The rain smeared neon into the cracked sidewalk as Roy Mercer lit a cigarette outside the back entrance to the Cascadia Aquarium. He wasn’t supposed to be here. Fifteen years ago, he’d walked away from this place, and from Claire. Now she was dead, found in a filter tank, her lungs full of saltwater.
Roy used to fix the lights in the deep-sea exhibit. He still had the key. Inside, shadows played tricks, twisting along the glass where sharks drifted. He heard footsteps—Jordan Watts, the new owner. Roy had traced Claire’s calls to him.
“She came to me that night,” Jordan said. “Wanted to expose something. I couldn’t let that happen.”
Roy tightened his grip on the wrench in his pocket.
Jordan laughed. “Killing me won’t bring her back.”
Roy exhaled smoke, looking past him at the black water pressing against the glass. He thought about the past, the truth murky and shifting. Then he walked away. Some ghosts weren’t worth drowning for.
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