Chapter 5 - the cabin that should have been forgotten
Jack had not visited Mercy Ridge in eighteen years.
The cabin sat in the mountains sixty miles north of Mill Creek, surrounded by pine forest and an abandoned logging road.
Sarah had loved it once.
Before Tyler.
Before ordinary life.
Before Jack decided ordinary life was the only mission he wanted.
Daniel Rourke had visited the cabin exactly once.
Jack remembered that night clearly.
Rourke had arrived without warning, carrying bourbon and a folder of job offers.
Private security.
Government contracting.
Money Jack had never imagined earning.
"You're wasting yourself," Rourke had told him.
Jack had declined.
Rourke drank alone on the porch.
At dawn he left.
Six months later, Jack received news that Rourke had died overseas.
Now somebody had registered a company named Mercy Ridge Holdings.
Elena believed it was bait.
Jack agreed.
Which was precisely why he needed to see the cabin.
Sarah did not.
"You can't seriously be considering this."
They were inside a secure room at Saint Catherine's Hospital.
Tyler slept behind the adjoining door.
Two federal agents stood outside.
Jack spoke quietly.
"If Rourke used that name, he wants me there."
"Then don't go."
"He may have left something."
"Or men with rifles."
"Both are possible."
Sarah stared at him.
"You say things like that as if they're equally normal."
Jack looked through the glass at Tyler.
"They used our son to reach me."
Sarah's anger softened into something more painful.
"That's what scares me."
Jack turned.
"What?"
"Part of you thinks this is your fault."
He did not answer.
"You think because Rourke knew you, somehow Tyler got shot because of you."
Jack looked away.
Sarah stepped closer.
"Jack."
"I should've seen Barnes."
"How?"
"I worked in that courthouse for five years."
"As a janitor."
"I heard things."
"So did everybody."
"I ignored them because I wanted no part of any fight."
Sarah touched his arm.
"That wasn't cowardice."
"Tyler paid for it anyway."
"No. Barnes did this. Rourke did this. Don't steal their guilt and put it on yourself."
Jack looked at her.
That was why he loved Sarah.
She refused easy lies, even comforting ones.
Elena entered.
"We found Deputy Voss's sister."
Sarah stiffened.
"And?"
"She admitted Barnes paid her five thousand dollars to tamper with Tyler's dressing."
Jack's expression did not change.
Elena continued.
"She claims Barnes told her Tyler had murdered someone and was dangerous."
"Do you believe her?"
"I believe she knew enough to know better."
"Barnes?"
"Gone."
Cole, standing near the door, cursed quietly.
Elena looked at him.
"His home is empty. Department vehicle abandoned. Financial accounts untouched."
Jack said, "Rourke moved him."
"Probably."
"Then Mercy Ridge is next."
Elena sighed.
"I knew you were going to say that."
Cole stepped forward.
"I'm going with him."
Jack shook his head.
"No."
Cole looked surprised.
"I can help."
"You have a wife and daughter."
"Exactly."
"Then stay alive for them."
Cole's face tightened.
"I stayed quiet for three years because Barnes scared me with the same sentence."
Jack studied him.
Cole continued.
"Every time I saw something wrong, I told myself I was protecting Megan and Lily. Then Tyler got shot in front of me."
He looked through the glass.
"I don't get to use my family as an excuse anymore."
Jack understood that.
Too well.
Elena said, "Nobody goes alone."
By sunset, a small federal surveillance team surrounded Mercy Ridge.
Jack rode in Elena's SUV.
Cole sat behind them wearing borrowed body armor.
The cabin appeared through the trees exactly as Jack remembered it.
Dark wood.
Stone chimney.
Small porch.
No lights.
Jack felt twenty years collapse inside his chest.
Elena noticed.
"You okay?"
"Yes."
"That sounded convincing."
He almost smiled.
They approached slowly.
No movement.
Federal agents cleared the cabin.
Empty.
Jack entered last.
Dust covered the furniture.
Sarah's old ceramic coffee cup remained on a shelf.
A faded height mark on the doorframe showed where Jack once jokingly measured himself after Sarah accused him of claiming an extra inch.
Then he saw the table.
A brand-new black envelope rested in the center.
His name was written across it.
JACK.
Elena photographed it.
An agent checked for explosives.
Clear.
Jack opened it.
Inside was a photograph.
Twenty-three years old.
Jack's military team standing beside an armored vehicle overseas.
Seven men.
Jack.
Daniel Rourke.
Five others.
