The Water Between Us

Lena returned to the lake with a structural engineer and a sheriff’s investigator.

Simone did not go.

She stayed at Evelyn’s house and waited for the call.

It came at four seventeen.

“The board was cut,” Lena said.

Simone closed her eyes.

“How?”

“Not all the way through. Somebody sawed from underneath, leaving a thin strip so it would hold until enough weight hit it.”

“Could that happen naturally?”

“No.”

Evelyn sat across from her at the kitchen table.

Simone put the call on speaker.

“Who knew we were going to the lake?”

“That’s what I’m tracing,” Lena said. “Did you plan the trip?”

“David did. He said he wanted to talk somewhere private.”

“Was Rebecca supposed to be there?”

“No. I didn’t know she would come.”

“Who arrived first?”

“David and I.”

“And Rebecca?”

“Ten minutes later.”

Lena was quiet.

“Simone, I need you to reconstruct the morning exactly.”

She tried.

David had been strangely gentle at breakfast. He suggested the lake house owned by one of his business associates. He told Simone they needed to discuss “their future.”

On the drive, he received two calls he refused to answer.

At the property, he led her toward the dock.

Rebecca arrived furious.

“You told me she wouldn’t be here,” Rebecca had said.

Simone had assumed those words referred to a romantic meeting.

Now they sounded different.

Lena asked, “What did David say?”

“He told Rebecca she was making a mistake.”

“Anything else?”

Simone pressed fingers to her temple.

“He said, ‘Not here.’”

“Then?”

“Rebecca said, ‘You promised today.’”

“That matches Isaiah’s statement.”

“Yes.”

“What happened immediately before the board broke?”

“Rebecca grabbed David. I stepped closer. He moved backward.”

“Onto the weakened section?”

“I think so.”

“And all three of you fell.”

“Yes.”

Lena exhaled.

“This may have been intended for one person, not three.”

Simone stared at the wall.

“For me.”

“We don’t know that yet.”

“My insurance beneficiary changed six days earlier.”

“We still need proof of intent.”

“Lena.”

“I know what it looks like.”

“Say it.”

“It looks very bad for David.”

Marcus drove down from Raleigh that evening with another discovery packet.

David’s attorney had produced phone records.

One number appeared twelve times in the week before the accident.

Victor Calder’s.

Another appeared nine times.

A prepaid phone registered to no one.

Lena traced its tower locations.

The phone had been near the lake property the night before the dock collapsed.

Simone asked, “Can we identify who carried it?”

“Not yet.”

Marcus set down a second document.

“There’s more.”

It was a corporate resolution for Carter Holdings.

The company had been created two months earlier.

David owned ninety-nine percent.

Rebecca owned one percent.

Its stated purpose was asset management.

Its actual bank account was nearly empty.

Except for one incoming transfer.

Fifty thousand dollars from Calder Maritime Consulting.

Dated three days before the accident.

Evelyn read the page over Simone’s shoulder.

“What was that payment for?”

Marcus said, “The invoice says risk assessment.”

“Risk,” Evelyn repeated bitterly.

Simone stood and walked to the sink.

Through the window, dusk settled over the marsh.

She had spent years thinking David’s danger came from the people around him.

Now the evidence suggested the danger might have been David himself.

Her phone rang.

Rebecca.

Simone answered.

“Did you know the dock was cut?”

Rebecca gasped. “What?”

“Don’t perform. Did you know?”

“No.”

“Did David?”

“I don’t know.”

“You were arguing about something he promised that day.”

Rebecca went quiet.

“What did he promise?” Simone demanded.

“He promised he would tell you the truth.”

“About the affair?”

“About everything.”

“What is everything?”

Rebecca started crying again, but this time her voice held real fear.

“About Calder. The money. The insurance.”

Simone gripped the counter.

“You knew about the insurance.”

“I prepared the paperwork.”

“Did you know it was forged?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because David said he needed the policy as collateral.”

“For what?”

Rebecca whispered, “For Calder.”

Simone’s blood ran cold.

“Explain.”

“Calder told David if he couldn’t repay the debt, he needed security. David offered the policy.”

“My life.”

“I didn’t think—”

“No. You didn’t.”

Rebecca breathed shakily.

“Simone, there’s something else.”

“What?”

“Two nights before the lake, I heard David tell Calder, ‘By Monday, the problem will be gone.’”

Simone closed her eyes.

Monday was the day after the accident.

Detective Brooks later explained that the cut pattern suggested planning rather than rage. Whoever weakened the timber had used the correct tool, worked from beneath the dock, and stopped before the damage was visible from above.

“That takes time,” Simone said.

“Yes.”

“So someone was comfortable enough at the property to work without being interrupted.”

“Or someone had help.”

The idea widened the circle again.

Simone asked whether fingerprints had survived.

“Not useful ones. Water, weather, old wood.”

“What about cameras?”

“None facing the dock.”

Every missing answer frustrated her, but Detective Brooks refused to offer guesses as comfort.