Chapter 5 - The Second Entrance
Nicole moved Evelyn away from the storage room.
"Stay here."
She called investigators.
Within minutes, state officers surrounded the block.
The tunnel was searched.
Empty.
But the steel box was already gone from the temporary evidence staging area.
Someone had known exactly where it was.
More importantly, someone knew the tunnel had another entrance.
The far end emerged beneath an abandoned pharmacy two buildings away.
That property belonged to Cain Realty.
But the person who entered hadn't taken everything.
A single folder remained.
It had fallen behind a pipe.
Nicole found it herself.
N.T.
Inside were bank records.
Payments made to a consulting company.
Northstar Transportation.
N.T.
Not Nicole Turner.
The company had received money from Cain-controlled entities.
Then transferred portions to accounts connected to county officials.
A laundering mechanism.
Nicole photographed the pages.
State investigators secured them.
At dawn, Wade Cain was brought in for questioning.
He denied everything.
Travis disappeared.
Sheriff Harper called in sick.
Mayor Brooks left town for a "family emergency."
The structure was cracking.
Nicole expected frightened people to run.
What she didn't expect was for them to start talking.
Mr. Bell came first.
The regular who had walked away from his breakfast.
He entered the diner before opening.
"I saw Travis push Evelyn."
Nicole waited.
"I'll testify."
"Why now?"
He looked ashamed.
"Because yesterday I watched your mother pour coffee with one hand for the same people who wouldn't help her."
His eyes watered.
"I was one of them."
Nicole didn't comfort him with a lie.
"You were."
He nodded.
"I want to fix it."
"Then tell the truth."
By noon, three more witnesses came forward.
Then Kayla agreed to make a formal statement.
Fear was contagious.
So was courage.
The first person stood.
Then another.
Then another.
Sheriff Harper arrived at three.
No uniform.
He looked exhausted.
"I need to talk."
Nicole called Monroe before letting him sit.
Harper stared at the counter.
"Wade owns people."
"People aren't property."
"You know what I mean."
"Then use better words."
Harper nodded.
"He helped me when I was young."
"How?"
"Money."
"And eventually you owed him."
"Eventually I owed him everything."
"Did you falsify my father's accident report?"
Harper's eyes filled with shame.
"Yes."
Nicole felt something inside her go cold.
"Was it an accident?"
Harper looked at her.
"No."
The word landed quietly.
Evelyn was in the kitchen.
Nicole was grateful.
"Who killed him?"
"I don't know."
"You expect me to believe that?"
"I know his truck was tampered with."
"Who ordered it?"
"I don't know."
"Wade?"
"I assumed."
"Assumptions aren't evidence."
Harper almost smiled.
"You really are Tom's daughter."
"Don't use his name to make yourself feel better."
The smile vanished.
Harper handed her a key.
"Bus station locker."
"What's inside?"
"Insurance."
"Against Wade?"
"Against everybody."
Nicole gave the key to Monroe.
She didn't touch the locker herself.
The investigators retrieved a flash drive.
It contained recordings.
Years of them.
Wade threatening Harper.
Mayor Brooks discussing zoning approvals.
Inspectors accepting payments.
And one conversation recorded two days before Thomas died.
Thomas's voice.
Harper's voice.
Then a third man.
Wade.
Thomas said, "I'm giving everything to the state."
Wade replied, "You won't make it that far."
Nicole listened twice.
Then came Harper.
"Tom, leave town tonight."
The recording stopped.
Nicole looked at Harper.
"You warned him."
"I did."
"Then why didn't he leave?"
"He said he had one more person to meet."
"Who?"
Harper shook his head.
"I never knew."
Nicole remembered Evelyn's words.
Someone had been with Thomas.
The missing person.
The unanswered meeting.
That afternoon, investigators traced Thomas's final phone call.
The number no longer existed.
But subscriber records survived.
Nicole read the name.
She recognized it.
Daniel Mercer.
The former hardware-store owner.
The man who had come to her mother's back door.
Nicole drove to Mercer's house with Monroe.
The door was open.
"Mr. Mercer?"
No answer.
His kitchen was empty.
A coffee mug was still warm.
On the table sat an envelope.
NICOLE TURNER.
Inside was a letter.
Nicole,
If you're reading this, Wade knows I talked.
Your father didn't meet me because of property records.
He met me because I had discovered what was being transported through the old access corridor.
He thought the Cain land purchases were about development.
They weren't.
The corridor was being assembled to conceal something else.
Nicole stopped.
Monroe read over her shoulder.
The next sentence had been underlined twice.
Your father died because he found the shipment records.
Below it was an address.
An abandoned warehouse outside town.
And a warning.
Do not trust anyone who says Thomas died before midnight.
Nicole frowned.
The official time of death was 11:20 p.m.
Monroe immediately pulled the original emergency logs.
The first ambulance call had been placed at 12:07 a.m.
Forty-seven minutes after Thomas had supposedly been declared dead.
"That's impossible," Monroe said.
Nicole stared at the discrepancy.
Then her phone rang.
Evelyn.
Nicole answered.
Her mother's voice was barely audible.
"Nicole."
"Mom?"
"Someone came into the diner."
"Who?"
A long pause.
Then Evelyn whispered a name Nicole had not heard since her father's funeral.
May you like
Nicole's grip tightened around the phone.
Because the man her mother said was standing at the counter was the same man whose signature appeared on Thomas Turner's death certificate...
