Chương 7
Claire stared at the number.
Before the fire she had considered twelve unread messages an emergency.
She opened nothing at first.
Then she saw one name.
EMILY VALE.
Claire's former college roommate.
Three messages.
The first had been sent the night before the fire.
Call me when you're alone.
The second, twelve minutes later:
Actually don't call. Just read your email.
The third came the next morning, after the news had broken.
Oh my God. Claire please be alive.
Claire sat up too quickly.
Pain tore through her shoulder.
She waited until it eased, then searched her email for Emily.
One unread message dated the night of the fire.
Subject line:
You need to see this before Daniel knows I sent it.
Claire's thumb hovered over the screen.
Then she pressed.
The email contained no text except:
I verified enough to know this isn't fake. I'm sorry.
Attached were six files.
The first was a photograph.
A young blonde woman stood on a dock beside a teenage Daniel.
Claire stopped breathing.
The woman looked enough like Margaret to make the relationship obvious.
Under the photograph was a scanned newspaper clipping.
EVELYN BENNETT, 21, MISSING AFTER SAILING ACCIDENT.
Claire opened the next attachment.
A corporate document.
BENNETT MARITIME HOLDINGS.
The next.
An insurance settlement.
The next.
A handwritten letter.
She enlarged it.
Daniel—
If Dad finds out I copied the logs, he'll destroy them. Margaret says I'm being dramatic. I don't care anymore. Somebody has to tell—
The rest of the page was cut off.
Claire's pulse accelerated.
A memory returned with brutal clarity.
She was standing inside the west study holding these same printed pages.
Daniel came through the door.
“What the hell are you doing?”
Claire looked up.
“You had a sister.”
His face changed.
The memory vanished.
Claire gripped the phone.
“Daniel.”
She heard herself say his name in the empty room.
Maya appeared at the doorway almost immediately.
“What happened?”
Claire held out the phone.
Maya read.
Her face tightened.
“We need Cole.”
Claire nodded.
Then she pulled the phone back.
“No.”
Maya looked at her.
“Not yet.”
“Claire.”
“I need to know what this is.”
“That's exactly what an investigator is for.”
“I sent these to myself. Or printed them. Something happened because of this.”
“Which is why you shouldn't investigate alone.”
“I am not investigating. I am reading my own email.”
“That's how every terrible decision starts.”
Claire scrolled through the files.
The final attachment was a spreadsheet.
Dates.
Vessel names.
Cargo values.
Insurance claims.
One vessel name repeated three times.
ASTERION.
Claire looked at Maya.
“Do you know Bennett Maritime?”
“Daniel's grandfather's company.”
“It was sold years ago.”
“Yes.”
“What was Asterion?”
“I have no idea.”
Claire searched the internet.
Maya reached for the phone.
“Absolutely not.”
Claire pulled it away.
“You're my doctor, not my mother.”
“Your mother would probably be less annoying.”
“My mother lives in Arizona and thinks turmeric cures pneumonia.”
“Fine. I'm more annoying.”
Search results appeared.
Most were old maritime databases and archived news pages.
Asterion had been a Bennett-owned cargo vessel damaged by an engine-room fire seventeen years earlier. Two crew members died.
Claire felt the room change.
“Maya.”
“I see it.”
A second result.
Bennett Maritime settlement in wrongful death case.
A third.
Company denies maintenance negligence.
Claire opened another document from Emily's email.
An internal maintenance report.
The date was one week before the Asterion fire.
Repeated electrical fault.
Recommendation: vessel should not sail until repair.
Signed electronically.
Thomas Bennett.
Daniel's father.
Claire felt sick.
Maya sat on the edge of the bed.
“Call Cole.”
Claire kept reading.
The insurance payout had been enormous.
Enough, perhaps, to rescue a company that contemporary articles described as carrying dangerous debt.
The missing sister, Evelyn, disappeared seven months later.
Claire looked at the old photograph again.
Daniel had been twenty-two.
Evelyn twenty-one.
The Bennett family had told police she took a sailboat alone during poor weather. Wreckage was found. Her body never was.
Claire called Emily.
The call connected on the second ring.
Emily answered with a breath.
“Claire?”
“Hi.”
For a second neither woman spoke.
Then Emily started crying.
Not loudly.
She covered it with a laugh that sounded embarrassed.
“Sorry. Sorry, I just—Jesus Christ, Claire.”
“I'm okay.”
“No, you're not.”
“Fair.”
“Are you safe?”
Claire looked at Maya.
“Yes.”
“Is Daniel there?”
“No.”
“Good.”
Claire felt a small stab at the certainty in Emily's answer.
“Why did you send me those files?”
Silence.
“Emily.”
“You asked me to.”
“When?”
“Three weeks ago.”
Claire stared at the wall.
“I don't remember.”
“I know.”
“How did I find out about Evelyn?”
“I don't know.”
“You must.”
“You called me from Connecticut and said you needed help verifying documents. You wouldn't tell me where they came from.”
“What documents?”
“The maintenance records. Insurance stuff. The letter.”
“Did you know Evelyn was Daniel's sister?”
“Not until I researched her.”
“Why didn't you tell me sooner?”
“I did.”
“The email was the night of the fire.”
“No. I mean before that. We talked.”
Claire closed her eyes.
Nothing.
“What did I say?”
Emily took a breath.
“You said you thought Daniel had lied to you about his father.”
“About what?”
“You didn't know yet.”
“Emily.”
“You said Thomas Bennett might have known that ship was unsafe before it sailed.”
Claire looked at the maintenance report.
“And Evelyn?”
“You thought she discovered it.”
“Why?”
“Because of the letter.”
Claire read the fragment again.
If Dad finds out I copied the logs, he'll destroy them.
“What did Daniel say?”
“You hadn't confronted him yet.”
“Yes, I had.”
Maya looked sharply at her.
Claire continued.
“I remember him in the study.”
Emily went quiet.
“That was the night of the fire?”
“Yes.”
“Oh God.”
“Emily, did I tell you where I got the documents?”
“No.”
“Did I mention anyone else?”
A long pause.
“Your mother-in-law.”
Claire opened her eyes.
“What about Margaret?”
“You said she was lying.”
May you like
“About Evelyn?”
“I don't know. You said, ‘Margaret knew what Evelyn found.’ Those were your exact words because I wrote them down.”
