Chapter 7 - Richard Carter Came Back From the Dead)
Chloe looked nothing like the woman from Miami.
No designer clothes.
No makeup.
No arrogant smile beside Mark.
She sat wrapped in a gray blanket inside a secure interview room in Newark.
David entered alone.
She stood immediately.
“David.”
He hugged her.
For several seconds, neither spoke.
Then David pulled away.
“Where is Mark?”
“I don’t know.”
“You went with him?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Chloe sat.
“Because he told me who I was.”
David stared.
“Claire.”
Her eyes widened.
“You know.”
“We found the house.”
Chloe covered her mouth.
“The basement?”
“Yes.”
She began crying.
“I remember pieces.”
“So do I.”
“David…”
“Why did you go with Mark?”
Chloe took out her phone.
“He showed me this.”
A video.
Richard Carter sat inside what appeared to be a cabin.
Older.
Gray-haired.
But unmistakable.
David’s knees nearly weakened.
Richard looked directly into the camera.
“Claire, if Mark is showing you this, something has gone wrong.”
David stared.
Richard continued.
“Do not trust Eleanor completely. She loves you, but fear has guided too many of her decisions.”
Chloe wiped tears.
“Mark told me Richard was alive.”
“Where?”
“He wouldn’t say.”
“Why trust him?”
“Because Richard said something only Dad would know.”
“What?”
Chloe looked at David.
“When I was twelve, I broke the kitchen window.”
David remembered.
Eleanor blamed neighborhood boys.
Richard secretly helped Chloe replace it.
No one else knew.
“Mark said Richard had been watching us.”
“Why?”
“To keep us alive.”
“That sounds convenient.”
“I know.”
David looked at the paused image of Richard.
“Mark’s identity is fake.”
Chloe nodded.
“He told me.”
“And you still went with him?”
“His name is Marcus Vale.”
David frowned.
“Does that mean something?”
“It should.”
Hall entered.
“It means something to us.”
He placed a folder down.
Marcus Vale.
Former intelligence contractor.
Declared dead eight years earlier during an operation in Syria.
David looked toward Chloe.
“You married a dead man.”
Chloe gave a humorless laugh.
“Apparently.”
Hall continued.
“Vale worked for a private security firm called Northstar Meridian.”
Eleanor, seated behind the observation glass, suddenly stood when she heard the name.
David noticed.
“So?”
Hall looked at her through the glass.
“Northstar Meridian acquired several assets from the original Mercer research program.”
David felt sick.
“Mark worked for them.”
“Yes.”
“Then he infiltrated my family.”
“Possibly.”
Chloe shook her head.
“No.”
David turned.
“You don’t know that.”
“He was sent to watch us.”
“By whom?”
“Richard.”
David stared.
“Richard hired a man from the organization hunting us?”
“Mark left them.”
“That’s what he told you?”
“Yes.”
“And you believed him?”
Chloe’s eyes hardened.
“I lived with him for six years, David.”
“And I believed Mom for thirty-six.”
That silenced the room.
Hall placed another photograph down.
Mark entering a bank in Zurich.
Two years earlier.
Beside him stood Richard.
David looked at the image.
“So they knew each other.”
“Yes.”
“Where is Richard now?”
“We don’t know.”
Chloe whispered, “Mark said Richard would contact us when it was safe.”
David laughed bitterly.
“Safe stopped existing eleven days ago.”
His phone rang.
Maya.
He answered.
Her voice sounded stronger.
“We’re being discharged.”
“I’ll send someone.”
“Already here.”
David frowned.
“Who?”
“A federal protection team.”
Hall immediately looked up.
David felt alarm.
“What federal protection team?”
Maya paused.
“They said Detective Hall arranged it.”
David looked directly at Hall.
Hall’s face went pale.
“I didn’t.”
David stood.
“Maya, listen to me carefully. Do not leave that room.”
Silence.
“Maya?”
A man spoke in the background.
“Ma’am, we need to move.”
David shouted into the phone.
“Maya, lock the door.”
A scuffle.
Liam began crying.
Then the call ended.
David looked at Hall.
“Get someone there.”
Hall was already moving.
Officers raced toward the exit.
David called again.
No answer.
Again.
No answer.
Then Maya’s number sent a photograph.
Maya sitting inside a black SUV.
Liam in her arms.
She looked terrified.
Beside her sat a man.
Gray-haired.
Older.
Richard Carter.
May you like
The message contained one sentence.
DON’T FOLLOW US. I’M SAVING THEM.
