Chapter 2 - RAYMOND KELLER’S VERSION
Police found two spent casings in the trees across the lake.
The shooter was gone.
No one had been hit.
That was the only good news.
Nia sat inside an ambulance while a paramedic checked a scrape on her arm.
Raymond stood twenty feet away speaking with Detective Aaron Price.
Nia knew Aaron casually.
Small-town life meant everyone knew someone.
He had gone to school with her older cousin.
Attended her father’s funeral.
Brought food to the house afterward.
Now he looked like a different person entirely.
Focused.
Suspicious.
He walked toward Nia.
“You okay?”
“No.”
“Fair.”
He glanced at the tackle box.
“Raymond says somebody shot at you after you found something hidden inside it.”
Nia stared past him at Raymond.
“Raymond says a lot.”
Aaron lowered his voice.
“Do you still have what you found?”
“Yes.”
“I need it.”
“No.”
Aaron blinked.
“Nia.”
“My dad specifically said not to trust Raymond.”
“I’m not Raymond.”
“No. But I also don’t know who is involved.”
His expression hardened slightly.
“You think I’m involved?”
“I think somebody knew within minutes that I found the hidden compartment.”
Aaron considered that.
“You called anyone?”
“Chloe.”
“Before or after the threatening call?”
“After.”
“Raymond?”
“No.”
“Anyone else?”
“No.”
Aaron nodded slowly.
“Then either someone watched you find it…”
He looked across the lake.
“…or someone was waiting for Raymond to come back.”
Nia’s stomach tightened.
“Why did he come back?”
“That’s what I’m asking him.”
Raymond insisted he returned because Madison confessed something.
After leaving the lake, he demanded to know why she targeted Nia.
Madison admitted she had overheard Raymond arguing on the phone about “James Bennett’s daughter.”
She had later searched Nia online.
She decided Nia was responsible for her father’s stress.
So she went to provoke her.
Raymond claimed the moment he heard this, he realized Nia might go through James’s old tackle box after it was soaked.
“How would he know about the compartment?” Nia asked.
Aaron gave her a look.
“Exactly.”
Raymond finally agreed to speak with both of them.
They moved to a private room at the sheriff’s department.
Nia kept the memory card.
Police copied it but allowed her attorney to retain the original once chain-of-custody documentation was completed.
The brass key remained with her too.
Raymond sat across from Nia.
His hands were clasped.
“You deserve the truth.”
“That would be new.”
He accepted the insult.
“Your father and I were business partners once.”
Nia stared.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“My father hated developers.”
“He wasn’t always against development.”
Raymond pulled out an old photograph.
James Bennett.
Twenty years younger.
Raymond beside him.
Both standing near the lake holding rolled-up plans.
Nia took the picture.
“What was this?”
“We planned a small community project.”
“What kind?”
“Cabins. Public trails. Fishing access. Nothing huge.”
“What changed?”
“Money.”
Nia almost laughed.
“Of course.”
“Not James’s.”
Raymond leaned forward.
“A larger development group approached us.”
“Who?”
“Northstar Land Corporation.”
Nia knew the name.
Everyone did.
Northstar built gated communities, resorts, shopping centers.
“They wanted the entire lake corridor.”
“How much?”
“Enough.”
“And Dad refused.”
“At first, no.”
Nia’s eyes narrowed.
Raymond continued.
“James considered it.”
“That doesn’t sound like him.”
“He had debts.”
Nia froze.
“My dad didn’t have debts.”
“He did then.”
“What kind?”
“Medical bills.”
Nia understood.
Her mother.
Cancer treatment.
Nia had been fifteen.
James never discussed money.
“He thought selling could secure your mother’s care.”
Nia looked down.
“But he changed his mind.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because he discovered Northstar had bribed officials to change water-use permits and environmental classifications.”
Nia’s expression sharpened.
“Bribed who?”
“County commissioners. Inspectors. Maybe others.”
“Maybe?”
“I never had proof of everyone.”
“What did Dad do?”
“He copied records.”
“The memory card?”
“Partly.”
“Then why did he tell me not to trust you?”
Raymond looked away.
Because this was the part he did not want to say.
“I signed.”
Nia waited.
“I signed the first agreement with Northstar.”
“You sold?”
“My portion.”
Nia’s jaw tightened.
“Behind his back?”
“No. But I signed after he told me not to.”
“So you betrayed him.”
“Yes.”
The honesty landed harder than denial would have.
Raymond continued.
