Chapter 5 - THE ENVELOPE HER FATHER LEFT BEHIND
Elaine Porter met Chloe at her attorney's office.
She carried a brown envelope.
Its edges were worn.
Across the front, in Arthur Davis's familiar handwriting, were five words.
For Chloe. When you're ready.
Chloe stared.
Then took it.
Her hands shook.
Inside was a letter.
My little bird,
If you're reading this, something has gone wrong.
Chloe covered her mouth.
She continued.
I hope I'm being foolish. I hope this is nothing more than an old man's suspicion.
But I've found irregularities in the freight accounts, and someone has been trying to convince me to stop looking.
I don't know who I can trust.
I do know this: never sign anything you haven't read. Not for me. Not for anyone.
Tears blurred the page.
And if someone tells you that love requires you to surrender your judgment, walk away.
Love should make you safer, not smaller.
Chloe began crying.
She could almost hear his voice.
Then she reached the final paragraph.
The answer is where we watched the ospreys return every spring.
You'll remember.
Love, Dad.
Chloe stared at the words.
Where they watched the ospreys return.
Her father's boat.
The old marina near Montauk.
Every spring, Arthur had taken Chloe to watch the birds nesting above the harbor.
He'd called them stubborn little fishermen.
Chloe looked up.
“I know where he means.”
Naomi leaned forward.
“Where?”
“The boat.”
Two days later, Chloe traveled to Montauk with Naomi and a licensed investigator.
Dominic offered to accompany her.
She refused.
“This is something I need to do myself.”
He nodded.
“Then do it.”
The marina smelled of salt and diesel.
Arthur's boat sat beneath a faded blue tarp.
OSPREY was painted along the stern.
Chloe stepped aboard.
For a moment, she was eight years old again.
Her father stood beside her, teaching her to tie knots.
The memory nearly broke her.
She swallowed.
Then began searching.
The cabin.
The lockers.
The navigation table.
Nothing.
Finally, she remembered the small wooden compartment beneath the passenger seat.
Arthur had called it the secret drawer.
She opened it.
Inside was a waterproof metal case.
Chloe stared.
Then lifted it out.
The case contained a flash drive.
A notebook.
And a photograph.
Arthur stood beside a younger man in a gray suit.
On the back, he'd written:
Ask Dominic Russo what happened to his brother.
Chloe stopped breathing.
May you like
Dominic had never mentioned a brother.
And suddenly, she understood that the mafia boss who had saved her was hiding a secret of his own.
