Chapter 4 - Caleb Comes Home
"Don't move," Caleb said. "I'm ten minutes away."
Claire ended the call.
Mason immediately requested another unit.
"You think he's coming to help?" Claire asked.
"I think anyone who says a dead man buried something that can get you killed deserves company."
Scout paced between Claire and the driveway.
Eight minutes later, Caleb's black SUV appeared beyond the cottonwoods.
He got out before the vehicle fully settled.
He looked like Noah around the eyes. Same dark lashes. Same crooked line in the left eyebrow. For nearly a year that resemblance had comforted Claire.
Today it made her stomach knot.
"What happened?" Caleb asked.
Mason stepped between them. "We're handling it."
Caleb's gaze slid toward the storage room. He saw the open floor, the shovel, the evidence bag in Mason's hand.
His face changed.
Only for a second.
But Claire saw it.
"You found the recorder," Caleb said.
Mason went still. "How did you know what we found?"
Caleb looked at Claire, not Mason.
"Because Noah called me the night he died."
"Then why didn't you tell me?" Claire asked.
"Because he was terrified. And because he made me promise."
"Promise what?"
Caleb reached slowly into his coat.
Mason's hand dropped to his holster.
"Easy," Caleb said. He pulled out a folded photograph.
It showed Noah standing beside the ranch's south field at night. Behind him, half hidden by construction fencing, was a drilling rig.
On the back, Noah had written three words.
THE WATER IS POISONED.
Claire's hand moved instinctively to her belly.
"What water?"
Caleb looked toward the farmhouse.
"Your well."
Claire felt the world tilt.
For three weeks, she had been drinking from that kitchen tap.
"You knew?"
"Not until after Noah died."
"And you still let me live here?"
Caleb's face crumpled. "I had it tested. The house line was clean. The contaminated line feeds the south field."
Mason took the photo.
"Who was drilling?"
Caleb answered with a name that made Claire's blood run colder than the text messages.
"Harlan Voss."
May you like
The richest man in the county.
And the man who had offered Claire two million dollars for the ranch the morning after Noah's funeral.
