Chapter 4
Leo felt as if the floor had tilted beneath him.
“My father accused you?”
Colonel Hale nodded.
The room smelled of burned paper and fire extinguisher powder.
Captain Pike was being handcuffed in the hallway, but Leo barely heard him protesting.
All Leo could see was Hale.
“My dad called you his best friend?”
“He was.”
“And then he reported you?”
“Yes.”
“For stealing?”
Hale closed his eyes.
“For helping Sterling hide it.”
Leo took one step back.
Elena stayed beside him.
Not touching him.
Just there.
“Start talking,” she told Hale.
Hale looked toward the MPs.
“Not here.”
Elena’s voice hardened.
“Here is where you chose to lie.”
“I was trying to protect—”
“Do not say you were protecting anyone.”
Hale stopped.
Leo held the damaged photograph.
His father looked young in it.
Alive.
Smiling.
Leo had spent years trying to imagine Daniel Mercer as something other than a photograph.
Now every answer seemed to create another lie.
Hale finally sat in Sterling’s desk chair.
“Eighteen years ago, Daniel, Sterling, and I were lieutenants in the same logistics company.”
“Sterling was already stealing money?” Leo asked.
“It wasn’t like this at first.”
Elena’s eyes narrowed.
“That phrase rarely ends well.”
Hale nodded.
“You’re right.”
He rubbed his forehead.
“Our company had a voluntary emergency fund. Soldiers contributed a few dollars each month. If someone’s family had a crisis, the fund could help pay for travel or food until official assistance came through.”
Leo looked at the scorched papers.
“And Sterling took it.”
“At first, he borrowed from it.”
“Borrowed?”
“That’s what he called it.”
Hale’s face tightened with shame.
“He had gambling debts. He said he needed three thousand dollars and would replace it before anyone noticed.”
Elena asked, “And you helped?”
“I approved access to the account.”
“Why?”
“Because I was stupid.”
Leo laughed without humor.
“My father died and your explanation is that you were stupid?”
Hale looked at him.
“No. My explanation is that I was a coward.”
That silenced Leo.
Hale continued.
“Daniel discovered the shortage two weeks later. I begged him to give us time.”
“Us?”
“Sterling and me.”
“So you were involved.”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“Sterling replaced part of the money. Then more disappeared.”
Elena crossed her arms.
“How much?”
“About twelve thousand dollars.”
Eighteen years ago, it had been a fortune to young soldiers.
“What did Daniel do?” Leo asked.
“He confronted us.”
Hale looked toward the photograph.
“He told me I had forty-eight hours to report everything myself.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Sterling convinced me we could fix it.”
Leo’s jaw clenched.
“Of course he did.”
“Daniel filed the complaint.”
“What happened to him?”
Hale hesitated.
Leo stepped closer.
“What happened?”
“He was accused of mishandling inventory.”
Leo stared.
Elena asked, “Retaliation?”
“Yes.”
“By Sterling?”
“And me.”
Leo’s face changed.
Hale’s eyes filled.
“I signed a statement I knew was misleading.”
Leo lunged forward.
Elena caught his arm.
“You ruined him.”
Hale did not defend himself.
“Yes.”
“You were his best friend.”
“Yes.”
“My mother said he stopped sleeping. She said he barely spoke during the last year of his life.”
Hale looked down.
“I know.”
“How?”
“Because he called me.”
Leo froze.
“What?”
“The night before he deployed.”
Hale’s voice broke.
“He called me and asked me to tell the truth.”
Leo’s breath came faster.
“And you didn’t.”
“No.”
His eyes were wet now.
“I told him there was nothing I could do.”
Leo stared at him with raw hatred.
“My father died overseas three months later.”
“I know.”
“He never got to clear his name.”
“No.”
“He never got to watch me grow up.”
Hale flinched.
“I know.”
Leo slammed the photograph onto the desk.
“You don’t know anything.”
He walked out.
Elena followed him.
Leo made it halfway down the hallway before he pressed both hands against the wall.
His shoulders shook.
He hated that they shook.
He hated that he was crying in uniform.
He hated Sterling.
He hated Hale.
Most of all, he hated that his father’s entire life suddenly felt different.
Elena stood several feet away.
She did not tell him to calm down.
After a moment, Leo said, “Was my father a criminal?”
“No.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I know enough to say the original findings are compromised.”
Leo wiped his eyes.
“My mother believed those findings.”
“Did she?”
He turned.
“What do you mean?”
“Your mother may know more than you think.”
Leo stared.
“No.”
“Leo, Daniel filed a serious complaint. If he came under investigation afterward, a spouse would often know something.”
“My mom never said a word.”
“That doesn’t mean she didn’t know.”
He shook his head.
“She wouldn’t lie to me.”
Elena looked back toward Sterling’s office.
“People sometimes call silence protection.”
Leo understood what she meant.
Hale had just used almost the same excuse.
Leo pulled out his phone.
His hand trembled as he found his mother’s name.
He called.
She answered on the second ring.
“Hey, sweetheart.”
The normal sound of her voice nearly broke him.
“Mom.”
A pause.
“What happened?”
She knew immediately.
Mothers did that.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“What’s wrong?”
Leo swallowed.
“Did Dad serve at Camp Vora?”
Silence.
His heart dropped.
