Page 36 of Silent Watch
"Yes, you were.I could see it."She lowered her hand slowly."And I'm not ready to hear it.Not while Geri Crane is sitting in her house with a black SUV outside.Not while everything could fall apart at any moment."
"So when?"
"When it's over."Her voice softened, just slightly."When we've finished what we started.When the people who destroyed Marsh and murdered Lila's father are exposed.Then—maybe—we can talk about whatever this is."
"And until then?"
"Until then, we work."
Caleb nodded.The right answer.The safe answer.And the hardest one he'd accepted in a long time.
"Okay," he said."Let's work."
They worked until midnight.
Caleb pulled digital records—media consultant firms across Florida, overlapping ownership structures, shared addresses.Harper cross-referenced names against Geri's album, building a timeline of coordinated attacks on local news outlets.
The pattern was damning.When a newspaper or blog published something unflattering about businesses connected to Coastal Venture Partners, the same sequence followed: Advertising collapsed.Legal threats arrived.Technical problems plagued digital operations.And if none of that worked, someone bought the building and raised the rent.
Seven newspapers.Three blogs.Two radio stations.All in six years.All covering different aspects of the same story.All silenced.
"We need to move faster," Caleb said, glancing at the surveillance feed.The SUV was still there.Geri's lights had gone off an hour ago."They're not going to wait forever."
"I know."Harper rubbed her eyes."Marsh's lawyer—the one who dropped him.He had other clients.If we can trace who pressured him?—"
"We follow it back to the source."
"Exactly."
"I'll dig into it tomorrow.Public records, court filings, property transactions."
"And I'll reach out to some of the other journalists who got hit.See if anyone's willing to talk."
"Be careful.If they're watching Geri, they're watching you."
"I'm always careful."She stood, stretching her neck, and moved toward the bedroom.At the doorway, she stopped with her hand on the frame.
"Caleb."
"Yeah?"
"What you told me tonight.About the NSA, about what you gave up."She paused.Her hand tightened on the door frame—a small gesture, but he noticed.He noticed everything about her now, and that was becoming a problem."Thank you.For trusting me with that."
"You already knew most of it."
"I knew the facts.That's not the same as knowing the story."
She held his gaze for one more second.Then she went through the door, and it closed behind her, and Caleb sat alone with the glow of the laptop and the knowledge that something had changed tonight that he couldn't change back.
Sleep was a long time coming.
Chapter 10
She woke to the sound of someone trying not to make noise.
The careful clink of a mug being set down.The soft pad of bare feet on tile.A drawer opening and closing with the slow precision of a man who'd memorized which ones stuck.
Harper lay still, listening.The bedroom felt cozy in the pale gray light—white walls, no pictures, a dresser with nothing on top of it.Caleb's room.Caleb's bed.The sheets carried a faint trace of soap and something warmer underneath, something that was just him.
