Page 251 of Hidden Depths

His face wasn't scratched away.

It wasn't blurred.

It was perfectly clear.

Thomas staggered backward.

Ward caught his arm before he fell.

Thomas never took his eyes off the photograph.

"Oh, dear God..."

Storm's voice trembled.

"Thomas..."

"Who is he?"

The old sailor looked at each of us, his eyes filled with disbelief.

Then he whispered the words that made every hair on the back of my neck stand up.

"That's the man..."

"...Charles Ashford has been protecting all these years."