Chapter 15 - The Father Beneath the Name
For the next twelve hours, Richard thought only about finding Emily.
The DNA report went into evidence.
He refused to speculate.
He refused to let Michael turn uncertainty into another weapon.
Daniel Mercer finally gave Claire access codes to an emergency communication network.
One active transmission appeared near the Indiana border.
A warehouse.
Police entered at 6:14 p.m.
They found Evelyn Cole alive.
Thomas's missing ledger section was beside her.
They found three armed men.
Two surrendered.
One was killed after firing at officers.
Michael was not there.
Emily was not there.
Evelyn looked twenty years older than she had a week earlier.
Nathan sat beside her.
Neither spoke for a long time.
Finally he asked, "Why didn't you tell me Dad was alive?"
Evelyn answered, "Because Michael threatened you."
Nathan laughed bitterly.
"Everyone protected me by lying."
Evelyn looked toward Richard.
"We learned from Katherine."
Richard did not react.
Claire asked the question that mattered.
"Where is Emily?"
Evelyn looked confused.
"Michael doesn't have her."
Richard stepped forward.
"What?"
"He lost her this morning."
"Lost her?"
"Someone took her."
"Who?"
"I don't know."
Richard stared.
Evelyn continued.
"Michael was furious. He believed Daniel arranged it."
Daniel denied it.
Sarah denied it.
Thomas knew nothing.
Then St. Catherine received an ambulance.
No dispatch record.
No driver.
Inside the ambulance was Emily.
Alive.
Sedated.
No new injuries.
Richard stood beside her when she woke.
She saw him and cried.
He held her hand.
"I'm here."
Emily squeezed his fingers.
"Sarah?"
"Safe."
"Nathan?"
"Safe."
She closed her eyes.
Richard waited.
Finally he asked, "Who brought you back?"
Emily opened her eyes.
"I don't know."
"You escaped Michael?"
"No."
"What happened?"
"He was moving me."
"Where?"
"I don't know."
"There was a crash."
Richard frowned.
"What kind?"
"Another vehicle hit us."
"And then?"
"Someone pulled me out."
"Who?"
Emily began trembling.
"A man."
"Michael?"
"No."
"Daniel?"
"No."
"Did you see his face?"
Emily nodded.
Richard leaned closer.
"Who was he?"
Emily swallowed.
"He looked like you."
Richard became completely still.
"What?"
"Not exactly."
Her breathing quickened.
"Like you when you were younger."
Richard stared at her.
Emily continued.
"He called me sweetheart."
Richard's throat tightened.
"What else did he say?"
"He said Michael had been lying about everything."
Richard could barely hear his own voice.
"And then?"
"He said I wasn't supposed to learn the truth this way."
Richard looked toward Claire.
She had heard everything.
Emily continued.
"He had Mom's wedding ring."
Richard's heart stopped.
Katherine's ring had been buried with her.
At least, Richard had believed it had.
"What did he call himself?"
Emily looked at Richard.
"He wouldn't tell me."
"But he said something before he left?"
Emily nodded.
"He told me to ask you about Fort Branson."
Richard's face changed.
Claire noticed.
"What is Fort Branson?"
Richard stepped away from the bed.
Fort Branson had been where he met Katherine.
At least, that was what Richard remembered.
But another man had been there too.
A young intelligence officer assigned to Richard's unit for six months.
A man named Jonathan Cross.
Jonathan disappeared after a classified operation in 1994.
Declared killed in action.
No body recovered.
Another empty coffin.
Richard sat down slowly.
Emily whispered, "Dad?"
He looked at her.
She reached toward him.
"There's something else."
"What?"
"The man gave me this."
She opened her hand.
A military identification tag rested in her palm.
Richard took it.
The name was scratched almost completely away.
Only the service number remained.
Richard knew that number.
He had memorized it thirty-two years earlier.
Jonathan Cross.
Richard stood.
Claire asked, "You know whose that is."
"Yes."
"Who?"
Before Richard answered, his phone rang.
Unknown number.
Everyone stared.
Richard answered.
No voice.
Only breathing.
Then a man said quietly:
"Hello, Richard."
Richard closed his eyes.
He knew the voice.
Older now.
Rougher.
But impossible to forget.
"Jonathan."
Emily stared at him.
The man on the phone laughed softly.
"You always were quick."
Richard's hand tightened.
"Where are you?"
"Not where Michael thinks."
"Did you take Emily?"
"I saved her."
"Why?"
Silence.
Then Jonathan answered.
