Chapter 8 - The Boy Who Forgot
David returned at eleven.
Jessica placed the photograph on the kitchen island.
He stared at it.
"I've never seen this."
"That's you."
"I can see that."
"You were eight."
David picked up the picture.
His fingers trembled.
"I don't remember them."
Margaret watched from the doorway.
Jessica turned.
"Why?"
Margaret crossed her arms.
"Children forget people."
"Not entire Christmases."
"They do if the people weren't important."
David stared at her.
"Mom."
She looked at him.
"Who were they?"
Margaret remained silent.
Richard answered from behind them.
"Friends."
Margaret snapped, "Stop."
"No."
Richard entered.
"For once, no."
He looked at David.
"Thomas Carter saved your life."
David's face went blank.
"What?"
"You fell through lake ice."
Margaret closed her eyes.
Richard continued.
"December 1996. Lake Geneva. We rented a house with the Carters."
Jessica felt her stomach turn.
"You vacationed together?"
"For years."
David looked at his mother.
"You told me we didn't know Jessica's family."
Margaret said nothing.
"Mom."
"We stopped knowing them."
"Why?"
Margaret's jaw tightened.
Richard answered.
"Money."
"Of course," Jessica whispered.
Richard shook his head.
"More than money."
Thomas Carter had worked in federal procurement.
Eleanor managed community housing grants.
Margaret's father owned construction companies.
The families met through redevelopment work.
At first they were friends.
Then Thomas discovered irregular contracts.
Inflated construction invoices.
Companies receiving grants for work never completed.
He confronted Margaret's father.
Margaret defended the family.
Eleanor sided with Thomas.
Relationships fractured.
Then Thomas began collecting evidence.
Jessica listened without moving.
"What happened to him?"
Richard looked at Margaret.
She stared through the windows.
"He disappeared."
"That's not an answer."
"It's the only answer I have."
Jessica slammed her palm on the island.
"Stop lying!"
Chloe stirred in the guest room.
Jessica immediately lowered her voice.
Margaret looked at her.
"I did not kill your father."
Jessica studied her.
It was an oddly specific denial.
"Who said he was killed?"
Margaret realized the mistake.
Too late.
Sloan entered.
"Mrs. Hayes."
Margaret turned.
The agent held a printed page.
"We traced the Carter Resolution Services account."
Jessica's pulse quickened.
Sloan continued.
"The account isn't controlled by Thomas Carter."
Margaret's shoulders relaxed slightly.
"Who controls it?"
Sloan looked at David.
"Your sister."
Nobody spoke.
Victoria.
From a holding room at the police station, charged with striking Chloe, Victoria Hayes suddenly became the most important person in the investigation.
Sloan explained that Victoria appeared to control Carter Resolution Services through a nominee director.
Jessica stared at David.
"Did you know?"
"No."
He looked genuinely horrified.
Margaret sank into a chair.
Richard whispered, "Victoria found the files."
Margaret spun toward him.
"What files?"
Richard looked confused.
"You know exactly what I'm talking about."
"I don't."
This time Jessica believed Margaret.
Richard went pale.
Years earlier, he explained, he had hidden copies of Thomas's research in a bank deposit box.
He had feared Margaret's father.
When Richard checked the box after Margaret's father died, it was empty.
He assumed Margaret had taken them.
She hadn't.
Victoria had.
Jessica realized the implications.
Victoria had spent years holding evidence capable of destroying her own family.
Why?
Sloan provided the answer.
"Because someone has been paying her."
"Who?" Jessica asked.
Sloan looked at the document.
"We don't know."
The payments came through overseas accounts.
But one transfer included a reference code.
Jessica recognized it.
Not from banking.
From a military procurement database.
May you like
The code belonged to a discontinued Department of Defense logistics program.
The same program Thomas Carter had been auditing shortly before his disappearance.
