Chapter 3 - The Ghost of Petoskey
The next forty-eight hours were a blur of agonizing silence. Liam called Nora’s phone repeatedly, but it went straight to voicemail. He drove to her mother’s house three hours away, but the windows were dark, and the neighbors said her mother had gone to stay with relatives out of state weeks ago.
Liam returned to Grand Rapids, refusing to let Gwen back into the apartment. He had changed the locks the very next morning. Gwen had stormed off, threatening to cut him off forever, but Liam didn't care. His only focus was finding Nora and uncovering the truth.
He began searching through the files in his home office. If Gwen had blackmailed Nora over her brother, Liam needed to know why. Nora’s younger brother, Leo, had passed away three years ago in Petoskey—the very town where Gwen lived. The official report said it was a tragic boating accident on Little Traverse Bay. Nora rarely spoke about it; the grief was too heavy.
Liam found an old box of Nora’s keepsakes in the closet. Inside, beneath old photos and letters, was a small, locked diary. He didn't want to violate her privacy, but desperation drove him. He used a small screwdriver to pop the flimsy lock.
As he flipped through the pages, the pieces of the puzzle began to fall into place.
October 14th—Leo’s case might be reopened. Someone filed an anonymous report saying he wasn't alone on the boat that night. They are trying to say he caused the accident that harmed someone else. If the police investigate, it will ruin his memory, and Mom’s heart won't take it. She’s already so sick.
Then, an entry from a month ago:
Gwen called me. She lives near the marina. She says she has the security footage from that night. She saw who was actually on the boat. She said if I don't pay her $8,000 to keep the footage hidden from the insurance lawyers, she will release it and blame Leo for everything. I can't let Mom find out. I have to find the money.
Liam dropped the diary onto the desk, his breath catching. Gwen hadn't just accidentally discovered a secret; she had actively manufactured a blackmail scheme using the tragic death of Nora's brother. But something didn't make sense. If Gwen had the footage, why use it to extort Nora? Why did she want to keep the footage hidden from the lawyers?
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Unless... the footage didn't protect Leo. It protected someone else.
Liam grabbed his car keys. The answers weren't in Grand Rapids. They were in Petoskey, buried in the cold waters of the bay and hidden in his sister’s dark house.
