Chapter 5 - The Husband Who Had Become a Ghost
Emma did not sleep that night.
At two in the morning, she sat at her kitchen table with Daniel's photograph lying inside a clear police evidence sleeve.
Detective Brooks had allowed her to photograph it but not keep the original.
Daniel appeared to be in his early thirties.
That meant the photograph was probably taken around the time he disappeared.
He stood against a concrete wall.
There was bruising beneath his left eye.
A date had been written in the lower corner.
October 17, 2017.
Three months after his truck was discovered near the Canadian border.
Emma enlarged the image on her phone.
Behind Daniel was a painted yellow stripe.
A steel door.
Part of a number.
42.
She had seen rooms like that during deployments.
Utility corridors.
Storage facilities.
Bunkers.
Warehouses.
Places designed to be forgotten.
At three seventeen, her phone rang.
Detective Brooks.
"Thomas Vale is awake."
Emma stood immediately.
"Can I see him?"
"He's asking for you."
Thirty minutes later, Emma entered a guarded hospital room.
Thomas looked smaller beneath clean blankets.
Without dirt covering his face, he appeared fragile rather than old.
He watched Emma approach.
"You look like him."
Emma sat.
"Daniel?"
Thomas nodded.
"Sometimes."
"Where is he?"
Thomas's eyes moved toward the door.
Brooks stood outside.
"He tried to get out."
"From Warren's house?"
Thomas shook his head.
"Not the house."
"Where?"
"The network."
Emma waited.
Thomas's hands trembled.
"There were places."
"What kind of places?"
"Properties nobody watched. Warehouses. Foreclosures. Old industrial buildings."
"Owned by Warren?"
"Not directly."
"Then who?"
Thomas laughed weakly.
"That's what Daniel found."
Emma leaned forward.
"What did he find?"
"Your husband wasn't gambling."
Emma stopped.
Thomas continued.
"Not exactly."
"What does that mean?"
"He was moving money."
Emma felt anger rising.
"For Warren?"
"At first."
"At first?"
Thomas nodded.
"Daniel thought his father was hiding income. Tax fraud. Offshore accounts. He wanted money too. He was reckless."
That sounded painfully believable.
"Then he found the other ledgers."
"What ledgers?"
Thomas closed his eyes.
"Payments to judges. Inspectors. Sheriff's deputies. City contractors."
Emma looked toward the door.
Brooks could hear everything.
Thomas continued.
"Daniel panicked."
"So he tried to stop?"
"He tried to steal enough information to protect himself."
Emma almost laughed.
Of course.
Even his heroism had begun selfishly.
"What happened?"
"Warren discovered it."
"And?"
"Daniel came to me."
"Why you?"
"I had audited one of the shell companies years earlier. I already knew enough to be dangerous."
Thomas stared toward the ceiling.
"He wanted help decoding transactions. I told him to go federal."
"Did he?"
"He tried."
Emma's heart accelerated.
"What happened?"
"The contact he trusted was already compromised."
Emma sat very still.
Thomas turned toward her.
"That's why Daniel disappeared."
"Who took him?"
"I never knew the real names."
"Was Warren involved?"
Thomas's silence answered.
Emma swallowed.
"Is Daniel alive?"
Thomas looked at her.
"I saw him eleven months ago."
The room seemed to tilt.
"You saw him?"
Thomas nodded.
"Where?"
"Facility Seven."
"Where is that?"
"I don't know."
"Thomas."
"They moved us blindfolded."
Emma forced herself to remain calm.
"What did Daniel look like?"
"Older."
"Was he injured?"
"Yes."
"Could he walk?"
Thomas nodded.
"Did he speak?"
A long pause.
"Yes."
"What did he say?"
Thomas's mouth trembled.
"He asked about Lily."
Emma looked away.
For the first time that night, her composure cracked.
She pressed two fingers against her lips.
Thomas whispered, "He didn't know if you were safe."
Emma breathed slowly.
"What did you tell him?"
"That I didn't know."
He closed his eyes.
"Daniel cried."
Emma stared at him.
She had seen Daniel cry exactly twice.
Once when Lily was born.
Once when Emma told him the marriage was over.
"What else?"
Thomas's eyes opened.
"He made me memorize something."
"What?"
"A sequence."
Emma leaned closer.
Thomas whispered:
"Four. Two. Seven. Eleven. Red cedar."
Emma repeated it.
"Four, two, seven, eleven, red cedar."
"Yes."
"What does it mean?"
"I don't know."
A monitor beeped steadily beside him.
Thomas suddenly gripped Emma's wrist.
She almost reacted defensively, then saw pure fear in his face.
"If you're going after Daniel, don't trust the first person who offers to help."
Emma frowned.
"Why?"
"Because Warren was never the top."
Emma stared.
Thomas squeezed harder.
"He's terrified of somebody."
"Who?"
Thomas shook his head.
"I never heard a name."
The door opened.
Detective Brooks entered.
"Thomas, that's enough."
Thomas ignored her.
He looked directly at Emma.
"Daniel called him the Colonel."
Emma froze.
Brooks stopped moving.
Because Emma's expression had changed.
Thomas noticed.
"You know that name?"
Emma stood slowly.
"No."
But it was a lie.
May you like
She knew exactly one man Daniel had ever called the Colonel.
And he had attended their wedding.
