Page 324 of Hidden Depths

“These were written by someone else.”

I looked at the signature in the bottom corner.

A single letter.

E.

Hazel leaned closer.

“Eleanor?”

Our mother.

The woman waiting for us back home.

The woman we thought knew nothing about Grandpa’s secrets.

I reached for my phone.

“We need to call Mom.”

“No,” Ward said.

I looked at him.

“Why not?”

“Because we don’t know who’s listening.”

“Then we call Thomas.”

Ward’s expression hardened.

“We don’t call anyone until we know the boat is secure.”

As if the ocean had heard him...

Every light in the marina went out.

The repair tools stopped.

The docks vanished into darkness.

For one second, there was nothing.

No lights.

No voices.

No movement.

Then a red laser appeared through the salon window.

It traveled slowly across the wall.

Across Grandpa’s journal.

And stopped in the center of my chest.