Chapter 6 - What Nathan Saw
Nathan refused to tell the story upstairs.
He walked outside instead.
The wind coming from the Atlantic had strengthened, bending the beach grass along the cliff.
Lena followed.
So did Arthur and Evelyn.
Nathan stopped near the old stone wall at the edge of the property.
For several seconds he watched the waves.
Then he began.
Peter Lane called him at 11:42 p.m.
“He said Malcolm was at South Harbor.”
Nathan shoved both hands into his coat pockets.
“He said Malcolm had found out Peter copied the payment schedules.”
“Why call you?” Lena asked.
“Because Peter knew I’d signed some of the authorizations.”
Arthur’s expression tightened.
Nathan continued.
“At first I thought Peter wanted money. Or protection. I didn’t understand how serious it was.”
He drove to South Harbor.
When he arrived, Malcolm and Peter were arguing near Meridian.
Arthur had not yet arrived.
Nathan parked behind the maintenance shed and approached on foot.
“I heard Peter tell Malcolm the documents were already somewhere safe.”
Arthur asked, “Did Malcolm threaten him?”
“Yes.”
“With what?”
“He said Peter could disappear and nobody would ask questions.”
Evelyn covered her mouth.
Nathan’s voice became rougher.
“I should have called the police.”
“Why didn’t you?” Lena asked.
“Because Malcolm saw me.”
That changed everything.
Malcolm walked toward Nathan as if nothing unusual had happened.
He told Nathan that Peter had been stealing company records.
Then Malcolm showed him copies of loan forms bearing Nathan’s signature.
“He said if Peter went to the authorities, I’d be charged with fraud along with him.”
Arthur said, “Those transfers weren’t yours.”
“Some of the signatures were.”
“Obtained under false pretenses.”
“You think twenty-five-year-old me understood how to prove that?”
Arthur said nothing.
Nathan continued.
“Malcolm told me to go home.”
“Did you?” Lena asked.
“No.”
He waited in his car across the inlet.
At 12:17, Arthur’s vehicle arrived.
But Arthur did not immediately go onto the dock. He stopped at the marina office to use the phone.
Nathan saw Malcolm return to Meridian.
Then Peter appeared.
They struggled.
Not a dramatic fight.
A brief, ugly confrontation.
Peter fell.
Nathan could not see whether he was injured.
Then Malcolm carried something aboard the boat.
A coat.
Arthur’s coat.
“And the watch?” Arthur asked.
Nathan nodded.
“I saw him put something on Peter’s wrist.”
Evelyn began crying silently.
Lena felt cold despite the wind.
“What happened next?”
“Malcolm left.”
“You did nothing?”
“I started toward the boat.”
Nathan swallowed.
“Then it exploded.”
The blast knocked him down.
By the time he regained his footing, the stern was burning.
Nathan ran.
Not toward the fire.
Away from it.
He spent the next hour driving without knowing where he was going.
“I was a coward.”
Arthur looked at him.
“Yes.”
Evelyn snapped, “Arthur.”
Nathan raised one hand.
“No. He’s right.”
He called Malcolm the next morning.
Malcolm already knew Peter was dead.
He also knew Arthur had survived.
Lena frowned.
“How?”
“Because Dad’s car was gone.”
Arthur added, “I drove away after the blast because I thought the second explosion was meant to finish the job.”
Malcolm told Nathan that if Arthur resurfaced, Nathan would go to prison for financial crimes.
Then he made another threat.
Lena had been eight years old.
“He knew your school,” Nathan said. “Your teacher’s name. Your bus route.”
Lena’s anger did not disappear.
But it shifted.
“So you lied.”
“Yes.”
“For eleven years.”
“Yes.”
Arthur said, “You could have told me.”
Nathan turned.
“When? During one of your mysterious phone calls every six months? While Mom was moving money around to keep you hidden?”
“I was gathering evidence.”
“You were hiding.”
Arthur recoiled.
Nathan continued.
“You left us with the consequences and called it protection.”
The accusation landed.
Evelyn looked away.
Lena realized the family had constructed Arthur’s disappearance as a heroic sacrifice because the alternative was harder.
He had been afraid too.
Arthur finally said, “You’re right.”
Nathan stared at him.
It was perhaps the first apology he had expected and not received for eleven years.
Arthur continued.
“I was afraid that if I came back without enough proof, Malcolm would destroy all of you before anyone believed me.”
“And were you afraid for us,” Nathan asked, “or afraid that everyone would learn you approved that first illegal transfer?”
Arthur did not answer immediately.
Lena noticed.
Nathan laughed bitterly.
“There it is.”
“Both,” Arthur said.
The honesty surprised them.
“I was afraid for both.”
Arthur looked at Lena.
“I was not innocent before the explosion. I made a decision that gave Malcolm leverage. Then when Peter died, I turned that fear into a reason to disappear.”
Lena opened Rachel’s notebook.
One line had been underlined twice.
People can love you and still choose themselves.
Her mother had written that.
Lena closed the notebook.
“What is Harbor 17?”
Nathan frowned.
“I don’t know.”
Rachel had clearly believed he did.
Lena showed him the page.
Nathan stared at the words.
Then his expression changed.
“Not a place.”
“What?”
“It’s a file number.”
Arthur stepped closer.
Nathan continued.
“After the explosion, Malcolm made me clear Dad’s office. There were numbered acquisition files.”
“Harbor 17,” Arthur whispered.
Nathan nodded.
“South Harbor parcel seventeen.”
Arthur went pale.
Evelyn noticed.
“What was there?”
Arthur looked toward Greyhaven House.
“A warehouse.”
“Still there?”
“No.”
“What happened to it?”
Arthur’s answer came slowly.
“It burned down six months after everyone thought I died.”
Lena looked at Rachel’s note again.
Beneath Harbor 17, her mother had written a second sentence they had overlooked.
May you like
If the building is gone, find out what was underneath it.
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