never told me.”
Clara remembered something from childhood.
Her father had often taken her to a stone well near the northern boundary.
He called it “the place where the river remembers.”
As a child, she thought it was a game.
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Now she wondered whether it had been a clue.
👉 Thomas Hale had left something behind before his death, and Clara might be the only person alive who knew where to search.
