Chapter 2
I got out of the car slowly.
The elderly woman held out her hand.
"My name is Eleanor Vance."
Her voice was steady, but her hand was shaking.
"That pool," she said, looking past me. "It was built twelve years ago. Right after my son disappeared."
I felt the blood drain from my face.
"Your son?"
"David Vance. He was Richard's business partner. And Melissa's fiancé first, before she married Richard."
I couldn't breathe.
I looked at Dad.
He nodded once.
"Tell her," Dad said softly.
Eleanor opened her folder wider.
Newspaper clippings. A missing person report. A photograph of a young man with kind eyes.
"David was thirty-two when he vanished. He and Richard had just closed the biggest deal of their lives. A forty-million-dollar development."
She turned a page.
"Then one night, David didn't come home. His car was found at the airport. Police said he probably ran away."
Her voice cracked.
"But I knew better. David would never leave me. He would never leave his company."
I looked toward the pool.
Uniformed officers were walking around it. One was on the phone.
"You think he's under there," I said.
It wasn't a question.
Eleanor's eyes filled with tears.
"Your father called me three days ago. He told me he'd found something during the repair. Something buried in the concrete at the deep end."
I turned to Dad.
"What did you find?"
Dad reached into his pocket.
He pulled out a small evidence bag.
Inside was a gold ring.
A man's wedding band.
Engraved inside were the initials D.V. and a date.
"David's ring," Eleanor whispered. "He never took it off. Not even to swim."
My hands started to tremble.
"Dad, you found a human being under that pool."
"I found part of him," Dad said quietly. "The rest is still there. That's why the police are here. That's why I made them sign that excavation form."
Richard came storming toward us.
His face was purple with rage.
"This is insane! You had no right to dig on my property!"
Dad looked at him calmly.
"You signed the authorization. Both of you. I have copies."
Richard's eyes darted to Melissa.
She was still crying. But something about her cry felt wrong.
It felt like performance.
"You tricked us," Richard snarled.
"I repaired your pool," Dad said. "You refused to pay. So I finished the structural inspection I was legally entitled to perform. And I found what I found."
A detective walked over.
He was middle-aged, tired-looking, and very serious.
"Mr. and Mrs. Harlow? I'm Detective Mills. We're going to need you to come down to the station."
Richard's mouth fell open.
"Are you arresting us?"
"Not yet. But we have questions. A lot of them."
Melissa stood up.
Her tears stopped. Just like that.
"I want a lawyer," she said.
Her voice was cold. Completely different from two minutes ago.
I watched her walk to the police car.
And in that moment, I knew.
May you like
She wasn't just a wife caught up in her husband's mess.
She knew exactly what was under that pool.
