Chapter 5 - Behind the Steel Door
The tiny key turned.
The steel door opened two inches before water pressure shoved it wider.
A woman collapsed into Ethan's arms.
"Claire."
He said her name like a prayer he had forgotten how to speak.
She was forty-one now, not nine. Her hair was streaked with gray, her face hollow from exhaustion.
But her eyes were the same as Mia's.
Claire touched Ethan's cheek.
"You got old."
He laughed and cried at the same time.
"So did you."
Lily helped them into the laundry room as water climbed around their ankles.
"We need to leave."
Claire shook her head.
"Not yet."
"Thomas is alive and the house is flooding."
"That's why he came back."
Claire pointed to the false wall inside the compartment.
"The ledger is still there."
Ethan stared at her.
"What ledger?"
Claire's mouth tightened.
"The reason Dad took me."
Behind loose bricks they found a plastic-wrapped blue notebook and a stack of county records.
Names.
Addresses.
Insurance claim numbers.
Construction contracts awarded after the flood twenty-two years ago.
Lily flipped a page.
"These are all properties condemned after the levee break."
Claire nodded.
"Dad's company bought them for pennies through shell companies. Then he billed federal relief programs to rebuild them."
"That's fraud," Lily said.
"It was more than fraud."
Claire pulled out one page marked with red circles.
Eight names.
Eight people officially listed as missing during the flood.
"These people weren't missing," she said. "They were witnesses."
Ethan looked sick.
"Witnesses to what?"
Claire stared at him.
"To the levee being opened on purpose."
A deep boom rolled beneath the floor.
The lights died.
Then Claire grabbed Ethan's arm.
"There's something else you need to know."
May you like
She looked at Lily.
"Your mother was one of the witnesses."
