Chapter 9 - The Call Nobody Told Me About
My father had sworn he hadn't heard from Marcus in months. Yet Victoria described an evening last spring when the house phone rang after midnight.
"Marcus asked for you," she said. "Dad told him you were sleeping. Then Dad and Raymond went into the study and shut the door."
"What did Marcus say?"
"I only heard one sentence. 'Tell her to check the blue folder.'"
I pictured the cabinet in our study. Its top drawer held tax forms. The second held letters. The bottom held an ordinary blue binder labeled HOUSE REPAIRS. Marcus had used it for everything from roof receipts to sketches of the nursery.
"Did Dad give Raymond the folder?"
"I saw him carry it out the next morning. Claire, I thought it was bills."
I passed the information to Ellis. She went straight to her legal pad. My father was not a mastermind; he was a proud, fearful man who wanted Raymond's approval because it came wrapped in expensive gifts. Pride could make people useful to the wrong person.
That evening, Ellis arranged a recorded interview. Harrison sat beneath the same kitchen light where he'd told me to stop crying.
"I didn't know about any stolen equipment," he said. "Raymond said Marcus owed the government money and Claire would lose the house if we didn't protect the records."
"Protect them by hiding them from the owner?" Ellis asked.
"I was doing what was best for my daughter."
Even over the secure video feed, the words made my stomach twist.
"You put your pregnant daughter on a garage floor," I said. "Don't call that protection."
My father stared at the table. For once, he offered no answer.
He eventually admitted letting Raymond photograph the binder. He said Raymond returned it, though he couldn't say where. Ellis sent technicians to search with the homeowner's permission—mine. Behind a loose panel in Marcus's workshop, they found an empty space exactly the width of the folder.
Price entered the room carrying a fresh intelligence summary. "We have a credible sighting of Marcus," he said. "A transport camera caught a detainee matching his description being moved toward the coast."
"Can we reach him?"
"Maybe. But the route has been changed. Someone warned his captors we were looking."
On the screen, an authorization code appeared beside the intercepted warning.
May you like
It was issued under my credentials.
