Chapter Five The Detective Who Refused to Forget
Late that afternoon, Clara drove to the county sheriff's office.
She asked for one person.
Retired Detective Samuel Brooks.
He had investigated Sienna Parker's death seven years earlier.
Now seventy years old, Brooks still visited the station every Thursday.
When he saw Clara, recognition filled his face.
"I hoped I'd never hear that name again."
"Sienna?"
He nodded.
"It was the case I never solved."
Clara felt her pulse quicken.
"You ruled it an accident."
"I was ordered to."
The room became painfully quiet.
"What do you mean?"
Brooks reached into his briefcase.
He removed a worn notebook.
"I kept my own notes."
Inside were photographs never included in the official file.
Tire marks.
Broken guardrails.
Footprints leading away from the river.
And one photograph made Clara stop breathing.
Another vehicle.
Parked less than fifty yards from the crash.
"Whose car was that?"
"We never found out."
"But someone erased it from the official report."
Clara whispered,
"So someone covered this up."
Brooks nodded.
"I've believed that for seven years."
Meanwhile...
Julian unlocked the storage locker he had rented years before.
Inside were dozens of boxes labeled:
SIENNA
Letters.
Photos.
Police records.
Medical reports.
He had built his entire life around one tragedy.
As he searched through the files, something slipped from an old envelope.
A receipt.
Date:
Two days after Sienna's funeral.
The signature belonged to someone he never expected.
Emily Carson
Julian frowned.
"What were you doing here?"
May you like
For the first time...
Emily's name connected itself to the memories Clara had uncovered that morning.
