The corridor beneath the demolished service building stretched farther than any of them expected.
Marcus walked first, sweeping his flashlight across the walls.
The concrete was old, but several sections had been repaired more recently.
Daniel noticed the difference.
“These patches aren't from twenty years ago.”
Marcus touched one.
“No.”
“When were they done?”
“I don't know.”
Elena followed closely.
Mia stayed between Claire and Daniel.
Nobody spoke much.
The deeper they went, the quieter the outside world became.
At the end of the corridor stood another metal door.
This one had no number.
Marcus tried the handle.
Locked.
Daniel looked at Elena.
“Do we have another key?”
“No.”
Mia pointed toward the wall.
“There.”
A small metal box had been mounted beside the door.
Marcus opened it.
Inside was a key.
A newer key.
He looked at Elena.
“This isn't old.”
She nodded.
“Then someone has been using this place.”
Marcus inserted it.
The door opened.
Inside was a small office.
Unlike Room 17, this place had been maintained.
There was a desk.
A working lamp.
Two chairs.
A computer.
And a wall covered with photographs.
Elena stopped.
The photographs showed the aquarium.
The touch pool.
The old filtration room.
Lena.
Richard.
Thomas.
Peter.
And several people none of them recognized.
Daniel walked toward the wall.
“Someone was watching the aquarium.”
Marcus looked at the desk.
There were recent fingerprints in the dust.
A cup of coffee sat beside the computer.
It wasn't old.
Mia pointed.
“Someone was here.”
Marcus nodded.
He opened the computer.
The screen remained locked.
Elena searched the desk.
She found a notebook.
Most pages were blank.
The final page contained one sentence.
“Peter wasn't the beginning.”
Elena read it twice.
“What does that mean?”
Marcus looked at the photographs.
“It means the operation existed before Peter.”
Daniel stared at the wall.
“Then who started it?”
Marcus turned another photograph around.
On the back was a date.
Twenty years earlier.
And a name.
Samuel Caldwell.
Elena stared.
“Peter's father.”
Marcus nodded.
“That's what it appears to be.”
The room became silent.
Mia looked at the photographs.
“Then Peter learned it from him.”
“Maybe,” Daniel said.
“But Lena found out.”
“Yes.”
“And she tried to stop it.”
Elena looked at the girl.
“Yes.”
Mia considered that.
“Then why didn't they destroy everything?”
Marcus answered.
“Because people rarely expect someone to keep looking after they're gone.”
Elena's expression changed.
She turned toward the desk.
A drawer was locked.
Marcus forced it open.
Inside were envelopes.
Each contained documents.
Shipping records.
Animal transfer lists.
Bank statements.
Photographs.
And names.
Many names.
Some belonged to companies.
Others belonged to individuals.
Elena recognized one immediately.
She dropped the paper.
Claire picked it up.
“What is it?”
Elena stared.
“My father's name.”
Daniel looked at her.
“Your father?”
Elena nodded slowly.
“He died years ago.”
Marcus examined the document.
“He appears to have received a payment.”
Elena shook her head.
“No.”
“It's here.”
“My father hated what Peter was doing.”
“Then why would his name be on this?”
Elena had no answer.
Mia approached.
“Maybe he was investigating.”
Everyone looked at her.
Elena's eyes widened.
“My father worked in accounting.”
Marcus turned toward the documents.
“That changes things.”
Elena's father had been employed by the aquarium years before Lena volunteered there. If he had discovered the financial records, he might have known about the operation long before Lena.
Marcus searched the box.
He found an old letter.
It was addressed to Elena's father.
The handwriting was unfamiliar.
The letter said only:
“You were right to be suspicious. Keep the records outside the aquarium.”
Elena sat down.
Her hands shook.
“My father knew.”
Claire placed a hand on her shoulder.
“He may have been trying to expose it.”
Elena looked at the date.
The letter had been written twenty-one years earlier.
One year before Peter became director.
Daniel looked at Marcus.
“So Peter inherited the operation.”
Marcus nodded.
“Or inherited the knowledge.”
Mia looked at the wall.
“There's someone missing.”
“What?”
She pointed.
“Lena.”
Her photograph was there.
But beneath it was an empty space.
A rectangle of cleaner wall where another photograph had recently been removed.
Marcus examined the outline.
“Someone took it.”
Elena looked at the desk.
Then she saw a small envelope on the floor.
Inside was a photograph.
Lena stood beside her father.
She was much younger.
Behind them was the same aquarium.
On the back, Lena had written:
“Dad knew.”
Elena covered her mouth.
Her father had never told her.
Maybe he had wanted to protect her.
Maybe he had failed.
Maybe he had spent years trying to uncover something that eventually swallowed his daughter.
Marcus found another document.
This one was dated the day Lena died.
It contained a transfer authorization.
But the signature wasn't Peter's.
It belonged to someone else.
Daniel leaned over.
“Who is that?”
Marcus looked at the signature.
Then he went pale.
“What?”
“I know this name.”
“Who?”
Marcus didn't answer immediately.
Elena took the paper.
She read it.
Her face went blank.
The signature belonged to the aquarium's current board chairman.
The man who had publicly supported the investigation.
The man who had promised Elena that everything connected to Lena's death would be uncovered.
He had signed the transfer order.
Seven years earlier.
And he was still in charge.
Mia looked at the document.
“Then he's part of it.”
Elena folded the paper.
“We don't know that yet.”
Marcus nodded.
“We need evidence.”
Daniel looked toward the computer.
“Then find the files.”
Marcus started searching.
The computer suddenly powered off.
Everyone froze.
The lamp went dark.
The door behind them slammed shut.
Mia turned.
Someone had locked them inside.
Click Here to continue read next: PART11: The Person Elena Trusted to Reopen Lena’s Case Had Signed the Final Transfer Order, and Now the Hidden Office Was Sealed from Outside
The Stingray Beneath the Water Changed Direction Twice, and Mia Was Certain It Was Trying to Show Her Something
Part 10 of 16
