Chapter 36
Sawyer
Light snow is falling when I pull into the parking lot of Murphy’s Diner, twenty minutes outside Pine Hollows. Chris’s truck is already there, parked in the back where it’s less visible from the road.
I find him in a corner booth, nursing black coffee. The diner smells like bacon grease and burnt toast. There’s a manila folder on the table between us.
“You find something?” I ask, sliding into the seat across from him.
“More than something.” Chris glances around the mostly empty diner before sliding the folder across. “Tracy Campbell is a busy woman.”
The folder’s thicker than I expected. This is more than just Tracy's employment records. I open it to find a police report from three years ago. My stomach drops. Sexual harassment complaint against Lance from a coworker named Jennifer Walsh. Filed, then withdrawn a week later.
Three years ago. When Lance and Alice had been together for a year. While he was with Alice.
“Keep going,” Chris says.
The next page shows phone records. Tracy’s number, calling Jennifer Walsh multiple times between the complaint filing and withdrawal. The pattern is clear.
“Jennifer Walsh worked reception at Carlston Properties,” Chris explains. “Nineteen years old, fresh out of high school. Lance was her supervisor.”
My hands grip the folder's edges. He was cheating on Alice with a teenager at work. While also harassing her.
“She quit two weeks after dropping the complaint. Moved to Minneapolis, hasn’t been back since.”
I look at the name again. “Walsh. Mayor Walsh’s daughter?”
“Yep. Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?”
I think about the mayor at the bank, his comment to Alice. He knew. He knew what Lance did to his daughter, and he still took the Carlston's side in public. Either he's scared of them, or they paid him off. “How’d you track this down?”
“Denise helped me pull some files, then reached out to some of the women directly. Jennifer kept everything—phone records, emails. Even recorded one of Tracy’s calls.”
“She recorded her?”
“Smart kid. Knew something was off when Tracy started calling with money offers and threats. Documented all of it.” Chris taps the folder. His expression is grim. “We’ve got Tracy dead to rights on witness tampering.”
I flip to the next document. The paper feels thin under my fingers, but the weight of what it says is crushing. Another police report, different woman, same pattern. Complaint filed, Tracy’s calls in the logs, complaint withdrawn.
“How many women?”
“Six confirmed. Probably more that didn’t report.” Chris sips his coffee.
Six. My jaw clenches. Six women Alice will never know about. Six times Tracy chose Lance over doing the right thing.
“Three are willing to talk now. Off the record for now.”
“What did Tracy say to them?”
“Depends. Jennifer got offered five grand to drop it and find a new job. When that didn’t work fast enough, Tracy started talking about how small Pine Hollows is. How hard it’d be for Jennifer to find work anywhere in the county if the Carlstons put out the word she was ‘difficult.’”
My jaw clenches. “Witness tampering.”
“That's not all. Tracy didn't just silence victims. She helped them relocate. Found them new jobs out of town if they agreed to drop their complaints and disappear quietly.”
“How?”
“Contacted companies out of town, got the victims jobs far away from Pine Hollows. Bank records show the Carlstons paid Tracy a five-thousand-dollar 'bonus' every time a complaint disappeared.”
I stare at the financial records. The numbers blur. Five thousand dollars to help a predator keep hunting. Tracy wasn’t just protecting her job. She was getting paid to be Lance’s fixer.
“There’s more. Remember the GPS tracker? Lance bought three online.”
My chest tightens. Three.
“Sarah Martinez, works at a law office. Found one on her car two years ago, didn’t know what it was. Rebecca Foster, elementary school teacher. Reported feeling followed but couldn’t prove anything.”
“Jesus Christ.”
“Both women got calls from someone claiming to be from a ‘community safety group.’ Asked them not to spread rumors that might hurt local businesses.”
“Tracy.”
“Tracy.” Chris closes the folder. “She’s been running interference for Lance for years. Every time he escalated, every time someone tried to hold him accountable, Tracy made it disappear.”
I lean back, processing it all. Tracy isn’t just an unsupportive mother. She’s been actively enabling Lance’s abuse of multiple women for years.
And Alice never knew. She thought her mother just didn't believe her. She had no idea Tracy knew exactly what Lance was and helped him anyway.
“The complaint she filed against me?”
“Filed the same day Lance was arrested. Didn’t even wait to see how things played out.”
“You think the Carlstons told her to?”
“I think she’s been their problem solver so long, she filed it automatically. That’s just what she does. Protects Lance, discredits his victims.”
The waitress refills our coffee. We wait until she’s gone.
“This is big,” I say.
“Question is, what do you want to do with it?”
I think about Alice in that coffee shop, people calling her a liar. About her mother choosing Lance over her own daughter. About Tracy pressuring her to sign that statement.
If I do this—if I confront Tracy—it destroys any chance Alice has of a relationship with her mother. Not that there's much left to destroy.
“I want to talk to Tracy.”
“Officially?”
“Not yet. Give her one chance to make this right.”
Chris nods. “Just be careful. She’s not going to take this well.”
“She’s been fighting dirty for years. Time someone fought back.”
After Chris leaves, I sit in the booth going through the folder again. Six women. Six times Lance hurt someone, and six times Tracy made sure he faced nothing.
Until Alice.
Alice is the first one who didn’t back down. Who didn’t let Tracy’s threats and bribes make her disappear. And now Tracy’s trying to destroy both of us to protect her income.
Not anymore.
I pay for the coffee and head to my truck. Snow's coming down harder now, coating the windshield. My hands grip the steering wheel until my knuckles go white.
Six women. Six times Tracy chose money over doing the right thing.
But Alice didn't back down. Alice didn't let Tracy make her disappear.
I've got everything I need to end Tracy Campbell's career. And this time, there's no amount of money that will make this go away.
Time to show her what happens when someone finally fights back.