Chapter 10 - The Man on Platform 6
Jessica stared at her father's face until the image blurred.
Twenty-three years.
Twenty-three birthdays.
Twenty-three Father's Days.
Her wedding.
Chloe's birth.
Promotions.
Deployments.
Funerals.
Every major moment contained an empty chair where Thomas Carter should have been.
Now a photograph claimed he had been alive eleven months earlier.
Jessica zoomed in.
The image was grainy but unmistakable.
Same eyes.
Same crooked nose.
A scar above the left eyebrow.
Thomas had received that scar repairing Jessica's bicycle when she was six.
"Where?" she asked.
Sloan pointed at a sign in the background.
"Union Station."
Chicago.
Jessica almost dropped the phone.
"He was here?"
"Apparently."
"When?"
"January nineteenth."
Jessica searched her memory.
January nineteenth.
Something happened that day.
Then she remembered.
David's birthday dinner.
Margaret canceled at the last minute.
Victoria claimed she was in Boston.
Richard never came.
Jessica looked at David.
"Where was your mother January nineteenth?"
He frowned.
"I don't know."
"Think."
"She canceled dinner."
"Why?"
"She said Richard had chest pain."
Richard did not remember having chest pain.
Margaret refused to answer.
Sloan requested station footage.
Much had already cycled out of active storage, but transit security retained archival video under certain circumstances.
By two in the morning, they had a match.
Platform 6.
Thomas Carter appeared at 4:18 p.m.
He wore a gray coat.
Carried no luggage.
At 4:23, another person approached.
Margaret Hayes.
Jessica watched the footage without blinking.
Margaret hugged him.
Not reluctantly.
Not like an enemy.
Like someone reunited with an old friend.
They spoke for nine minutes.
Then Thomas handed her an envelope.
Margaret slipped it into her coat.
At 4:34, Thomas boarded a train.
Destination: Milwaukee.
Jessica replayed the hug.
Again.
Again.
David stood behind her.
"My mother said she didn't know where he was."
Jessica's voice was empty.
"Your mother says whatever keeps control of the next five minutes."
Sloan paused the footage.
"There's more."
At 4:31, while Thomas and Margaret spoke, someone walked through the background.
Victoria.
David whispered, "Oh my God."
Victoria had been watching them.
Sloan's phone rang.
She answered.
Listened.
Her expression tightened.
"What?"
She ended the call.
"Victoria was released."
Jessica stared.
"How?"
"Her attorney secured release pending arraignment."
"Where is she?"
"We don't know."
Jessica immediately reached for Chloe.
Sloan stopped her.
"We have officers outside."
"Victoria has photographs of my daughter."
"We don't know that Victoria took them."
"She hit her."
"I understand."
"No."
Jessica looked at the agent.
"You understand evidence. I understand threat."
Sloan held her gaze.
Then nodded.
"Fair."
Jessica's hotel room phone rang.
Everyone froze.
Jessica answered.
No one spoke.
Then a woman breathed into the line.
Jessica knew the voice.
Victoria.
"Your father should've stayed dead."
Jessica's grip tightened.
"Where are you?"
Victoria laughed softly.
"Ask David what happened in 2003."
The line disconnected.
David went white.
Jessica slowly turned toward him.
"You told me you didn't know."
"I don't."
"She thinks you do."
"I was fifteen."
"What happened?"
David backed away.
"I don't remember."
Jessica stared at him.
Then Richard, who had been sitting silently near the door, began crying.
Everybody looked at him.
May you like
He covered his face.
"I made him forget."
