Chapter 5 - The Offer
Claire remembered Harlan Voss perfectly.
Gray suit. Silver hair. A voice too calm for a man standing in a widow's kitchen before the flowers from the funeral had wilted.
"You won't want the burden," he had said. "Let me take it off your hands."
She had refused.
He had raised the offer twice.
Then he had stopped calling.
"Why would Voss poison a field he wants to buy?" Claire asked.
Caleb rubbed both hands over his face. "He didn't poison it on purpose. His company buried chemical waste on the neighboring parcel years ago. It leaked into the groundwater. Noah found out when one of the horses got sick."
Mason's jaw tightened. "And the ledger?"
"Payments. Inspectors. County people. Private labs. Anyone who helped bury the test results."
"Where is it?"
Caleb looked at the storage room.
"I thought Noah hid it here."
"So did whoever came today," Claire said.
Silence.
Mason's radio crackled. The backup deputy reported a cut section of fence behind the stable and tire tracks near the creek road.
Someone had entered the property without using the driveway.
Claire showed Mason the anonymous texts.
He photographed them and asked Caleb for his phone.
Caleb handed it over without argument.
"Search whatever you want."
Claire watched him carefully.
"Did you send those messages?"
His eyes met hers.
"No."
"Did you kill Noah?"
The question hit him like a slap.
"Claire."
"Answer me."
"No."
She wanted to believe him.
Then Scout began barking at Caleb's SUV.
Not at Caleb.
At the rear cargo door.
Mason moved first.
"Open it."
Caleb frowned. "There's nothing—"
"Open it."
The hatch lifted.
Inside were groceries, jumper cables, a toolbox, and a tan canvas bag.
Scout jumped up, sniffed the bag, then growled.
Mason unzipped it.
A black ski mask lay on top.
May you like
Under it was a muddy pry bar.
And beneath that was Claire's missing spare house key.
