Love is Dangerous

7. Bottom of the Ocean (Part I)

As soon as that letter arrived from Newcastle, she started to feel happy again, almost thrilled for that occasion. She also knew that, probably, it was a trap or, at least, something that could have caused troubles, but it really didn't matter to her.

She had already disappointed Mark, after all, what more could have happened?

Obviously, some colleagues wanted to know more about that weird letter, especially because it wasn't sent to her house but directly to the police station. However, Charlotte was able to mix them up easily by stating that it was just a letter from an old friend who didn't know her new address.

She kept the letter hidden in her pocket almost all day long, until the office was almost empty and she finally had the possibility to read its "mysterious" content.
It was just a small piece of paper, written in an untidy and confused way. As if someone was running while writing.

---Do you want to know more about what happened? 
What happened that night in Newcastle?---

Charlotte's expression was incomprehensible, both interested and worried at the same time; the letter was about Daniel's death! She was sure about it.

---We should meet. 
Alone. 
Go to a lonely place and I'll find you.---

Those were the last words and then nothing else.

It wasn't a clear message. But Charlotte was still determined to feel excited about it because that message was the possibility to discover the truth and, especially, to discover it all by herself. She didn't want to share that information with anyone else, and actually she felt even more enthusiastic, happier because no one else knew what she was thinking about.

She would have investigated all alone, and no one would have told her what was right and what was wrong, especially not Mark.
That secret was all hers.

And this idea gave her a completely new smile and a new determination; she wanted to discover the truth, and so she spent lots of hours, in her free time, trying to understand who was the author of the letter.

In the meanwhile, during the days at work, she started to be more concentrated, more active and smarter, so much that Lydia and Mark soon noticed her change.

Mark, especially, started to look at her again and in his eyes there were both curiosity and anxiety; probably, he knew something wrong was happening in Charlotte's mind, but he didn't feel ready to talk to her yet.

Actually, even Charlotte herself couldn't really understand what plans were in her mind, because her private investigation was complicated, and she often didn't know exactly what to do. At first, she tried to understand who was the writer, but didn't succeed so, after a while, she decided to dare more and brought again the letter to the police station.

Here, she used a specific machine to look for fingerprints on the paper but again all her attempts failed.
And since it was impossible to determine where the letter came from, the only possibility to have more information was to meet the secret sender.

But where? And how!? Bath wasn't a small town and Charlotte knew only the city center, where she lived.

The thermal baths were the only place she used to visit and, usually, they were full of people... That wasn't exactly a "lonely place" but Charlotte preferred to meet a stranger in a crowded building rather than in an abandoned area of the town.

So, she decided to go to the modern thermal spa more and more often, but almost every day there were too many people around her and, probably, the secret sender of the letter would have never talked to her in that situation.