Chapter 8 - THE BODY BENEATH THE LAKE
Daniel held the note in front of his father.
“Who killed Rachel?”
Charles said nothing.
Elena stood behind Daniel.
Noah had been moved into another room with two officers.
For the first time since the ballroom, Elena no longer looked frightened.
She looked furious.
“Answer him.”
Charles stared at the broken window.
Marcus stepped closer.
“You knew this question was coming.”
Charles looked at him.
“You know more than you admit too.”
Marcus’s jaw tightened.
“This isn’t about me.”
“It became about you the moment Samuel Reed started digging.”
Daniel looked between them.
“Enough.”
He slapped the note onto the desk.
“My daughter is somewhere with a woman who apparently hates her.”
“Someone just fired into this house.”
“And every person in this room keeps hiding pieces.”
He pointed at Charles.
“You first.”
Charles slowly sat.
“Rachel died at Lake Arden.”
Elena closed her eyes.
Daniel knew the place.
It belonged to the Whitmore family.
A private lake several hours north.
He had not visited it since childhood.
Marcus took out his notebook.
“When?”
“Eight years ago.”
“Before or after Sophie’s birth?”
“After.”
Elena whispered.
“How long after?”
“Six weeks.”
Her face crumpled.
Daniel glanced at her.
She stayed standing.
“What happened?”
Charles folded his hands.
“Rachel called me.”
Daniel frowned.
“Why you?”
“She had nowhere else to go.”
Elena laughed bitterly.
“She trusted the man who built the program?”
“She did not trust me.”
Charles looked at her.
“She was desperate.”
“What did she say?”
“That Vivienne wanted the baby.”
Daniel felt sick again.
“She said Victor Laurent had threatened her.”
Marcus wrote quickly.
“What threat?”
“If Rachel spoke publicly, they would destroy her.”
Elena whispered.
“She didn’t care.”
Charles nodded.
“No.”
“She planned to go to the police.”
Marcus looked up.
“Did she?”
“She tried.”
“Which department?”
Charles looked at Marcus.
“Yours.”
Marcus went still.
Daniel noticed.
“Who did she contact?”
Charles hesitated.
“Samuel Reed.”
Marcus closed his eyes for half a second.
Daniel’s pulse increased.
“Your partner.”
“Yes.”
Marcus spoke quietly.
“Samuel never told me he had met her.”
Charles looked at him.
“He probably wanted to protect you.”
Marcus’s eyes hardened.
“Don’t pretend you know what he wanted.”
Charles ignored him.
“Rachel arranged to meet Reed at Lake Arden.”
“Why there?”
“She believed no one knew she had access.”
Daniel frowned.
“How did she get access?”
Charles looked toward Elena.
“Margaret gave her a key.”
Elena stared.
“My mother helped her?”
“At first.”
“What changed?”
Charles’s voice dropped.
“Fear.”
Elena laughed harshly.
“That word again.”
“It controlled everyone.”
Daniel leaned over the desk.
“What happened at the lake?”
Charles stared at him.
“I arrived late.”
“Why were you going?”
“Rachel called me after she called Reed.”
“She wanted me to bring documents proving the program existed.”
“Did you?”
“Yes.”
“Did you meet her?”
“No.”
Daniel’s hands tightened.
“What did you find?”
Charles looked at Elena.
“Her car.”
Elena stopped moving.
“It was parked beside the boathouse.”
“And?”
“Blood on the dock.”
Elena’s eyes filled.
“How much?”
Charles did not answer.
Daniel whispered.
“Enough.”
Charles nodded.
Marcus stepped closer.
“Was there a body?”
“No.”
“Then why do you say she died?”
“Because I found her coat in the water.”
Elena stared at him.
“That doesn’t prove anything.”
“No.”
“Then she could still be alive.”
Charles looked at her with pity.
Elena recoiled.
“Don’t look at me like that.”
Charles spoke softly.
“I searched.”
“How?”
“Divers.”
“Police?”
“No.”
“Of course not.”
Charles looked down.
“I used private people.”
“And found nothing.”
“No.”
Elena’s hope flickered.
Marcus noticed too.
“Then Rachel’s death is unconfirmed.”
Charles nodded.
Daniel thought of Margaret.
Of Vivienne.
Of Sophie.
“If Rachel survived, where would she go?”
Elena answered immediately.
“To my mother.”
Charles looked at her.
“Possibly.”
Marcus checked the old case database on his tablet.
“There was a Jane Doe found four days later.”
Everyone looked at him.
“Where?”
“River county.”
Elena’s face drained.
“How old?”
“Mid-twenties.”
“Cause?”
Marcus read.
“Drowning.”
Daniel stared at Charles.
“You knew?”
Charles looked away.
“You knew.”
“I suspected.”
Elena’s voice trembled.
“Was it her?”
Marcus continued.
“No identification.”
“Body damaged from water exposure.”
Elena closed her eyes.
“Dental records?”
“None on file.”
Daniel turned toward Charles.
“You could have identified her.”
Charles remained silent.
“You had access to Rachel’s medical files.”
Still nothing.
Daniel stepped closer.
“You deliberately left her unidentified.”
Charles finally looked up.
“Yes.”
Elena made a sound somewhere between a gasp and a sob.
Daniel stared at his father.
“Why?”
“Because if her identity became public, the investigation would have reached the clinic.”
Elena crossed the room.
Daniel did not stop her.
She struck Charles.
Once.
Then again.
Marcus caught her arms.
“Elena.”
“Let me go!”
She fought him.
“You left my sister in a morgue without a name!”
Charles did not defend himself.
“You let me believe she burned in a car!”
“Elena.”
Marcus held her back.
She screamed at Charles.
