Page 135 of Hide And Seek

“Because he knew his old friend—the Blackpine owner—wouldn’t want a journalism student poking around,” I said. “Especially not one connected to investigative reporting.”

“Because of what happened last summer?”

“Yes.” I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear before continuing. “So when Peter asked his friend to hire me, he downplayed how well he knew me. He pretended I was just some student he’d briefly met through another professor.”

Rhys listened quietly, arms folded across his chest.

“He told him an anthropology professor had mentioned I was looking for summer work,” I went on. “He said he’d met me once or twice and thought I seemed responsible. And that anthropology professor actually wrote me a recommendation letter for my résumé, because I’d taken a few of her classes before.”

Rhys nodded slowly. “That way the owner wouldn’t catch even a whiff of undercover journalism.”

“Exactly. He thought I was just an anthropology student.”

“And the fake name was part of the scheme?”

“Yes.” I rubbed at my forehead. “Peter thought if the owner ever saw my real surname, it would instantly make me memorable. Maybe even suspicious. And if he got suspicious enough to start digging, he could easily make a few calls to NYU and figure out that I wasn’t just some random student. He’d realize I was actually Peter’s intern. And his top student.”

“Okay.” Rhys frowned faintly. “So what exactly were you supposed to be investigating out here? Am I right in assuming it’s about the drowning?”

“Yes.” I let out a slow breath and looked down at my hands. “Carly Martin’s family never believed it was just a tragic accident. They thought the counselors responsible for her cabin had been negligent, and that the owner had somehow covered itup afterward to avoid the shitstorm that would’ve followed if the truth came out.”

“Right.”

“They got a compensation payout after Carly died,” I said. “But accepting it meant signing paperwork agreeing not to talk publicly about the case.”

Rhys’s jaw tightened. “Yeah, I heard about that.”

“The funeral costs alone nearly destroyed them financially, so they signed,” I went on. “But they never stopped believing there’d been some kind of cover-up. And if they could prove negligence, the agreement would basically become worthless.”

“They just needed evidence, right?”

“And they needed to get it quietly,” I said, nodding. “Before the owner or anyone else connected to the camp had a chance to bury things even deeper. If they were right about there being some sort of cover-up, that is.”

His brows lifted. “So they approached Peter to look into it?”

“Not right away,” I said. “At first they tried private investigators, but none of them would touch it. Too many legal risks because of the agreement the Martins had signed. After that, they approached some journalists, but they weren’t interested.”

“Why?”

“They thought it was just grieving parents refusing to accept a horrible accident,” I said bitterly. “But then they finally approached Peter, and his interest was piqued the second he heard the details.”

“Why?”

“A few reasons.” I shifted slightly on the bed. “He’s always been drawn to stories involving conspiracies or institutional cover-ups. And there’s also the fact that he used to attend Blackpine as a kid, and his old bunkmate went on to buy the camp. I already told you about that, didn’t I?”

He nodded. “So it was personal to him.”

“Yes. Partly because of his history with the place, but also because he understood Carly,” I said. “You see, he grew up pretty poor. Made it into elite schools and colleges with scholarships.”

“So he saw himself in her?”

“Yeah.” My fingers twisted tighter together. “Not just in the scholarship-kid sense, either. He also understood what happens when kids like Carly die.”

Rhys’s gaze sharpened slightly, but he didn’t speak.

“The media pays more attention to rich victims,” I went on. “The public does too. That’s just reality. If Carly had been the daughter of some billionaire CEO instead of a scholarship student from a struggling family, there probably would’ve been wall-to-wall media coverage about her death for weeks. But because she wasn’t, most people who knew about the case just accepted the official explanation and moved on. It barely made a ripple outside the local area.”

“That’s true.”