Chapter 8 - The Man Who Was Afraid of Number Twenty
Jonah Bell survived.
That created a problem for someone.
He had inhaled carbon monoxide in a closed garage.
At first, police believed it might be suicide.
Then they found the garage door mechanism had been disabled from outside.
The word TWENTY had been written across the wall with red spray paint.
When Jonah regained consciousness, he asked for a lawyer.
Then he asked for Emma Carter.
Detective Mills refused.
Jonah insisted.
“She needs to hear this.”
The meeting occurred in a guarded hospital room.
Emma attended by video from a secure location.
Jonah looked nothing like the polished man in the golf photograph.
His face was pale.
Oxygen tubes ran beneath his nose.
He kept glancing toward the door.
“You’re Emma?”
“Yes.”
He laughed weakly.
“You don’t know how many times Matthew talked about you.”
Emma felt disgust.
“What did he say?”
“That you were soft.”
“Soft?”
“That you’d give up before things became public.”
Emma stared at him.
Jonah looked away.
“I told him that’s not always true.”
“Because Rachel didn’t give up?”
His face changed.
“Where is Rachel?”
Jonah remained silent.
“Where is she?”
“I don’t know.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I haven’t seen Rachel in almost three years.”
“What did you do to her?”
Jonah’s breathing accelerated.
“I didn’t kill her.”
Emma had not accused him of murder.
The sentence hung in the room.
Detective Mills leaned toward the screen.
“Who said she was dead?”
Jonah closed his eyes.
“No one.”
“Then why did you say you didn’t kill her?”
Jonah looked trapped.
Emma pressed harder.
“What happened after she lost custody?”
“She kept fighting.”
“Then?”
“Redbridge offered to fix it.”
“Fix what?”
“My divorce.”
“How?”
Jonah swallowed.
“They said Rachel could disappear from the proceedings.”
Emma’s skin prickled.
“What does that mean?”
“I thought it meant financially.”
“You’re lying.”
Jonah looked into the camera.
“I was angry. I wanted custody. My parents had money. Rachel was threatening to expose things about me.”
“What things?”
“Affairs. Accounts. Drugs.”
Emma said nothing.
Jonah’s eyes filled with shame.
“I paid Redbridge.”
“How much?”
“Forty thousand.”
“For what?”
“To make sure she couldn’t take my son.”
“And then Rachel disappeared.”
“Yes.”
Emma felt cold.
“What did Redbridge tell you?”
“That she had accepted a settlement.”
“Did you see one?”
“No.”
“Did she call you?”
“No.”
“Did she sign anything in front of you?”
“No.”
“So you just believed she abandoned her child?”
Jonah’s jaw shook.
“I wanted to believe it.”
Emma thought of Evelyn’s sister.
People believed convenient lies every day.
“What is Number Twenty?”
Jonah began breathing faster.
“That’s you.”
“I know.”
“No.”
He looked toward the hospital door.
“You don’t understand.”
“Then explain it.”
“Numbers aren’t clients.”
Emma froze.
“What are they?”
“Operations.”
Detective Mills moved closer.
“What kind of operations?”
Jonah hesitated.
“The first time I met Redbridge, Vale told me something.”
“What?”
“He said families are ecosystems. Sometimes you remove one part to preserve the rest.”
Emma’s stomach tightened.
“What does that mean?”
“I thought it was metaphor.”
“You keep saying that.”
“Because I kept pretending it was.”
He rubbed his hands over his face.
“Number Twelve was Olivia. Seventeen was Rachel. But there were others.”
“Women?”
“Mostly.”
“What happened to them?”
“I don’t know.”
“Who was Number One?”
Jonah’s face went pale.
“I never asked.”
Emma saw the fear.
“You know.”
“No.”
“You know something.”
Jonah shook his head.
“Tell me.”
He looked at Detective Mills.
“If I tell you, you protect my son.”
“We can discuss protection.”
“No. Promise.”
Mills remained cautious.
“I can’t promise what I don’t control.”
Jonah laughed bitterly.
“That’s why they win.”
Emma leaned toward the screen.
“Why did someone attack you?”
Jonah looked at her.
“Because Matthew talked.”
“About what?”
“You.”
“He told them I left?”
“He told them police found the files.”
“And?”
“He threatened to trade names for immunity.”
Emma inhaled sharply.
Matthew was cooperating?
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
“How do you know?”
Jonah stared.
“Because Redbridge called me six minutes before someone locked me in my garage.”
“What did they say?”
His eyes filled with terror.
“One sentence.”
Emma waited.
“They said Number Twenty had become contagious.”
The video suddenly froze.
Mills looked toward the laptop.
“Connection?”
The screen went black.
Then text appeared.
Not from the video call.
A message.
YOU WERE WARNED.
Teresa pulled Emma away from the computer.
Mills reached for his phone.
The screen flashed again.
A second message appeared.
ASK EMMA WHO HER FATHER REALLY WAS.
Then the laptop shut itself down.
Emma sat completely still.
“My father?”
Teresa looked at her.
Emma’s father, Thomas Carter, had died when she was sixteen.
Car accident.
Nothing mysterious.
Nothing connected to Matthew.
May you like
Nothing connected to Redbridge.
At least that was what Emma had believed for fifteen years.
