Now he wondered whether she had been trying to tell him something.
"There's something else," he said.
He turned to the back of the ledger.
A small envelope had been attached to the final page.
His name was written on it.
MASON.
The handwriting was unfamiliar.
He opened it.
Inside was a short letter.
Mr. Cole,
If you have found this ledger, then the people who tried to bury the quarry incident have failed.
You have been given only part of the story.
Your father did not die in an ordinary road accident.
He was killed because he refused to cooperate with Thomas Bennett.
Your mother knows the truth.
Ask her what happened on the night of September 3.
Mason read the letter again.
His father had died when Mason was twenty-three.
He had always been told that a truck had crossed the center line during a storm.
The police report had described the crash as an unfortunate accident.
His mother had never questioned it.
At least, not in front of him.
Mason looked at Ray.
"Did you know?"
Ray shook his head.
"No."
Daniel took the letter.
"September 3."
Leah looked at him.
"That's the date Mother disappeared for two days."
Mason turned.
"What?"
Leah nodded.
"After Father said she had gone to visit relatives. But she came back with a bruised face and wouldn't speak to anyone."
Daniel stared at her.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because I was twelve."
Mason placed the letter inside his jacket.
He had arrived at the estate looking for evidence about a fifteen-year-old accident.
He was leaving with the possibility that his father's death had been part of the same conspiracy.
Then they heard footsteps above them.
Ray switched off his flashlight.
Everyone froze.
A door opened.
A man's voice echoed through the greenhouse.
"Mr. Bennett?"
Another voice answered.
"He's not here."
"Then who opened the door?"
Silence.
Then the sound of footsteps moving toward the basement entrance.
Mason looked at the others.
Daniel held the ledger against his chest.
Leah stood beside him.
Ray reached for the metal flashlight.
Mason whispered.
"Back entrance."
Daniel pointed toward a narrow passage behind the storage shelves.
They moved quickly.
The passage led to a small service door opening onto the garden.
Mason pushed it open.
Cold air rushed inside.
They emerged behind a row of bushes.
The main house stood several hundred feet away.
Lights were turning on.
Someone shouted.
"They're in the greenhouse!"
Mason looked toward the trees.
"Run."
They ran.
A flashlight beam swept across the garden.
A guard appeared near the greenhouse door.
Another came around the side of the house.
Mason reached the boundary wall first.
He climbed over and dropped onto the other side.
Then he turned and helped Leah down.
Daniel followed.
Ray was last.
A man appeared behind him.
"Stop!"
Ray turned.
The man raised his weapon.
Mason heard the shot.
Ray fell.
"RAY!"
Mason ran back.
Daniel grabbed his arm.
"Don't!"
Mason pulled free.
He reached Ray and dropped beside him.
Blood was spreading across Ray's left shoulder.
"Stay with me."
Ray grimaced.
"That's the plan."
Mason pressed his hand against the wound.
Leah arrived carrying her bag.
"He's been shot."
"I can see that."
Daniel looked toward the estate.
"We have to go!"
Mason glared at him.
"I'm not leaving him."
Ray tried to sit up.
"Listen to me."
"Don't talk."
"Your mother..."
Mason leaned closer.
"What?"
Ray struggled to breathe.
"Your mother kept something. A photograph. She gave it to me years ago."
"What photograph?"
Ray looked at him.
"The night your father died."
Then his eyes closed.
The journey to the hospital felt endless.
Mason drove while Daniel held pressure against Ray's shoulder. Leah sat in the back, holding the red ledger.
Ray remained conscious, but only barely.
Every few minutes he tried to speak.
Mason told him to save his strength.
At the emergency entrance, nurses rushed out with a stretcher.
Ray was taken inside.
Mason followed until a doctor stopped him.
"We need to work."
"Is he going to live?"
"We'll know more after we examine him."
"Doctor—"
"Please wait outside."
Mason stood in the corridor.
His hands were covered in blood.
Leah approached.
She placed a bottle of water beside him.
He didn't touch it.
Daniel sat against the wall.
For several minutes, none of them spoke.
Then Mason looked at him.
"Why didn't you tell me about my father?"
Daniel shook his head.
"I didn't know."
"Your father knew."
"Yes."
"Frank knew."
"Probably."
"Your father's organization had my family under surveillance."
Daniel lowered his head.
"Yes."
Mason looked away.
He was angry, but anger was becoming difficult to separate from grief.
His father had been gone for nearly thirty years.
His mother had died more than a decade ago.
He had no opportunity to ask either of them what happened.
And now, just when he thought he understood the past, another door had opened.
A door leading into something much darker.
Leah sat beside him.
"Your father might have left you something."
Mason looked at her.
"What makes you think that?"
"Because my mother did."
She opened her bag and removed the old letter.
"She knew she might not survive what was happening. She left us clues."
Mason looked toward the operating room.
"Ray said my mother gave him a photograph."
"Then we need to find it."
He nodded.
"Tomorrow."
Leah looked at him.
"You're going home?"
"Yes."
"Alone?"
Mason shook his head.
"Nobody is going anywhere alone."
Ray survived surgery.
The bullet had passed through the shoulder without striking a major artery or causing severe internal damage.
The doctor explained that recovery would take time, but there was no immediate threat to his life.
Mason sat beside his hospital bed later that afternoon.
Ray looked pale.
His beard had been trimmed away from the wound, and an intravenous line ran into his arm.
"You're looking terrible," Ray said.
Mason almost smiled.
"You should see yourself."
Ray tried to laugh.
It hurt.
"Did they find anything?"
Mason nodded.
"The ledger."
"Good."
"Your brother's name is in it."
Ray closed his eyes.
"I know."
"Your name is there too."
"I know."
"Mine as well."
Ray looked at him.
"Then you understand."
Mason leaned forward.
"No, I don't."
Ray swallowed.
"Your father was investigating Bennett long before the quarry accident."
Mason stared.
"What?"
"He had discovered the transportation operation. He was trying to collect evidence."
"Why didn't my mother tell me?"
"Because she was afraid."
"Of Bennett?"
Ray nodded.
"And of the man who was helping him."
Mason looked at the hospital window.
"Who?"
Ray hesitated.
"Frank Dalton."
Mason's expression hardened.
"Frank was involved in my father's death?"
Ray nodded.
"I believe so."
Mason stood.
"Then why did you let me think he was dead?"