Chapter 5 - WHAT MARA HID IN BAY 14
“WHAT DID SHE LEAVE THERE?”
Adrian reached for the brass key.
Brooke pulled it back.
“Promise me something first.”
Adrian's face hardened.
“You don't get to make demands after what happened to Frank.”
“I know.”
“Then answer me.”
Brooke looked toward Detective Bennett.
“I want protection before I tell you anything else.”
Bennett studied her carefully.
“Protection from whom?”
Brooke's eyes filled.
“My sister.”
For the first time that night, I understood how deeply Delilah controlled the people around her.
Not only employees.
Not only her future husband.
Even her own sister was afraid to speak.
Bennett explained that Brooke could provide a formal statement and that investigators would assess any credible threats.
But the key alone did not authorize anyone to search the freight yard.
Brooke nodded.
Then she told us something unexpected.
“The locker is in a small dispatch office beside Bay 14. It was never included in the warehouse inventory.”
“Why?” Adrian asked.
“Because Mara paid for it herself when she was helping organize the drivers' safety committee.”
Adrian stared at her.
“Mara was helping Prescott employees?”
“Yes.”
“She never told me.”
Brooke lowered her head.
“She tried.”
Those three words hurt him more than any accusation.
I saw him remembering conversations he'd probably dismissed.
Complaints he'd called exaggerations.
Warnings he'd been too busy to investigate.
Then Brooke said something that made me look up.
“Mara wasn't trying to destroy Kingsley Freight. She was trying to keep your drivers alive.”
Adrian sat down.
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Finally, Bennett placed the key in an evidence envelope.
“If Brooke's account is accurate, we have grounds to seek access to that office.”
She turned to Samuel.
“Can you verify whether the building still exists?”
Samuel opened the property plans.
“Yes. The dispatch annex is scheduled for demolition after the main warehouse.”
Relief crossed Adrian's face.
Then Samuel frowned.
“Except there's an emergency demolition authorization dated yesterday.”
“Signed by whom?”
“Delilah Prescott.”
The room went silent.
Adrian stood.
“She's destroying it because she knows what's inside.”
“Possibly,” Bennett said. “But we need proof before making that accusation.”
She began arranging for investigators to preserve the property.
Meanwhile, I noticed Brooke staring at the broken wristwatch on the desk.
Frank's watch.
The one I'd found lying beside him.
“Where did you get that?” Brooke whispered.
“Frank was wearing it,” I answered.
She shook her head.
“No. That isn't Frank's watch.”
Adrian looked at her.
“What?”
“That's Mara's watch.”
He picked it up.
The damaged leather strap was almost unrecognizable beneath the dried mud.
But when he turned it over, his face changed.
There was a small engraving on the back.
A + M. Always home.
Adrian sat down heavily.
“I gave this to her for our seventh anniversary.”
His fingers trembled.
“Why would Frank have it?”
Brooke looked miserable.
“Because Owen took it from her wrist.”
Bennett leaned forward.
“Did you witness that?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Brooke swallowed.
“I heard him say they couldn't leave anything behind that connected her to the freight yard.”
Adrian looked at the watch.
For five years, he'd believed it had been lost in the river.
Now it had returned with the man who'd nearly died trying to reveal the truth.
I watched his expression.
Grief.
Anger.
And something worse.
Regret.
Brooke stood suddenly.
“I can't stay here.”
Bennett stopped her.
“You need to finish your statement.”
Brooke shook her head.
“Delilah will realize I'm talking.”
Adrian looked toward the ballroom.
“She's not going to touch you.”
Brooke gave a bitter laugh.
“You still think you can protect everyone by giving orders.”
The words struck him.
Before he could reply, Samuel entered.
His expression was grim.
“Sir, Owen Mercer has been located.”
“Where?”
“At a private medical clinic outside Franklin.”
Adrian frowned.
“Is he injured?”
“No.”
Samuel hesitated.
“He's visiting his wife. She's been receiving treatment there for almost three years.”
Brooke covered her face.
“Oh, no.”
Bennett looked at her.
“What is it?”
Brooke began crying.
“That's how Delilah keeps him working for her. She pays his wife's medical bills.”
Adrian stared at the wall.
The man connected to Mara's death had apparently spent years depending on Delilah's money.
But that wasn't the worst discovery.
Samuel handed Detective Bennett a copy of the clinic's visitor records obtained with the clinic's cooperation.
Owen had arrived that evening carrying a large brown envelope.
The receptionist remembered him asking for the clinic director.
May you like
And the words he had spoken.
“Tell her I have proof that Mara Kingsley was still alive when they took her to the bridge.”
