Chapter 15 - The Bargain
Grant Vale was arrested for obstruction and conspiracy-related allegations pending further review. He asked for a lawyer and said nothing else. His silence made the house feel louder: the refrigerator hum, the faucet drip, Eli's little wheels rolling over the rug.
Mason Bell's attorneys released a statement calling the investigation a witch hunt. His supporters flooded the news with claims that Claire was chasing her father's old grudges. A local host called her "an attention-seeking mother" on television. Daniel watched Claire switch the set off before Eli could repeat the phrase.
"I could call in," Daniel offered.
"And say what? That I deserve to be believed because I'm nice? Let them talk."
But she was trembling. Daniel knew she hadn't slept more than a few hours in days.
A courthouse hearing on the old collapse was scheduled after investigators located surviving witnesses. Claire prepared to give a statement about Ben's tapes. Owen, facing his own charges for his role in the cover-up, agreed to testify in exchange for consideration, not immunity.
"I'm not asking you to forgive me," he told Claire during a supervised meeting. "I just want to stop being the guy Dad was right to fear."
"Then tell the truth, even if it puts you in prison."
"I will."
He slid a folded paper across the table. It listed an address for a closed diner by the interstate. "Nora used to leave messages here. If she's alive, she might still be watching it."
Malik sent officers. Behind the diner they found a small trailer with its windows covered from inside. In the kitchen sat a stack of children's drawings, a bottle of prescription pills, and a newspaper clipping about Eli. Somebody had circled the boy's face with a blue pen.
On the wall, written in large uneven letters, were six words:
May you like
THEY KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO SAMUEL.
Then the officers heard a faint knocking from beneath the floor.
