Chapter 7 - The Car at the Reservoir
Daniel’s car sat beneath a row of yellow emergency lights near the reservoir.
The driver’s door remained open. His keys lay on the gravel. One shoe had been found near the water’s edge.
Police told Evelyn not to come.
She went anyway.
Naomi drove while Officer Brooks followed in another vehicle. By the time they arrived, search teams were moving along the shore with flashlights.
Cold wind swept across the water.
Evelyn stepped carefully from the car, holding her coat closed over her injured ribs.
Brooks approached.
“You should be resting.”
“I need to know whether he’s alive.”
“We don’t know yet.”
“Did you find blood?”
“No.”
“Signs of a struggle?”
“Not obvious ones.”
A detective named Aaron Shaw joined them.
He was tall, serious and economical with words.
“We found Mr. Carter’s phone inside the vehicle,” Shaw said. “The last outgoing call was to you.”
“Was there anything else?”
“A typed note.”
Naomi’s eyes narrowed.
“What did it say?”
Shaw held up an evidence photograph on his tablet.
I COULDN’T PROTECT EITHER OF THEM.
Evelyn read it twice.
“That isn’t Daniel.”
“You’re certain?”
“He would blame me by name.”
Naomi gave her a brief look.
Evelyn continued.
“He would write that I drove him to it. He wouldn’t take responsibility.”
Shaw seemed to consider that.
“The note was printed, not handwritten.”
“From where?”
“We’re checking.”
A search officer called from the wooded shoulder.
Shaw walked toward him, then returned holding a clear evidence bag.
Inside was a pearl earring.
Margaret had worn a matching pair during the attack.
Evelyn stared.
“Was she here?”
“We don’t know,” Shaw said.
“She’s in custody.”
“She was released on bond three hours ago.”
Evelyn turned sharply toward Brooks.
“Why wasn’t I told?”
“The bond decision came through after we left the clinic.”
“Where is she now?”
“Her attorney claims he drove her home.”
Naomi took out her phone.
“I’m checking the property cameras.”
Margaret’s home system appeared offline.
Evelyn looked toward the black water.
Daniel might have abandoned the car himself. He might be hiding. Margaret might have helped him disappear.
Or someone else might have staged the scene to silence him before he confessed.
A search boat moved across the reservoir.
The beam of its light swept over the surface.
Nothing appeared.
Detective Shaw opened Daniel’s car trunk.
Inside were two suitcases, Evelyn’s missing laptop bag and a gray document box.
Naomi leaned closer.
“The operating agreements could be in there.”
The box was sealed and transported to an evidence van.
Evelyn watched an officer remove the laptop bag.
“My computer?”
“It’s empty,” the officer said.
Daniel had taken the bag but not left the laptop.
A distraction.
Or a delivery.
Shaw returned holding a folded receipt found in the center console.
It came from a twenty-four-hour storage facility outside town.
The rental had been paid in cash that morning.
Unit 314.
“We’re obtaining a warrant,” he said.
Naomi looked at the abandoned car.
“Could the laptop be there?”
“Possibly.”
Evelyn’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
She answered before anyone could stop her.
A man’s voice spoke softly.
“Your husband is alive.”
Evelyn signaled for the officers to listen.
“Who is this?”
“You should be more concerned about what he has.”
“Where is he?”
“Stop the emergency file.”
“No.”
“Then Daniel becomes the first loss, not the last.”
The call ended.
Detective Shaw immediately handed the number to a technician.
Evelyn looked toward the reservoir.
The voice did not belong to Simon Vale.
She had heard Simon speak through hundreds of meetings. His voice was older, rougher and more deliberate.
This caller sounded younger.
Educated.
Calm.
Naomi touched Evelyn’s arm.
“They want you to reverse the account freezes.”
“They’re using Daniel as leverage.”
“Or pretending to.”
Evelyn thought of Daniel ripping the camera from the wall, stealing documents and discussing her death.
She did not owe him rescue at the cost of her employees or businesses.
But she still needed him alive.
Not because she loved him as she once had.
Because he knew the truth.
A patrol officer approached Detective Shaw.
“We have something from the traffic camera two miles east.”
The officer showed them a grainy image.
Daniel’s car had entered the reservoir road at 6:42 p.m.
A black SUV followed thirty seconds later.
At 7:03 p.m., the SUV left.
Daniel’s car did not.
“Can you identify the plate?” Naomi asked.
“Obscured.”
“What about the driver?”
“Not yet.”
Another image appeared.
The passenger-side window of the SUV reflected a face for less than a second.
The image was blurred, but Evelyn recognized the silver hair.
Margaret.
Officer Brooks stared at the photograph.
“She was not driven home by her attorney.”
Detective Shaw’s jaw tightened.
“Then her attorney lied.”
A radio call interrupted him.
Officers at Margaret’s house had found the front door unlocked.
The living room was empty.
Her bedroom had been cleared of medication and clothing.
Margaret had vanished.
Search teams continued working through the night.
No body was found in the reservoir.
At two in the morning, police obtained access to storage unit 314.
Evelyn watched remotely from Naomi’s guest suite as Detective Shaw entered with two officers.
The unit contained Evelyn’s stolen laptop, the missing operating agreements, three boxes of archived records and a chair placed beneath a hanging light.
Daniel sat tied to the chair.
His face was bruised, but he was conscious.
An officer rushed toward him.
Daniel began shouting through the tape over his mouth.
They removed it.
“Where is Margaret?” Shaw asked.
Daniel twisted against the restraints.
“She did this.”
“Your mother?”
“No.”
“Who?”
Daniel’s eyes found the officer’s body camera.
He knew Evelyn might eventually see the footage.
May you like
His face crumpled.
“My mother isn’t Margaret Hale,” he said.
