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“This is the only part I’m having real trouble with,” Mac said. “It’s a wide circle. It doesn’t prove for sure that Helene was where the letter writer originated. I mean, it’s certainly compelling. But this whole thing is bigger than we are. I know you know that. I need to call the feds.”

“Why, Mac?” Dad asked before I could. “Mercy’s right that this thing involves multiple local crimes.”

“Because there’s a task force for things like this. At one point, one was dedicated to just Derrek Sidney’s crimes. I was on it for a little while during the Deadwater Lake tragedy. They have resources I don’t. There are other families affected by this besides just Geneva’s. And I know these people. Some of the members are retired law enforcement from multiple branches. State cops. Detectives. They’re good at what they do and this is beyond all of us. You’ll have to trust me. I need to get some of them out here. Quite a few members live close enough to get here within a few hours. And look, I know you locked horns, Mercy, but I need to call Dan Holland.”

“Holland’s part of the task force, isn’t he?” Dad asked before I could.

“Yeah,” Mac answered. “Just let me get him on the phone and fill him in. No matter how you feel about him, this was his case. And it’s haunted him as much as anyone for the last twelve years.”

“Not as much as Geneva,” I said bitterly.

“He wants the truth, Mercy,” Mac said. “No matter where that leads.”

That’s the problem, I thought. He’d added to Geneva’s nightmare all those years ago. She would feel betrayed if Detective Holland showed up on her doorstep again. I’d have to find a way to temper it.

Ten minutes later, Mac got off the phone. He hadn’t said much to Holland, just that there was a major break in the Deadwater Lake case. Just as Mac predicted, Holland wanted to drop everything and get here as fast as he could.

“He found a nonstop flight leaving St. Pete-Clearwater at 9:00. He’ll be here this afternoon.”

I wanted to protest for Geneva’s sake. I didn’t think seeing Dan Holland would do anything good for her mental state. I would have to give her a heads-up at least. And figure out a way to explain to her everything that was happening. I sent another text. She still hadn’t answered the first one. It was just past 7:00 a.m.

“It’s gonna be okay when Holland gets here,” Dad said to me. “Everything you’ve done here. It’s irrefutable. You did something Dan Holland and that task force couldn’t do all those years ago. He’ll respect that.”

I wasn’t looking for Dan Holland’s respect. I was only concerned with making sure Geneva and the other girls finally got the full justice they deserved. Because the coded messages sent to Derrek Sidney after those murders were even more horrifying.

Six hours later, Dan Holland had a similar reaction to Mac. The sheer volume of letters and information I had overwhelmed him for a moment.

“Where did this book come from again?” he asked me.

As I feared, Holland had looked at me with the same disdain he had before, just as he threw me out of his house in Clearwater.

I explained.

“So you can’t prove it actually came from Derrek Sidney,” he said.

“I have no reason to doubt Boone’s word,” I said. “These letters are self-authenticating. They were in Sidney’s possession just before he was executed. There’s a clear chain of custody. Boone insists that a copy of The Traveler’s Guide was among the personal effects sent to him after Sidney died.”

“He claimed,” Holland said, still skeptical.

“He’s out there,” I said, walking back to the whiteboard. I put a finger on a line of words. Everything below it contained the messages I’d decoded from letters sent after the Deadwater Lake murders.

They died so beautifully. You were magnificent. I will never speak a word against you. They will never know. We are brothers. More than that. We have shared and spilled blood together. I am your legacy now. I will not disappoint you.

“I believe the letter writer was either at the crime scene at Deadwater Lake, or Sidney shared intimate details about it. And it’s possible, probable in my view, that the letter writer somehow gave Sidney access to that house,” I said.

Holland raised a brow. “As if they were already there.”

“Dan,” Mac said. “There was never any solid proof that Geneva Bell was directly involved in those killings. I understand you hurt a lot of people back then by pursuing that.”

“She had no motive,” I said, trying not to shout. “This idea that she’d massacre her friends over some petty jealousy over a boy. That’s all you had?”

Holland ground his jaw. “It isn’t all I had.”

“So show me!” I finally did shout. “What are you keeping from me in that murder book of yours? We need to find out who wrote these letters. Who helped Derrek Sidney plan his escape? And who else was there the night those four women were slaughtered. Geneva told the truth. Atrō te benedicto. Mac, it was on that rock thrown through Geneva’s car window and painted on Dad’s boat. I was with Geneva when Geneva’s car was vandalized. She can’t be in two places at once. Why would she hire me in the first place if she really had something to do with what happened that night? Holland, you have got to come off of this. Maybe if you didn’t have blinders on about her twelve years ago, you could have seen some of the things I have.”

Holland lunged forward and pounded his fist on the table.

“Easy, Dan,” Mac said. “Mercy’s right. The evidence is pointing another way. So follow it.”