Chapter 8 - The Father Who Had Been Dead for Twelve Years)
Thomas Reed had died alone.
That was the story Daniel had believed since he was thirty-two.
A heart attack in a motel outside Philadelphia.
Daniel had identified the body himself.
Unlike Claire, there had been no Samuel standing between him and the truth.
He remembered his father's face.
Gray.
Still.
Unmistakable.
So the man in the station footage could not be Thomas.
Yet Samuel seemed certain.
Daniel replayed the clip.
The posture.
The slight tilt of the head.
The way the man kept his left hand inside his coat pocket.
Daniel's father had done that constantly after a factory injury damaged two fingers.
"Stop."
Quinn paused.
Daniel leaned closer.
"His left hand."
"What?"
"My father couldn't fully straighten his ring finger."
The image was blurry.
But the hand looked curled.
Samuel sat down.
Daniel looked at him.
"How well did you know my father?"
"Better than you realized."
Daniel felt something shift again.
"What does that mean?"
Samuel looked toward Quinn.
She said, "We're past secrets."
Samuel nodded.
"When Claire first found the Hearthline payments, she showed me a name."
"What name?"
"Thomas Reed."
Daniel stared.
"No."
"He was listed as a property consultant."
"My father worked maintenance at a chemical plant."
"That's what you knew."
Daniel shook his head.
"He barely finished high school."
"He didn't need a degree to do what Hearthline used him for."
"What did they use him for?"
Samuel hesitated.
Evelyn answered.
"Collection."
Daniel looked at her.
"Rent?"
"Debts. Documents. Sometimes people."
Daniel's body went cold.
"My father was an enforcer?"
"For a few years."
"No."
Evelyn did not argue.
Quinn searched the Compass files.
She found Thomas Reed.
Photograph.
Employment records.
Payments.
Daniel sat.
The photograph showed his father twenty years younger, standing beside Howard Bell.
On his jacket was a silver compass pin.
Daniel stared until the picture blurred.
Memories changed shape.
His father's unexplained trips.
Cash kept inside the freezer.
Arguments behind closed doors.
The night Thomas came home with a broken nose and refused to explain it.
Daniel had been sixteen.
He had believed his father gambled.
Maybe that had been easier.
"Was he Compass?"
Evelyn nodded.
"Low level."
"Then why fake his death?"
"Maybe he didn't."
Daniel looked again at the station image.
"A double?"
Quinn said, "Possible."
Samuel shook his head.
"Claire believed Thomas Reed was alive."
Daniel turned.
"You knew?"
"Not until her last call."
"What did she say?"
"She asked me whether you had ever seen your father's autopsy report."
Daniel stared.
"I saw his body."
"Claire said that might not be enough."
Daniel remembered the motel morgue.
His father had been badly swollen.
But recognizable.
Wasn't he?
Grief was becoming unreliable.
Quinn searched databases.
Thomas Reed's death certificate looked normal.
Medical examiner.
Dr. Evan March.
Daniel frowned.
"I know that name."
Quinn looked at him.
"How?"
Daniel searched his memory.
Then froze.
"Claire's accident."
Quinn opened that file.
Same medical examiner.
Dr. Evan March.
Two deaths.
Twelve years apart.
Daniel's father.
Daniel's wife.
Both tied to the same examiner.
Quinn called the county office.
Dr. March had retired nine years ago.
Current address unknown.
Evelyn stood.
"Find him."
Quinn looked at her.
"We will."
"No. Now."
Something in her voice changed.
Daniel noticed.
"You know him."
Evelyn stared at the name.
"March wasn't only a medical examiner."
"What was he?"
"Compass."
Quinn swore.
Samuel whispered, "So Thomas's death could've been staged too."
Daniel thought of the train station man following Claire.
"If that's my father, why follow her?"
Evelyn answered quietly.
"Maybe because Thomas wasn't low level anymore."
The possibility was worse than grief.
Daniel stood.
"I need Owen."
Quinn blocked the door.
"Daniel."
"My son is sitting in somebody else's house while we're discovering that every dead person in my family might be alive."
"Exactly why he stays protected."
Daniel stopped.
She was right.
He hated that.
They spent the next four hours tracing Dr. Evan March.
Eventually Quinn found a property tax record.
A small house near Lake Carver.
Purchased under his wife's maiden name.
They drove there before sunrise.
The house looked abandoned.
Mailbox leaning.
Curtains drawn.
No vehicle.
Quinn approached with her weapon ready.
Daniel and Samuel followed.
Evelyn stayed near the road.
The front door was unlocked.
Inside smelled stale.
Furniture covered in sheets.
Dust everywhere.
Except one hallway.
Recent footprints.
Quinn followed them to a basement door.
Locked.
Daniel forced it open.
They descended.
The basement was not abandoned.
Monitors.
File cabinets.
Medical equipment.
Photographs.
Hundreds.
Daniel's skin crawled.
Quinn opened a cabinet.
Death certificates.
Autopsy forms.
Identification photographs.
Samuel whispered, "He kept records."
Daniel found a file labeled REED, THOMAS.
He opened it.
Inside was the official photograph of his father's body.
Then another photograph.
Same face.
Different man.
Daniel looked closer.
Prosthetic makeup.
Dental alterations.
A note.
SUBSTITUTION APPROVED.
Daniel had to sit down.
Samuel put a hand on his shoulder.
Daniel shoved it away.
Quinn found another file.
"Claire."
Daniel stood.
Inside were photographs of the burned car.
Elise Warren's body.
Altered dental charts.
Samuel's signed identification statement.
Daniel closed the folder.
Then a voice came from the basement stairs.
"You were always impatient, Daniel."
Everyone turned.
An old man stood above them.
White hair.
Thin face.
Cane.
Dr. Evan March.
Quinn raised her gun.
"Hands where I can see them."
March smiled.
"You have Claire's eyes when you're angry."
Daniel stepped forward.
"Where is my father?"
March looked at him for a long moment.
Then said, "Closer than you think."
"Is he alive?"
March's smile disappeared.
"Yes."
Daniel's heart pounded.
"Was that him following Claire?"
March nodded.
Samuel swore under his breath.
Daniel continued.
"Is he Shepherd?"
March's eyes changed.
Fear.
Real fear.
"No."
Daniel stepped closer.
"Then who is?"
March looked toward the ceiling.
As if someone might be listening.
"The Shepherd isn't one person anymore."
Quinn frowned.
"What does that mean?"
March whispered, "It means Claire discovered the truth too late."
A red light began blinking on one of the monitors.
March saw it.
His face collapsed.
"They found us."
Daniel looked at the screen.
A live exterior camera showed three black vehicles turning into the driveway.
March grabbed Daniel's arm.
"Listen to me."
"Where is Claire?"
"Alive."
"Where?"
"I don't know."
Daniel pulled him closer.
"Where is my father?"
March whispered an address.
Samuel heard it too.
May you like
Then the basement lights went out.
Above them, the front door crashed open.
