He braced himself, preparing for her reaction. “She knows.”
“What exactly does she know, Braden?”
“That I’m here for you. She was on the road to figuring it out, putting all the pieces together. I had to tell her first, to give myself a chance to make things right. If she called me out on it, then all bets were off. She would never speak to me again.”
“I counted on you to keep one simple secret. So is she speaking to you now?” Her tone was livid.
“You know the answer to that question. And I plan to keep my distance, give her the space she needs—for now. But Octavia, I need to know everything.”No more pretending you don’t know.
“Let’s see if you can keepthissecret. I’m coming to Hidden Bay.” Her voice was no longer shaky but cold and crisp. Octavia was back in control. “I’ll be there before the end of the day.”
“Why? How is your presence here going to change anything?”
But she’d already ended the call.
A gust of wind rattled the truck, and low-hanging branches scraped the windshield, startling him back to this terrible moment. Braden couldn’t shake the sense of impending doom.
He rubbed a hand down his face. Octavia arriving here couldn’t be a good thing. She’d have to rearrange her important schedule to fly out to what she perceived was a failure on his part. If anything, her arrival would make things worse.
He couldn’t just sit in the truck all morning. Maybe Evelyn would let in the nice detective, and maybe if he pleaded his case to her and Cressida—again—Evelyn would help Cressida to see reason.
That was a good plan. His only reasonable move at the moment.
He shifted into reverse to pull back onto the road when his cell buzzed.
Lauren. His heart pinged, sharp and painful. The worst scenarios coursed through his heart and mind as he answered.
“Lauren? Everything okay?” He expected the usual chastisement that he was always expecting the worst, and couldn’t she just call her brother?
“No. No, Braden, it’s not.” Lauren couldn’t even speak for a moment, at least in a comprehensible way, her tears were so thick. “Elise’s appointment for her infusion this morning was canceled.”
35
Evelyn was the reason Dad had added theSpecter’s Bountyand Hidden Bay to his book. Cressida understood what Braden meant when he’d mentioned needing a crime board. She could use some assistance connecting people with current and past events to see where they all intersected. In this conversation with Evelyn, Cressida felt it deep in her bones—at last she had arrived at the intersection where all the threads would converge.
Evelyn had been gone so long that Cressida was beginning to wonder about her phone call when the woman finally returned to the living area. Considering their important conversation, Cressida couldn’t imagine what call could have trumped that. But she had waited, her patience running out.
And she wanted to repeat her question—had her father known the cost before he’d taken on Evelyn’s project? This whole thing had belonged to her. That news had shaken Cressida.
“My apologies, dear. I know we were in the middle—”
Cressida stood. “Did my father know the danger—thecost—of taking on this project?” Cressida tried to stifle her frustration. She respected this woman. Admired her.
“You’re upset. I understand.” Evelyn sat again, calm and composed.
Cressida remained standing, shaking. Tears blurring her vision.God, helpme...
“I told him everything that I knew, which wasn’t much, really, and I don’t think any of us knew the cost. But now perhaps we do.” Evelyn closed her eyes. “I’m so sorry for your loss.”
Cressida had to get her act together. She couldn’t blame Evelyn if what she said was true, and she had no reason to believe otherwise. She slowly sank onto the sofa again. Drew in a calming breath.
Evelyn opened her eyes. “The vessel on which my father sent my son was meant to conduct a normal operation as far as anyone knew. But it was part of a covert operation.”
“A covert operation involving what?”
“That, I’m not entirely sure. I believe your father discovered the truth. He ... he told me as much before he left, but he didn’t tell me the details. He promised to get back to me—that it was dangerous to even speak of. Then I learned he’d been killed.”
“What did you think I would read or learn from looking through everything in your library? You can just tell me now since it’s probably all gone. Whatever the fire didn’t destroy, the water must have.”
