Chapter 14 - What Mara Was Afraid Of

The ferry landing was empty when police arrived. A search dog tracked a scent from the gravel to the maintenance trail, then lost it near the water. Officers found tire marks, a broken sunglasses arm, and a crushed paper cup. Nothing told us which direction Ben had gone.

Ortiz did not let that failure turn into a reckless chase. She got warrants for the contractor's vehicles and phone records and asked harbor patrol to check the channels below the landing. I sat beside her in the command room, staring at a map until the county roads blurred.

"If Mara said not to hurt him," I asked, "does that mean someone else is giving orders?"

"Maybe," Ortiz said. "A guilty person can still be afraid of another guilty person."

Elias came in carrying the contractor's registration papers. The company was called Clearwater Technical Partners. Mara owned a minority stake through a trust. The controlling partner was Rafe's brother, a man named Cal Kellan.

"So Rafe grabs my brother," I said, "and Cal runs the software that can open the gate."

"And Mara ties them together," Elias finished.

He'd stopped saying my fiancée. It wasn't a small change. I could see what it cost him.

Ortiz's phone rang. She listened, then stood so quickly her chair rolled backward. "We've got a location."

Officers found Cal's vehicle beneath the east bridge. In its rear compartment was a thermal blanket, one of Ben's sneakers, and a disposable camera. The last picture showed Ben standing by an enormous blue handwheel in a concrete room. On the wall behind him: an emergency sign for the EAST BYPASS.

Nadine looked at the image and went white. "That's the manual shutdown chamber. If the remote signal sticks open, crews need that handwheel to isolate the line."

"Then why is Cal taking Ben there?" Elias asked.

"Maybe because he's seen something Cal doesn't want us to know," Ortiz said.

One of her officers opened a second evidence envelope. The disposable camera held another photograph: Mara kneeling beside Ben, wiping blood from his cheek. She was speaking to him, but he was staring at somebody outside the frame.

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On the back, written in Ben's shaky handwriting, were four words:

HE HAS THE KEY.