Chapter 2 - The Empty Coffin
The box slid from my hands. Marcus's old T-shirt spilled across the concrete.
"Say that again," I whispered.
Major Daniel Price lowered his salute. He was broad-shouldered, exhausted, and young enough that the gray at his temples looked borrowed. "We intercepted a voice transmission fourteen minutes ago. The speaker used Captain Bennett's authentication phrase."
"Marcus was a lieutenant colonel," I said automatically.
"His field credential listed him as a captain. You know how those assignments work."
Yes. I knew too well. On classified operations, names and ranks could be costumes. Voices were harder to fake, but never impossible.
"What phrase?" I asked.
Price hesitated. "He said, 'Tell Claire the porch light stays on.'"
My knees almost gave way. On nights I couldn't sleep during deployments, Marcus told me to leave the porch light on. He always said he'd find his way home by it.
Victoria stepped outside, silk robe flapping. "Who are these people? Claire, why is a soldier saluting you?"
"Because she's a colonel in the United States Army," Price said.
Silence hit the driveway. Even Raymond stopped spinning his keys.
"That's impossible," my father said from the garage threshold. "She files paperwork."
"Sir, please step back," Price replied.
My mother stared at my wedding ring, as if its shape might now explain the uniformed men outside. "Claire, why didn't you tell us?"
I almost laughed. Nobody had asked where I went on the holidays I missed, why I came home with a limp, or why Marcus sometimes woke screaming. They had only asked whether he could pay to repair their roof.
"This isn't about you," I said.
Price opened the rear door of the lead SUV. A medic waited inside, her equipment packed in a black case. "We need to move. There has been a security breach in your husband's last operation. You're exposed."
"Exposed to what?"
He glanced toward the house. "The contact who betrayed his team knows your home address."
My father swelled with indignation. "Now wait a minute. You can't storm onto private property and make accusations."
"Private property?" I repeated. "You just ordered the owner into the garage."
Raymond started backing toward his car. Price noticed. The major's face hardened.
"Nobody leaves the driveway until our security check is complete."
"I'm a businessman," Raymond protested. "I have clients."
Price held out a photograph. It showed a man shaking hands with Raymond at an airport lounge. The other man's face was partly hidden, but I recognized his silver watch.
I had seen that watch in the last photograph Marcus sent me.
May you like
Price spoke so quietly only I could hear. "Ma'am, does your brother-in-law know a man named Anton Vale?"
