Chapter 6 - The Hard Drive in the Book

Price ordered the clinic moved to lockdown protocol while Ellis traced the unknown number. I sat at the conference table, both hands around a paper cup of water, trying to make my breathing boring.

"They found us fast," I said.

"Or they tracked the convoy before it reached your house," Ellis replied. "We're testing both possibilities."

I opened the paperback from my bag. Marcus had given it to me for our anniversary. On page 119 he'd underlined a line about ordinary courage. Beneath the cover, hidden in a repair he'd made with blue bookbinding tape, lay a tiny encrypted drive.

"He told me not to connect it to anything," I said. "Not unless someone lied about his death."

Price set a forensic evidence pouch on the table. "We'll image it without altering the original."

"I need to know what's on it."

"You will," Ellis said. "But chain of custody matters if this ends in court."

I hated the sensible answer. Marcus had loved sensible answers. He'd say they were the boring little bridges between fear and survival.

While technicians worked, I called my mother. She answered on the first ring.

"Claire, the neighbors saw the soldiers," she said. "Do you have any idea how embarrassed your father is?"

"Did you know Raymond was using Marcus's study?"

"He needed a quiet room."

"The study with the locked cabinet?"

A pause. "Your father gave him the key."

I closed my eyes. Marcus's cabinet held service records, old letters, and a photograph of the first baby we'd lost. Things that meant nothing to Raymond and everything to me.

"Mom. Did he take anything out?"

"Some boxes. He said you wouldn't notice."

The air seemed to empty from the room. "Where are they?"

"In his trunk, I think. Claire, don't start a fight over papers."

Across the table, Ellis watched me with the expression of someone who already knew the next answer would be bad.

"Mom," I said, "put Raymond on the phone."

A muffled argument rose at the other end. Then a sharp metallic crash. Someone shouted my name. The call disconnected.

Ellis's radio crackled. Officers conducting a voluntary welfare check at the house had found the front door open. Raymond's Audi was gone.

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And so was Victoria.