Chapter 10 - The Last Shift

Talia knew Wade Oakes's name. She had seen it on the flyer advertising safety improvements at Rowan Street Music Hall. She'd folded the flyer into her father's memorial scrapbook because it showed him smiling beside the piano he'd polished for twenty years.

She brought the scrapbook to Priya's office. On the back of the flyer was a small handwritten note in Victor's neat block letters: WADE CHANGED DOOR HARDWARE. ASK DIRECTOR WHY AFTER HOURS.

"Dad didn't keep secrets," Talia said. "If something seemed wrong, he wrote it down until he could ask somebody."

Owen touched the edge of the page. "Adam did the same thing."

For once she didn't pull away.

Collins tracked the company truck that Wade had driven using records obtained through a warrant. It had crossed into New Jersey the morning after the wedding. The credit card tied to it had been canceled that same afternoon. Someone was cutting Wade loose.

Meanwhile Mina recovered a second, shorter wedding-video clip from a rehearsal camera. Natalie was near the service elevators, arguing with Martin. "You promised there'd be no child involved," she told him.

Martin's answer was low but audible. "Then you shouldn't have let the child keep the house."

The exchange made Natalie look less in control, but it didn't make her innocent. Owen watched it three times and hated that a part of him still wanted the woman he'd loved to mean what she said.

That evening Ben called. Ivy had asked to speak to her father at bedtime, and Ben didn't have the heart to explain another delay. Owen drove over and sat with her on the sofa.

"Daddy isn't a bad man," she said.

"I know."

"Then why did the judge say he was?"

Owen considered giving her a smaller answer. "Sometimes adults get things terribly wrong. It takes work to fix them."

"Is that why you don't smile?"

He kissed her hair. "That's part of it."

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When she fell asleep, his phone lit up with a call from an unfamiliar New Jersey area code. A man spoke before Owen could say hello.

"This is Wade Oakes. I didn't know the guard was inside. If you want to prove it, get to me before Cross does."