Chapter 21
She glanced back at the weathered ledger resting on the table. Every page was meticulously kept. Cryptic notes. Vague entries that hinted at something far bigger than she could piece together. It wasn't the work of a drunken man scribbling nonsense. It was deliberate.
Methodical.
Not a word Kara would ever use to describe her father. Had George been keeping books for someone? Or was he far more involved, like Richard had mentioned?
“What the hell was he into?” Colin muttered.
Kara didn’t have an answer. Her phone rang. She flinched, glancing at the screen.
Zoe.
Kara hesitated, then answered. “Hey.”
“Kara, where are you?” Zoe’s voice came quickly, curious. “I stopped by earlier and—”
“I’ve just been out,” Kara said lightly, cutting in before the questions could stack up. “Running errands.”
Zoe wasn’t convinced. “You okay?” she asked. “You—”
“I’ve been meaning to ask you,” Kara said quickly, shifting the tone. “When can I come over again? The other night was really nice.”
Another pause. Then—
“Oh! Yeah, of course,” Zoe said, the suspicion easing just enough. “Um… tomorrow? I’m off around noon.”
“Perfect,” Kara said. “Lunch?”
“Lunch works.”
“Great. I’ll bring something sweet. Besides me, of course”.
“Okay…yeah. See you then.”
They hung up. Kara exhaled, setting the phone down. Zoe had always been like that, quick to notice, even quicker to question.
It came from a good place, Kara knew that. But it also meant there was no room to hide, no easy way to deflect; it wouldn’t be long before she started asking more questions. Putting pieces together, Kara wasn’t ready to explain yet. And then there was everything else.
Her emails that she promised she would get back to, but hadn't. Kara straightened slightly, a flicker of realization cutting through the fog of exhaustion.
Her laptop.
She had left it at the house.
A soft breath escaped her, somewhere between frustration and disbelief at herself. She pressed her lips together, thinking. Her fingers tapped lightly against the table, her mind already shifting from rest to next steps.
“Hey,” he said quietly. “What?”
Kara shook her head too quickly. “Nothing.”
“I need to go back,” she thought quietly to herself.
Kara leaned back slightly, rubbing her temple as the same thoughts circled again without landing anywhere useful. Something this organized—it meant something. It had to.
Across from her, Colin exhaled under his breath, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees, his focus still locked on the page like he expected it to explain itself.
“What are we missing?” he muttered.
Kara didn’t answer. Whoever wrote this hadn’t hesitated; they had known exactly what they were recording.
Maybe it would be easier if I had really known George.
She let out a slow breath, her fingers resting lightly on the edge of the page.
“I feel like we’re missing something obvious.”
Colin leaned forward again, eyes narrowing slightly as he scanned the page.
“Yeah,” he said quietly. “We sure are.”
She let out a slow breath, the weight of the day finally catching up to her.
“I’m tired,” she admitted. The pages were suddenly harder to focus on. It wasn’t going anywhere. None of this was. “Can I just…” she started, then hesitated. “Crash here? For a bit?”
“Not even a question,” Colin said. “You can take the guest room.”
“Thank you.”
“Alright. Let me grab you a blanket.”
By the time he came back, she had already curled onto the bed, her eyes half-closed, exhaustion pulling at her harder than she expected. Just before she drifted off completely, one last thought surfaced about Colin—She trusted him with her life.
When Kara stirred, she stayed lying there, staring at the ceiling, unable to tell whether minutes or hours had passed.
Across the hall, she could hear Colin moving around —floorboards shifting under his weight, a cabinet closing, water running briefly.
The whir of the refrigerator, even the ticking clock on the wall, seemed louder than it should have been, each second dragging across her nerves.
Then nothing.
Avoiding the house wouldn’t fix anything, and her laptop was still there. Kara grabbed her keys quietly and tiptoed down the hall. The house remained still, dimly lit by a single lamp near the living room. Colin’s door was closed.
She hesitated for a second, her hand hovered near the door, like she might knock and tell him where she was going.
But she already knew what he’d say;
Don’t go alone. Wait until morning. I’ll come with you.
And he’d be right.
Kara had forgotten the rental was still at the restaurant. When she glanced outside, she spotted it parked out front, the keys dangling from the key ring by the door.
He was such a thoughtful man. She wasn’t sure how he always managed to think of everything, but she was grateful.
She grabbed the keys and headed outside.
I’ll be five minutes, she thought, then turned, slipping out the front door before she could second-guess herself.
The road stretched ahead in familiar lines, streetlights casting pools of pale yellow that her car slipped through one by one. Her headlights swept across the houses, catching quiet porches and dark windows. Nothing moved. When the house came into view, it sat exactly as she’d left it. Lights off.
No obvious sign of anything wrong.
She didn’t pull into the driveway right away. Instead, she slowed at the curb to watch for movement, but there was nothing, just the house.
This was stupid.
The night air was cooler than she expected, brushing against her skin as she shut the door behind her. She paused for a moment to listen.
See? Nothing.
She reached along the wall and flicked the light on. The living room snapped into view exactly as she’d left it. A throw blanket draped over the arm of the sofa. Nothing overturned, nothing broken.
“Just grab it and go,” she muttered under her breath.
Willing herself to have courage. Her laptop sat exactly where she’d left it.
Still open, a wave of relief washed over her before she grabbed then tucked it under her arm.
Kara took a slow step backward, and her heel caught slightly on the edge of the rug.
The small stumble sent a sharp jolt of panic through her.
She began to move frantically; her shoulder clipped the edge of the doorway as she left the house.
Kara forced her legs to move, crossing the driveway faster this time. The moment she was inside, a thin layer of control started to come back.
Colin’s porch light was on when she pulled up.
She barely remembered getting out of the car and crossing the yard until she was at his door.
The door was locked. She didn’t remember thinking twice about it—only that she must have done it in her haste before leaving.
Kara began knocking wildly, harder than she intended.
The door opened quickly. Colin stood there, confusion already shifting into something sharper the second he saw her face.
“Where were you?”
She shook her head like she couldn’t answer until she was fully out of reach of that house and in the safety of Colin’s.
“I went back to the house.”
Colin closed the door behind her, the solid click of it grounding in a way George’s house hadn’t been. “You went back alone?” he asked, a note of unease threading through his voice now.
“I just needed my laptop,” she shot back, though the justification was weaker out loud. “I wasn’t planning to—” She stopped, exhaling sharply. “It doesn’t matter.”
Colin’s jaw tightened slightly as he glanced toward the door, then back at her. “You’re not going back there.”
She nodded; she didn't need any more convincing. The house terrified her.
“This might be a long shot,” she said, more to herself than to him.