THE MATCH ABOVE THE FUMES

Naomi refused to let Mara return alone.

They met in the underground parking garage beneath Union Station. Naomi emerged from a gray van wearing the same silver braid Mara remembered from childhood. Age had sharpened her face, but her eyes were unchanged.

She embraced Mara only after asking permission.

"Your mother made me promise that if Meridian reached you, I would choose your life over the case," Naomi said.

"Did you keep that promise when she was alive?"

Pain crossed Naomi's face. "Not well enough."

Daniel transferred the metal box into the van. The papers would be scanned, authenticated, and split among secure locations. Mara kept the encrypted drive hidden. She did not tell either agent.

Trust no badge simply because it shines.

Naomi arranged immediate protection for Lena and staged a reason for her temporary absence from the hospital. Then they built a lie for Cole.

Mara would return home with the empty gray box and claim the locker had contained only family letters. A tracking device would be sewn into her coat. Agents would monitor the property from the ridge.

"If he becomes violent, we move in," Naomi said.

"He will search me."

"Then do not carry anything you cannot lose."

Mara thought of the encrypted drive in her lining.

Before dawn, she arrived at Cole's house.

The front door stood open.

Inside, every cabinet had been emptied. Drawers lay overturned. The nursery crib had been dismantled, and her mother's photograph was torn across the face.

Cole sat at the kitchen table.

"You came back," he said.

Mara placed the empty box in front of him. "There was nothing useful. Letters. Old tax papers. A tape about my father."

Cole's eyes narrowed. "Your father?"

"She said he was alive."

For the first time, his control slipped. He leaned forward.

"What name did she give you?"

"Samuel."

Cole stood so quickly the chair fell behind him.

He crossed the room, grabbed her coat, and searched every pocket. Mara forced herself to remain still as his hands moved along the seams. When his fingers neared the hidden drive, the baby kicked hard.

Mara gasped and doubled slightly.

Cole stepped back.

"Sit down."

She obeyed.

"What else did the tape say?"

"A house with a red door."

Cole stared at her for a long moment.

Then he smiled.

"We are going on a trip."

The house stood two counties north, at the edge of a town called Bellweather. Mara did not know how Cole found it so quickly. He made two phone calls, burned the notes afterward, and drove without stopping.

The tracking device should have allowed Naomi to follow, but twenty minutes outside Bellweather, Cole pulled onto a gravel road and stopped.

"Take off the coat," he said.

Mara's heart sank.

"Why?"

"Because it is warm in the car."

She handed it to him. He sliced open the hem with a pocketknife.

The tracking device fell into his palm.

Then the encrypted drive slid onto the seat.

Silence filled the car.

Cole picked up the drive.

"You disappoint me," he said.

He crushed the tracker beneath his boot, turned the car around twice, and entered Bellweather through an old logging route.