"Because she's my daughter too."
Richard froze.
Emily stopped breathing for a second.
Claire stared.
Jonathan continued.
"Katherine never told you what happened at Fort Branson."
Richard's voice became deadly quiet.
"You have ten seconds to explain."
"No."
Richard's eyes hardened.
Jonathan laughed.
"You don't command me anymore, Colonel."
"Then why call?"
"Because Michael is about to find Katherine's real archive."
Richard looked at Sarah.
"Where?"
"That's not your biggest problem."
"What is?"
Jonathan's voice changed.
For the first time, fear entered it.
"Katherine didn't build the archive to expose Michael."
Richard said nothing.
Jonathan continued.
"She built it because Michael was only one branch."
A cold silence filled Emily's hospital room.
Richard whispered, "Branch of what?"
There was noise on Jonathan's end.
A door.
Footsteps.
Then distant gunfire.
Jonathan spoke quickly.
"Richard, listen to me."
"I'm listening."
"The people Michael works for know Emily survived."
"Who are they?"
"They know Sarah is alive too."
"Jonathan."
"They know Daniel is cooperating."
Another gunshot.
Closer.
Richard stood.
"Where are you?"
Jonathan ignored the question.
"And now they know you're searching for them."
"Give me a name."
Jonathan breathed hard.
"I can't."
"You can."
"If I say it on an open line, you're dead before sunrise."
Richard looked at Claire.
She was already signaling technicians to trace the call.
Jonathan continued.
"Go to Katherine's grave."
Richard froze.
"What?"
"Tonight."
"Why?"
"Because Katherine isn't in it."
The line went dead.
Nobody moved.
Emily stared at her father.
Sarah stood beside Nathan in the doorway.
Claire slowly lowered her phone.
Richard looked down at the dog tag in his hand.
Thirty-two years earlier, Jonathan Cross had disappeared.
Eleven years earlier, Katherine Hayes had been buried.
Three months earlier, Charles Cole had returned from the dead.
Now Jonathan claimed Katherine's coffin was empty.
Richard had spent his whole life believing death was the one thing nobody could falsify forever.
He had been wrong.
Outside the hospital windows, evening settled over Chicago.
Inside, Richard put the identification tag into his pocket.
Claire watched him.
"You're not actually going to the cemetery tonight."
Richard put on his olive field jacket.
Emily knew that expression.
She had seen it only twice in her life.
Once when her mother died.
And once when Richard thought Emily herself was about to die.
"Dad."
He looked at her.
"Don't go alone."
Richard walked back to the bed.
He kissed her forehead.
"I won't."
Then he looked at Sarah.
For the first time, he understood that Katherine had left behind not one daughter, but two.
Perhaps more secrets than either of them could survive.
Richard turned toward Claire.
"Get a warrant for the grave."
Claire nodded.
Nathan asked, "And if Jonathan is telling the truth?"
Richard stopped at the doorway.
He looked back at Emily.
Then at Sarah.
Finally at Katherine's old wedding photograph on Emily's bedside table.
"If that coffin is empty," he said, "then everything we know about Katherine's death is a lie."
His phone vibrated.
One new message.
No sender.
Only a photograph.
Richard opened it.
Everyone in the room became silent.
The photograph had been taken less than an hour earlier.
A woman was entering a black sedan somewhere beneath bright airport lights.
Silver hair.
Older face.
But unmistakable eyes.
Katherine Hayes.
Alive.
On the back window of the sedan was a small white symbol.
A lantern surrounded by three circles.
Beneath the photograph was one sentence.
MICHAEL WAS NEVER THE MAN YOU NEEDED TO FEAR.
Richard stared at the image.
Then another message appeared.
THIS TIME, COLONEL, DON'T FOLLOW YOUR WIFE.
FOLLOW YOUR DAUGHTER.
Richard slowly looked toward Emily.
Her face had gone pale.
"What?" she whispered.
Before he could answer, Sarah's phone rang.
She looked at the screen.
Unknown number.
Richard said, "Don't answer."
But the call connected automatically.
A woman's voice filled the room.
Calm.
Older.
Familiar.
"Sarah?"
Sarah's lips parted.
Richard stopped breathing.
The woman continued.
"My darling girl."
Sarah began to cry.
"Mom?"
Richard's knees almost failed him.
The voice belonged to Katherine Hayes.
Alive after eleven years.
Katherine spoke only one more sentence.
May you like
"Tell Richard the grave is a trap."
Then the lights in Emily's room went out.