On the back, handwritten words:
YOU WERE THE ONLY ONE WHO WALKED AWAY.
Jack's stomach tightened.
Elena asked, "What does that mean?"
Jack did not answer.
There was another paper.
Coordinates.
And a time.
11:30 PM TOMORROW.
Cole looked over his shoulder.
"Lake Bell?"
Jack recognized the coordinates.
"No."
"Where?"
"Old Mill Creek rail yard."
Elena photographed the page.
"Could be a meeting."
Jack shook his head.
"It's a graveyard."
Cole frowned.
Jack explained.
"Abandoned freight tunnels run under the yard. During the Cold War, the county used them for emergency storage."
Elena looked at him.
"How do you know that?"
"I cleaned the planning office."
Cole laughed once despite himself.
"Janitor really does hear everything."
Jack stared at the photograph.
You were the only one who walked away.
That statement was wrong.
Rourke had supposedly died years after Jack left the team.
Jack's old teammates died one by one over six years.
Car accident.
Training incident.
Suicide.
Combat casualty.
Jack had attended two funerals.
Sent flowers to three.
Never connected them.
Now he saw the pattern.
He looked at Elena.
"I need names checked."
"Whose?"
He pointed at the old team photograph.
"All five of them."
"Why?"
"Because Rourke killed them."
Elena stared.
"That's a big assumption."
"Rourke never left loose ends."
Jack turned the photo over.
"I'm the last one."
Cole said, "Why didn't he kill you?"
Jack looked around the cabin.
"He tried."
Elena's eyebrows rose.
"When?"
"The operation where I left active service."
Silence settled.
Jack had not spoken about that night in years.
He finally continued.
"Our team was ordered to enter a compound and recover a courier. Intelligence said no civilians."
"There were civilians?"
"Families."
His voice became distant.
"Rourke ordered us to proceed anyway. I refused. We argued. Then an explosion hit the building before we entered."
Cole asked, "Accident?"
"I thought so."
"And now?"
Jack looked at the photograph.
"Now I think he tried to erase the entire team."
Elena said, "Why?"
"Because we knew something."
"What?"
"I don't know."
A sound came from upstairs.
Everyone froze.
An agent raised his weapon.
Jack held up one hand.
Soft.
Electronic.
Beeping.
They moved toward the stairs.
Inside the small bedroom was an old military field radio.
It should not have worked.
Yet a green light blinked.
Jack approached.
The speaker clicked.
Then Daniel Rourke's voice filled the room.
"Hello, Jack."
Cole stared at the radio.
Elena signaled agents to trace the transmission.
Jack said nothing.
Rourke continued.
"I wondered how long it would take you to remember what you were."
Jack picked up the handset.
"What did Tyler hear?"
A soft laugh.
"Straight to business. I always liked that."
"You ordered a child killed."
"I ordered a problem solved."
Jack's jaw tightened.
Rourke continued.
"Barnes failed."
"Where is he?"
"Nearby."
"Alive?"
"For now."
Elena wrote on a pad.
KEEP HIM TALKING.
Jack ignored her.
"Nathan Webb."
"Also nearby."
"Alive?"
Silence.
Then Rourke said, "That depends on your definition."
Jack closed his eyes.
Dead.
Rourke continued.
"You should have taken my offer twenty years ago."
"I'd rather clean toilets."
"Apparently."
Jack heard amusement.
"Tomorrow night, come to the rail yard."
"Why?"
"Because I have something you want."
"What?"
Rourke paused.
"The rest of Tyler's recording."
Jack looked at Elena.
She frowned.
Rourke continued.
"Your son recorded more than he realizes."
Jack remembered Tyler saying he had heard men talking before the recording began.
"What is on it?"
"The reason Nathan Webb died."
"Send it."
"No."
"Then keep it."
Rourke laughed.
"You'll come."
"Why?"
"Because if you don't, I send Barnes to finish what he started."
Jack looked toward Elena.
Her agents were still trying to trace the signal.
Then Rourke added one final sentence.
"And Jack?"
"What?"
"I know where Sarah is."
Jack's entire body went cold.
The radio disconnected.
Jack immediately called the hospital.
No answer from Sarah.
He called again.
Nothing.
Elena contacted her agents.
Her face changed.
"Hospital security lost camera feeds three minutes ago."
Jack was already moving.
Cole followed.
Elena grabbed his arm.
"Jack."
He turned.
She had never seen that expression before.
"Your wife may still be safe."
May you like
Jack looked at her hand until she released him.
Then he said, "Daniel Rourke just made the worst mistake of his life."