“I thought James was throwing away millions over documents that could never be proven authentic.”
“And?”
“He was right.”
“About the corruption?”
“Yes.”
“Did you help cover it up?”
Raymond hesitated.
“I stayed quiet.”
Nia laughed bitterly.
“That’s a yes.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I had a wife. A daughter. A mortgage. Business partners. Northstar threatened lawsuits.”
“So you chose yourself.”
“Yes.”
Nia looked at him.
“You’re surprisingly honest today.”
“I should have been twenty years ago.”
The room fell quiet.
Aaron asked:
“What did James find recently?”
Raymond’s face changed.
“About a year ago, he called me.”
Nia stopped breathing.
“What did he say?”
“He had found the original payment ledger.”
“What ledger?”
“A record of bribes.”
“Where?”
“He didn’t tell me.”
“Why call you?”
“He wanted me to testify.”
Nia stared.
“And did you?”
“No.”
“Of course.”
Raymond looked ashamed.
“I asked for time.”
“How much?”
“A week.”
“My father died three days later.”
Raymond’s eyes filled.
“I know.”
Nia’s voice became hard.
“Did you kill him?”
“No.”
“Did you tell Northstar he found the ledger?”
Raymond did not answer.
Nia stood.
Aaron said:
“Nia.”
She ignored him.
“Did you tell them?”
Raymond whispered:
“Yes.”
Nia slapped him.
Hard.
The sound cracked through the room.
Aaron stood but did not grab her.
Raymond did not move.
Nia’s hand shook.
“You told them.”
“I thought they would pressure him.”
“He died.”
“I know.”
“You knew he had evidence.”
“Yes.”
“You warned the people he had evidence against.”
“Yes.”
“My father died three days later.”
Raymond’s voice broke.
“I know.”
Nia sat again because her knees suddenly felt weak.
Aaron asked quietly:
“Who did you tell?”
Raymond swallowed.
“Charles Mercer.”
The name meant nothing to Nia.
Aaron recognized it.
“Northstar’s regional vice president?”
“Former.”
“Where is he now?”
“Retired.”
Aaron’s expression said he did not believe retirement meant harmless.
Nia asked:
“Was Charles at Dad’s funeral?”
Raymond looked at her.
“Yes.”
Nia felt sick.
“How did Dad die?”
“Officially?”
“I know officially.”
Raymond looked at Aaron.
Then back at Nia.
“There was something the coroner never told you.”
Aaron stiffened.
“What?”
Raymond spoke slowly.
“James called me the night before he died.”
“What did he say?”
“He said somebody had been inside the cabin.”
Nia’s throat tightened.
“What was missing?”
“He wouldn’t tell me.”
“Then?”
“He said if anything happened to him, it wouldn’t be his heart.”
Silence.
Aaron stood.
“Why was that never reported?”
Raymond looked at him.
“I reported it.”
Aaron froze.
“To whom?”
“Sheriff Daniel Price.”
Aaron’s father.
The former county sheriff.
The man who had signed James Bennett’s death report.
Aaron’s face went still.
“My father?”
“Yes.”
“You told him James feared for his life?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“The morning James was found.”
Aaron looked stunned.
“He never put that in the file.”
“No.”
“Why?”
Raymond shook his head.
“You need to ask him.”
Aaron stared at the table.
His father had retired six months earlier.
Health reasons.
Respected.
Decorated.
Loved in town.
Nia watched Aaron’s face and understood something ugly.
Corruption did not arrive wearing a villain’s uniform.
Sometimes it wore a badge.
Sometimes it raised children.
Sometimes it retrieved a tackle box from a lake and apologized.
The memory card copy finished processing that evening.
It contained four folders.
LAND.
PAYMENTS.
MERCER.
And one labeled simply:
IF I DIE.
Aaron opened it.
There was a video.
James Bennett sat inside the old cabin.
Recorded thirteen days before his death.
He looked tired.
But very much alive.
“If you’re seeing this, I probably didn’t get to finish what I started.”
Nia covered her mouth.
Her father’s voice filled the room.
“Raymond knows part of it. Not all.”
Raymond lowered his head.
James continued.
“Charles Mercer isn’t the top.”
Aaron leaned closer.
“Northstar paid county officials for years. But somebody local protected the system.”
A pause.
“The sheriff knows.”
Aaron stopped breathing.
Nia looked at him.
On screen, James Bennett leaned toward the camera.
“And if Daniel Price says he didn’t know…”
May you like
James stared directly into the lens.
“…he’s lying.”
