Chapter 7 - The Blue Envelope.
By sunrise, Mason was gone again.
This time Emma told him to leave.
She did not care that he insisted the photographs had been taken out of context.
She did not care that Sloane said Clara had been helping him investigate Grant for months.
Emma had reached the point where every explanation required three older lies to make sense.
She needed distance from all of them.
At eight fifteen, she called Chief Building Officer Melissa Tran.
Tran agreed to send a licensed inspector the following afternoon.
Emma requested written confirmation by email and forwarded it to Clara before remembering she was angry with Clara too.
Clara called immediately.
Emma declined the call.
At nine, Emma's power came back on.
The utility company claimed the cancellation had been reversed by the same online account that requested it.
At nine ten, a grocery delivery appeared at the gate, already paid for.
Emma asked the driver who placed the order.
The receipt listed only M. Cole.
She considered refusing it.
Then she remembered she had eaten crackers for dinner and kept the groceries.
At ten, Sloane emerged from the guest room wearing yesterday's clothes and carrying two mugs of coffee.
"I assume you still hate my brother."
Emma accepted the coffee.
"I am taking a break from deciding."
"Healthy."
Sloane sat across from her at the kitchen table.
"Do you want the truth about the picture with Clara?"
"Not from you."
"Also healthy."
Emma looked at Sloane more carefully.
"Why did Mason tell me he had no sister?"
Sloane's expression lost its humor.
"Because our mother made him choose."
"Choose what?"
"A clean break or a permanent war."
Sloane wrapped both hands around her mug.
"After Dad died, Mom blamed Briarstone, Evelyn Reed, the Hales, and eventually Mason."
"Why Mason?"
"Because he kept asking questions."
Sloane looked toward the window.
"I was sixteen and he was nineteen when Mom moved us to Ohio."
"You have different last names?"
"Different fathers."
"And Mason decided pretending you did not exist was easier?"
Sloane gave a short laugh.
"He decided keeping me away from this mess was safer."
Emma's jaw tightened.
"He really likes making decisions for other people."
"Yes."
Sloane met her eyes.
"It is his worst habit."
Emma appreciated the lack of defense.
Her phone vibrated with an alert from a luggage tracking app.
She frowned.
"What is that?"
Sloane asked.
Emma opened the map.
A blue dot blinked six miles away near the industrial edge of Bellamy.
"My suitcase."
Sloane sat straighter.
"You had a tracker in it?"
"I put one in after an airline lost it last Christmas."
Emma zoomed in.
The dot rested inside a warehouse complex beside the old rail spur.
The property name appeared on the map.
HALE STORAGE AND LOGISTICS.
Sloane stared at the screen.
"Of course it does."
Emma grabbed her purse.
"Where are you going?"
"To get my suitcase."
"Absolutely not alone."
"I did not ask you to come."
"Good, because I am coming anyway."
Sloane drove an old green Jeep that looked like it had survived several wars.
They parked two blocks from the warehouse and walked along a cracked service road.
Emma knew entering private property without permission was a terrible idea.
She also knew Deputy Rusk had been filmed stealing her property and no one at his office seemed eager to investigate him.
The luggage tracker showed the suitcase near the south side of Building C.
A loading door stood partly open.
Sloane peered inside.
"We get the suitcase and leave."
"Agreed."
They slipped through the door.
Rows of metal shelving filled the warehouse.
Old furniture, construction equipment, boxed fixtures, and rolled carpets created narrow aisles.
Emma followed the signal on her phone.
The dot became more precise.
Twenty feet.
Ten.
Five.
She turned a corner.
Her brown suitcase sat open on a folding table.
Clothing had been dumped across the floor.
The lining had been cut with a knife.
Emma rushed toward it.
"The envelope."
"What did it look like?"
"Small, blue, sealed with wax."
They searched the table.
Nothing.
Emma checked inside the torn lining.
Empty.
"They found it."
A car door slammed outside.
Sloane grabbed Emma's arm.
"We need to move."
Voices approached from the loading entrance.
Emma recognized one immediately.
Deputy Rusk.
The second voice was deeper and calmer.
Grant Hale.
Sloane pointed toward a row of stacked cabinetry.
They crouched behind it just before the men entered.
"You were supposed to bring the suitcase to me unopened," Grant said.
Rusk sounded defensive.
"I thought the document might be in the lining."
"And instead you destroyed evidence connected to a burglary."
"No one can prove I took it."
Emma silently opened the recording app on her phone.
Grant laughed softly.
"Mason Cole already proved it for us."
Rusk went quiet.
"What do you mean?"
"His sister had a trail camera."
Sloane's eyes widened beside Emma.
Grant continued.
"You are now useful only if you do exactly what I say."
"I want the rest of my money."
"You will receive it after Reed leaves Briarstone."
"She signed the occupancy papers."
"Then make occupancy impossible."
Emma's grip tightened around the phone.
Rusk lowered his voice.
"I am not burning a house down."
"I did not ask you to."
Grant sounded irritated.
"There are inspectors, insurance complaints, utility problems, trespass reports, code violations, and a hundred other legal ways to make a stubborn person decide a house is not worth the trouble."
Emma felt a strange relief.
Grant was corrupt, but at least he was not speaking about physical harm.
Then Rusk asked the question Emma needed answered.
"What was in the blue envelope?"
Grant paused.
"Something Laura Reed should have destroyed twenty years ago."
Emma's heart slammed against her ribs.
Her mother's name.
Sloane squeezed Emma's wrist, warning her not to move.
Rusk spoke again.
"Does Mason know?"
"Not yet."
Grant's voice became colder.
"And he is going to keep working for me if he wants his family out of this."
"What about Emma?"
Grant answered without hesitation.
"Emma Reed is the only person in this county who can ruin everything."
Footsteps moved closer to their hiding place.
Emma stopped breathing.
Grant reached the folding table.
"Where is the suitcase?"
Rusk swore.
Emma looked through a narrow gap between cabinets.
The table was empty.
Sloane had quietly pulled the suitcase behind their hiding place.
Rusk turned in a slow circle.
"It was right here."
May you like
Grant stared toward the dark aisles.
"We're not alone."
