Page 39 of When the Silence Breaks

“So ... he was good with maps. I don’t know, Sarah, it sounds like your grandfather talked to the right person. I’m guessing he would have shared with you both. Who did Aaron work for?” Ryder asked.

“Pinnacle Environmental Group—he used his skills to assess old mining sites, military test grounds, and national forests. Maybe you’re right.” But Ryder didn’t know about Sarah’s full background.

“Sounds like your brother would be able to decipher that map about as well as I can, with the right knowledge and experience, and in his case, he probably used tools I don’t have.”

“Lidar scans, satellite imagery, contaminant-runoff models—you name it. He could visualize what no one else could see.Grandpa may have been pointing at a location on that map, but Aaron knew what to look for beneath the surface.”

“Did hefindsomething?” Ryder asked.

“If he did, he didn’t share that vital detail. But whatever he did got him killed. PEG was a government contractor. So really, he worked for the government. His job sounded boring. Soil samples. Terrain surveys. But Aaron had a way of looking at data and uncovering things that no one else could see. He was thinking about going out on his own and consulting. He’d taken time off, and now I get it. He was digging into this.”

Sarah rolled to her side. In the dark, she couldn’t see Ryder but sensed he was looking her way. Listening intently.

“But he didn’t tell you.”

“No.”

“You said he was murdered. What happened?”

“Aaron was the trustee for our grandfather’s estate and had to take care of some things. When we were kids, Aaron nearly drowned in the lake behind Grandpa’s house. He never went near it again. Said the place was cursed.”

“And he was found in the lake,” Ryder added.

“Yes. His lungs filled with water. Police ruled it an accident.”

“But you didn’t believe it.”

“Aaron would never have gone near the lake.”

“Not even to face a childhood fear?”

“Not fully dressed. No. Absolutely not.”

“I’m going to go out on a limb and say he wasn’t suicidal.”

“No. He didn’t commit suicide by walking into that lake.” She huffed out her frustration, then settled her heart. “Grandpa kept a hidden safe in his home. When we were older, Aaron and I were told about it and to look there once Grandpa died. I figured Aaron would have emptied it and it would all go into the estate, but considering how he was found, I decided to look.Because ... why? Why was he murdered, you know? I found a key inside the safe. A key to a bank safety-deposit box. I now believe that Aaron left it there for me, if something happened to him. So that I would know what he was looking into.”

“Seriously, Sarah ... how can you know this is connected to his death?”

“We’re here on this mountain. Someone went after Tessa. Someone tried to take me. We’re being followed. Seriously, Ryder, how can you not know?”

“Fair point.”

“But I hear you, and the real reason is that inside the bank safety-deposit box, in addition to the letter and map from Grandpa, Aaron left a note addressed to me that said ‘For your eyes only.’ I opened it and read the note first—‘If you find this, I’m in trouble or dead. Trust no one and protect my family.’” Sarah’s throat thickened. She couldn’t swallow. “Now do you get it?”

Next to her, the sleeping bag crinkled, shifting with Ryder’s movements. “I understand more than you know. You think you could have stopped the trajectory of events that ended in his death.”

“Maybe. I think if he would have shared this information with me—and he should have—that I would have been hiking up this mountain earlier instead of now when it’s going to snow. And who knows, Aaron might be with me, alive and well.” She exhaled a shaky breath. “I owe him. I owe our family closure and answers. This haunted Grandpa, killed my brother, and now it’s closing in on what little family I have left.”I owe it to Tessa and Jeremy.

The wind whipped the tent and startled her. Ryder said nothing. Sarah continued.

“I don’t know what we’ll find up here, Ryder,” she whispered.“But I can’t walk away until I know what my grandfather was trying to tell us. What he died trying to say. What my brother died trying to learn.”

She would find out before anyone else what her grandfather had been involved in that scared him enough to change his name. To let everyone believe he was dead. She could have an entire other family out there, if he had siblings. She couldn’t imagine he would have left a wife and child to believe he was dead. But one thing at a time.

After a moment, Ryder’s voice came out smooth and reassuring. “We’ll find answers.”

She expected him to press her for more information. Or ask why she hadn’t told him this before. Suspected he knew that she was holding back. Or maybe that was her imagination.