Chapter 8 - Why Peter's Name Was on the Wall)
The carving was dated.
That was the first thing forensic specialists determined.
The scratches were not recent.
Dust and paint inside the letters suggested they had been made at least three years earlier.
Possibly four.
Peter had been six or seven.
Grace felt sick.
Rebecca stared at the photograph of the wall.
PETER PARKER.
Under the name was another line, shallower and harder to see.
DANIEL SAID PROTECT HIM.
Rebecca suddenly covered her mouth.
"I know who wrote this."
Grace looked at her.
"Who?"
"Natalie."
"How?"
"Daniel found Natalie before she disappeared."
Rebecca explained that Daniel had been trying to contact other women linked to Richard.
Natalie Price was one.
A widowed pediatrician from Milwaukee.
She believed someone was stealing from her accounts but had not yet connected the fraud to her fiancé.
Daniel warned her.
She canceled her wedding.
Three days later, she vanished.
Daniel blamed himself.
"He told me he gave Natalie a copy of his evidence."
Grace stared at the wall photograph.
"So Natalie knew about Peter."
"Daniel probably told her what was happening."
"But why would she write his name?"
Rebecca shook her head.
"I don't know."
DNA results arrived that afternoon.
Hair from the basement belonged to Natalie Price.
More importantly, a blood sample found in an upstairs bedroom also belonged to her.
The blood was less than two weeks old.
Natalie had been alive recently.
After six years missing.
The investigation shifted from cold case to rescue.
Agents searched nearby roads.
Traffic cameras.
Gas stations.
Private security systems.
At 4:18 p.m., a camera at a rural hardware store captured a gray SUV.
Mark's vehicle.
The driver was Richard.
Mark sat beside him.
In the rear seat was a woman.
Her head was lowered.
But facial recognition produced a likely match.
Natalie Price.
Grace's stomach twisted.
"They have her."
Bennett nodded.
"Alive."
For the first time, the authorities knew Richard and Mark were not simply fleeing.
They were transporting a hostage.
Why?
Rebecca believed Natalie knew something they could not risk leaving behind.
Grace suspected the same.
The SUV headed east.
Then disappeared.
Hours passed.
Peter remained in a protected location with Grace.
He had grown quieter.
Finally he asked, "Why don't they just leave?"
Grace looked at him.
"Who?"
"Richard and Mark."
"They may be trying to."
"No."
Peter shook his head.
"If they wanted to leave, why take Natalie?"
Grace stared at him.
Children sometimes saw the simple thing adults missed.
Why take Natalie?
Why risk moving a hostage during a national manhunt?
Because Natalie had something they needed.
Or knew where something was.
Grace called Bennett.
By midnight, investigators were rebuilding Natalie's life before she disappeared.
She had been a pediatrician.
Widowed.
No children.
But one detail stood out.
Before vanishing, Natalie had rented a safe-deposit box.
The box remained active.
Rental fees were automatically paid from an account the kidnappers had apparently overlooked.
Police obtained authorization to open it.
Inside were photographs.
A flash drive.
And a letter addressed to Daniel Parker.
Daniel never received it.
The letter explained that Natalie had discovered the network had a hidden reserve account.
Millions of dollars collected from victims.
The account required three authorization keys.
Richard controlled one.
Mark controlled another.
The third belonged to Samuel Voss.
But Natalie had secretly copied something more valuable.
The identity of every person involved.
Not only Richard, Mark, Dean, Voss and Tucker.
There were judges.
Bank managers.
Insurance investigators.
Private contractors.
People who had protected the network for money.
If exposed, the list could dismantle everything.
Natalie wrote that she had hidden the complete file in a place Mark would never find.
The safe-deposit box held only one clue.
A photograph of a children's playground.
Grace recognized it.
The playground beside Peter's elementary school.
Bennett stared at her.
"Why would Natalie choose that?"
Grace looked again.
Daniel had often taken Peter there.
One bench had been donated in Daniel's father's name.
Grace whispered, "Because Daniel would understand."
Agents arrived at the playground before sunrise.
Beneath the memorial bench, inside a weatherproof compartment, they found a sealed metal tube.
The complete network list was inside.
Thirty-two names.
Fourteen active collaborators.
Six deceased.
Several unknown.
And one entry shocked Grace more than anything before it.
GRACE PARKER.
Beside her name was a status.
UNWITTING ASSET.
Grace stared at Bennett.
"What does that mean?"
Bennett read the attached notes.
Then her expression changed.
"They were using you before Richard ever approached you."
Grace felt cold.
"Using me how?"
"Daniel's accounting firm wasn't sold after his death."
"It was."
"No."
Bennett turned the page around.
"Mark transferred its client database into Northstar."
Grace slowly understood.
Names.
Financial records.
Widows.
Insurance information.
Property values.
Daniel's clients.
Mark had turned Daniel's company into a hunting list.
And Grace had unknowingly signed the transfer documents after Daniel died.
She had helped give the network access to dozens of future victims.
Grace covered her face.
"I did this."
Rebecca grabbed her wrist.
"You didn't know."
"But I signed it."
"Because Mark lied to you."
Grace shook her head.
There was no time for guilt.
Bennett's phone rang.
She listened.
Then stood.
"We found the SUV."
Grace's heart jumped.
"Where?"
"Abandoned near Green Bay."
"Any sign of Natalie?"
"No."
"What about Richard and Mark?"
"No."
Bennett's jaw tightened.
"But they left something for us."
Inside the SUV, police found Peter's school photograph.
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On the back, someone had written a message.
BRING US THE LIST OR THE BOY LOSES HIS MOTHER ANYWAY.
