My boss's wife refused to pay my father $7,800 for fixing their luxury pool. She had no idea that what my dad found under the water would bring police to her driveway the next morning.

The next morning, two detectives came to the house.

Detective Mills and his partner, Detective Rao.

They wanted to know about the man at my door.

I described him. The tattoos. The voice. The threat.

Mills took notes.

"Victor Castillo. Melissa's half-brother. We've been looking for him since Friday. He skipped town."

I exchanged a look with Dad.

"He was at my door last night," I said. "He hasn't skipped town. He's here."

Mills frowned.

"We'll put a patrol car on the street. But I need to be honest with you. Until we have direct evidence tying Victor to the murder, we can't hold him."

Dad leaned forward.

"What about the pool? Who built it?"

Rao answered. "Records show a construction company owned by Victor Castillo. He was the contractor."

"Then he dug the hole," Dad said. "He poured the concrete. He knows exactly what happened."

Mills nodded.

"We know. But proving it in court is another thing. Richard and Melissa have lawyers. They're not talking. And Victor is in wind."

After they left, Dad turned to me.

"I need to show you something."

He led me to his workshop. In the back, behind shelves of pipes and fittings, was a locked cabinet.

He opened it.

Inside was a waterproof bag.

The kind divers use.

"Dad, what is that?"

"I found it during the repair. Wedged behind the old filter housing. It wasn't with the body. It was hidden separately."

He opened the bag.

Inside was a USB drive. And a handwritten notebook.

I picked up the notebook.

The first page had a name on it.

David Vance.

My hands were shaking as I flipped through it.

Ledgers. Numbers. Names.

And on the last page, one sentence, scrawled in a hurry:

"If you're reading this, I'm dead. Richard and Victor took everything. Don't trust Melissa. She knew."

I looked up at Dad.

"We have to give this to the police."

"Not yet," Dad said.

"What do you mean, not yet? This is evidence!"

Dad closed the notebook.

"This is leverage. And right now, we're the only ones who know it exists. If we hand it over, Victor knows we have it. And he'll come after us twice as hard."

He put his hand on my shoulder.

"We keep it safe. We make copies. And when the time is right, we use it."

I stared at the notebook.

David Vance had known he was going to die.

He had hidden this.

And twelve years later, my father had found it.

I made three copies that night.

One for Dad. One for me. One for Eleanor.

And I started to wonder.

If Melissa knew. If Richard and Victor did it.