“My mother cried at that funeral!”
Charles’s face changed.
“Your mother knew.”
Elena stopped struggling.
“What?”
Charles stood.
“Margaret knew Rachel was not in that car.”
“No.”
“She helped create the false accident.”
“No.”
“She was trying to protect you.”
Elena stared.
“Protect me from what?”
“Vivienne.”
Daniel felt cold.
Charles continued.
“After Rachel threatened to expose everything, Vivienne believed you might know too much.”
Elena stepped backward.
“I knew nothing.”
“She didn’t know that.”
Daniel stared at his father.
“So Margaret faked Rachel’s death.”
“Yes.”
“To make Vivienne stop looking for Elena?”
“Yes.”
Elena shook her head.
“But Rachel still died.”
Charles’s voice softened.
“I believe Margaret found her body later.”
Marcus frowned.
“Why would Margaret not report it?”
Charles looked toward the broken window.
“Because by then, she understood who was involved.”
Daniel thought.
“Victor Laurent.”
“Yes.”
“Vivienne.”
“Yes.”
“And you.”
Charles did not answer.
Daniel nodded bitterly.
“And you.”
Marcus suddenly looked at something on the old report.
“Wait.”
He enlarged a scanned page.
“What?”
Daniel asked.
“The Jane Doe’s personal effects.”
He read aloud.
“Silver ring.”
“Leather bracelet.”
“Small brass key.”
Elena froze.
“What kind of key?”
Marcus zoomed in on the evidence photograph.
Elena moved closer.
Her face changed instantly.
“That’s my mother’s greenhouse key.”
Daniel looked at the silver chain around Elena’s neck.
The key she carried looked almost identical.
Marcus stared at her.
“You have a duplicate.”
Elena whispered.
“My mother told me there were two.”
Charles looked alarmed.
“What?”
Elena turned toward him.
“She gave me one.”
“She said Rachel had the other.”
Daniel felt the significance.
“If the Jane Doe had Rachel’s key…”
Marcus nodded.
“It was probably her.”
Elena sank into a chair.
Daniel crouched beside her.
She did not cry.
That frightened him more.
She stared at nothing.
“My sister died alone.”
Daniel spoke quietly.
“We don’t know that.”
“Yes.”
She looked at him.
“We do.”
Her voice broke.
“She died because all of you treated people like pieces on a board.”
Daniel flinched.
She saw it.
“I’m not saying you knew.”
“But your name opened every door.”
“Your family owned every room.”
“And people like Rachel and me were the ones who paid for it.”
Daniel had no defense.
He did not try.
Marcus’s phone rang.
He stepped away.
Daniel remained beside Elena.
A minute later, Marcus returned.
“We found Margaret’s minivan.”
Elena stood immediately.
“Where?”
“Near Lake Arden.”
Everyone froze.
Charles whispered.
“No.”
Daniel looked at him.
“Why no?”
Charles’s face had changed completely.
“If Margaret went back there, she is not hiding.”
“What is she doing?”
Charles stared at Daniel.
“Finishing something.”
Daniel’s stomach tightened.
“What?”
Charles did not answer.
They drove through the night.
By the time they reached Lake Arden, dawn was beginning to gray the sky.
The old Whitmore lodge stood beside dark water.
Margaret’s minivan was parked outside.
The driver’s door was open.
Daniel jumped out before the car stopped fully.
“Sophie!”
Elena ran behind him.
They searched the lodge.
Empty.
Then Elena saw footprints leading toward the boathouse.
Small footprints.
A child’s.
They ran.
The boathouse door stood open.
Inside, a chair had been knocked over.
A glass lay shattered.
A girl’s jacket rested on the floor.
Daniel picked it up.
His hands shook.
“Sophie!”
No answer.
Elena ran toward the dock.
She stopped.
A woman stood at the edge.
Margaret Bennett.
Older than in the video.
Thin.
Gray-haired.
She held Sophie by the shoulder.
The little girl looked terrified.
Elena whispered.
“Mom.”
Margaret turned.
For one second, her face showed shock.
Then anger.
“You should not have come.”
Elena stepped forward.
Sophie stared at her.
Margaret tightened her hand.
“Stay back.”
Daniel moved beside Elena.
“Sophie.”
The girl looked at him.
Something in her expression changed.
Recognition.
Not because she knew him.
Because she had seen him before.
Daniel realized it.
Pictures.
Someone had shown her photographs.
Margaret noticed.
“Don’t look at him.”
Sophie lowered her eyes.
Daniel’s chest tightened.
“Let her go.”
Margaret laughed.
“You don’t even know what she is.”
Daniel froze.
“She is a child.”
“No.”
Margaret’s face twisted with years of bitterness.
“She is the reason Rachel died.”
Elena stepped forward.
“No.”
“She is your granddaughter.”
“She was Rachel’s sentence.”
“Stop it.”
Margaret pointed toward the lake.
“Your sister bled on that dock because of that child.”
Sophie began crying silently.
Daniel’s anger exploded.
“Do not say that in front of her.”
Margaret looked at him.
“You sound like your father.”
Daniel stopped.
Then Margaret reached into her coat.
Elena gasped.
A small pistol appeared in her hand.
She pressed it against Sophie’s side.
Daniel froze.
“Mom.”
Elena’s voice became very calm.
“Put it down.”
Margaret’s hand trembled.
“I kept her alive for eight years.”
“Then keep doing that.”
“You don’t understand.”
“Make me.”
Margaret’s eyes filled with tears.
“Vivienne is coming.”
Daniel felt cold.
Elena whispered.
“Why?”
Margaret looked toward the road.
May you like
“Because Sophie knows what happened to Rachel.”
And behind them, a car door slammed.
