Chapter 19 - THE BOATHOUSE IN THE RAIN
I did not drive to Cedar Point alone. I called Teresa, then the investigator, and showed them the note. They asked us not to disturb anything until an officer could attend. Ryan waited with me at June's house as rain swept across the lake.
When we reached the boathouse with the officer, Paige was standing under the roof, soaked to the elbows. Her lawyer was there too. She had arranged to turn over papers and had been told not to touch them.
“I didn't know if you'd come,” she said.
“I didn't come for you. I came for the truth.”
Paige stared at the water. “He told me you were standing between Ryan and our future. Every time I tried to say no, he reminded me how much he had paid for the wedding, the apartment, my education. I liked having an excuse to hate you.”
“That was easier than telling him no,” I said.
“Yes.”
She finally looked at my sling. “I saw you hit the water. I heard you cry out. And I laughed because I was terrified someone would notice what I'd done.”
“People noticed.”
“I know.”
The officer and Paige's lawyer watched as a maintenance worker lifted a loose floorboard. A sealed folder lay underneath, wrapped in oilcloth. It held an older, properly released property option and a set of planning drawings marked with Graham's instructions. Nolan had used the boathouse during a supposedly harmless site survey, Paige explained; he had hidden the folder there when a lender began asking to see original records. She learned its location from a message on his old work phone. The officer collected the items for examination.
A dark sedan pulled onto the gravel. Graham stepped out, his expression changing when he saw the uniforms.
“What are you doing with my files?” he demanded.
“They were on my property,” I said.
He pointed at Paige. “You ungrateful girl. I built everything you have.”
Ryan moved between them. “And you taught her to destroy what she couldn't buy.”
May you like
Graham looked at his daughter, then at me. “You don't know half of what she offered to do,” he said.
Paige closed her eyes and answered, “Then let's tell them all of it.”