“Mom?”
Rachel Dawson finally whispered, “Why are you asking me that?”
Leo closed his eyes.
“Did he?”
“Yes.”
The word hurt more than he expected.
“Did he file a complaint against Major Sterling?”
Nothing.
“Mom.”
“Leo, where are you?”
“At Camp Vora.”
“I know that. Are you alone?”
“No.”
“Who’s with you?”
“A general.”
Rachel inhaled sharply.
“What general?”
“Elena Ward.”
The line went silent.
Leo frowned.
“You know her?”
“No.”
The answer came too quickly.
Elena noticed.
Leo turned on speakerphone.
“Mom, Colonel Marcus Hale is here.”
Rachel made a sound.
A small, broken gasp.
Then the call disconnected.
Leo stared at the screen.
He called back.
Straight to voicemail.
Again.
Voicemail.
His pulse spiked.
“What just happened?”
Elena already had her phone out.
“Give me your mother’s address.”
“What?”
“Now.”
He told her.
Elena called the assessment team operations center.
“This is Ward. I need a welfare check coordinated with local authorities on Rachel Dawson.”
Leo’s face drained.
“You think she’s in danger?”
“I don’t know.”
That was not comforting.
An investigator approached from Sterling’s office holding a partially burned envelope.
“General.”
“What?”
“We recovered this from the fire.”
Inside was a photocopy of an old handwritten letter.
Most of the bottom was burned away.
At the top, one line remained clear.
Marcus,
If anything happens to me, Rachel has the original ledger.
Leo stopped breathing.
The letter was signed:
Daniel.
Hale appeared behind the investigator.
When he saw it, he went pale.
Leo turned on him.
“You knew my mother had evidence?”
“No.”
“You’re lying again.”
“I swear I didn’t.”
Elena looked at Hale.
“What ledger?”
“I don’t know.”
She stepped toward him.
“You expect me to believe Daniel Mercer wrote that his wife possessed an original financial ledger and never told his closest friend what it contained?”
“He stopped trusting me.”
“Apparently with good reason.”
Hale said nothing.
Elena turned toward Leo.
“Call your mother again.”
He did.
Voicemail.
Then Elena’s phone rang.
She answered.
“Ward.”
Her expression changed almost instantly.
“When?”
Leo watched her.
“What?”
She raised a finger.
“Yes. Secure the residence. Do not touch anything until the local investigators arrive.”
She ended the call.
Leo felt cold.
“What happened?”
Elena took a breath.
“The police reached your mother’s house.”
“And?”
“She isn’t there.”
Leo’s heart hammered.
“Where is she?”
“They don’t know.”
He nearly dropped his phone.
“Her car?”
“Gone.”
“Maybe she went somewhere.”
Elena’s silence frightened him.
“What else?”
“There were signs someone searched the house.”
Leo’s face emptied.
“What kind of signs?”
“Drawers open. A cabinet forced.”
“No.”
“Leo—”
“No.”
He started walking.
Elena grabbed his arm.
“Where are you going?”
“To my mother.”
“You don’t know where she is.”
“Then I’ll find her.”
“You are emotionally compromised and potentially connected to an active criminal investigation.”
“That’s my mother!”
His shout filled the hallway.
Everyone looked.
Leo didn’t care.
Elena lowered her voice.
“And that is exactly why you cannot run blindly into something you don’t understand.”
He pulled away.
“You don’t get to order me to sit still while my family disappears.”
“I’m not ordering you to sit still.”
“What are you doing?”
“Getting you there safely.”
Leo stopped.
Elena looked toward one of her investigators.
“Prepare transport.”
Colonel Hale stepped forward.
“I’m coming.”
Leo turned.
“No.”
“I can help.”
“You’ve done enough.”
“Rachel may answer me.”
Leo laughed bitterly.
“She hung up when she heard your name.”
Hale looked wounded.
“Exactly.”
Elena considered him.
Then she said, “You’re coming.”
Leo stared.
“Why?”
“Because if Sterling is connected to whatever happened at your mother’s house, Hale may know what Sterling is afraid she has.”
Hale nodded grimly.
“There’s something else.”
Everyone looked at him.
He pulled a key from beneath his dog tags.
“I’ve carried this for eighteen years.”
Leo stared.
“What does it open?”
“A safe-deposit box Daniel rented before deployment.”
Leo’s heartbeat stopped.
“How do you have the key?”
“He mailed it to me.”
“When?”
“Three days before he died.”
Leo’s eyes filled with rage again.
“And you never opened it?”
“I tried.”
“What happened?”
“The bank required two keys.”
Hale swallowed.
“Mine and Rachel’s.”
Leo went still.
Elena asked, “Does Rachel know?”
“She did.”
“When did you last contact her?”
“Seventeen years ago.”
Leo looked toward his phone.
His missing mother.
The searched house.
The burned letter.
The old key.
Then his phone buzzed.
A text message.
From his mother.
His breath caught.
He opened it.
There were only six words.
LEO, DO NOT TRUST MARCUS HALE.
He stared.
Another message appeared.
This one included a photograph.
Rachel was sitting in the front seat of her car.
Behind her stood an old brick building.
Leo recognized the sign.
FIRST COMMUNITY BANK.
May you like
A final message arrived.
I’m finishing what your father started.
