Chapter 5 - The Forty-First Note
Pierce shoved Daniel away from the window.
“Down!”
Everyone moved.
Agents rushed outside.
Emma crouched beside the table, pale but controlled.
Daniel stayed close.
No shot came.
No engine started.
Nothing moved in the trees.
Five minutes later, the perimeter team reported no visual contact.
Whoever had taken the photograph was gone.
Pierce took Daniel’s phone.
“Do not delete anything.”
“I wasn’t planning to.”
Emma stared at the dark window.
“They knew we would come.”
Pierce nodded grimly.
“Possibly.”
“They knew about Caleb’s message.”
“Possibly.”
Daniel looked at the recorder.
“Or they followed us.”
Pierce called for a full sweep.
They found tire impressions behind an abandoned barn.
No vehicle.
No person.
Emma stood on the cabin porch hugging herself.
Daniel joined her.
“You okay?”
“No.”
“Good answer.”
She looked at him.
“You’re not okay either.”
“I didn’t claim to be.”
For a few moments, they watched agents move through the property.
Emma whispered, “Do you hate me?”
Daniel turned.
“What?”
“For not telling you about Caleb.”
“No.”
“You’re angry.”
“Yes.”
“That sounds dangerously close.”
“It isn’t.”
She studied him.
“How do you know?”
“Because I’ve hated people.”
His eyes moved toward the cabin.
“I know the difference.”
Emma lowered her gaze.
Daniel continued.
“I’m angry because you decided protecting me required lying.”
“I understand.”
“But I also understand why.”
She looked up.
“That doesn’t make it right.”
“No.”
“It just makes it human.”
Emma’s eyes filled.
Daniel almost reached for her.
He stopped.
There were still too many unanswered questions between them.
The confession.
Caleb.
March fourth.
Hale.
The mysterious higher-ranking officer.
They returned home after midnight under protective surveillance.
Rachel was waiting inside.
The instant Emma entered, Rachel hugged her.
Then slapped her arm.
“Ow.”
“That’s for hiding the Caleb thing from me.”
“You knew I had a brother.”
“I didn’t know he might be involved in international military corruption!”
“Technically we don’t know—”
Rachel hit her again.
“Ow!”
Daniel locked the door.
Rachel turned.
Her expression softened.
“You okay?”
“No.”
She hugged him too.
Daniel closed his eyes.
For one second he allowed himself to be only a brother.
Not an officer.
Not a witness.
Not a man who had just learned someone he trusted might have engineered an ambush.
Rachel stepped back.
“You look terrible.”
“Thank you.”
“Deployment somehow improved you.”
Emma laughed.
Daniel looked at her.
The sound felt good.
Too good.
Rachel noticed.
Of course she did.
Her eyes moved between them.
Then toward the confession note still on the counter.
Emma saw where she was looking.
“Rachel.”
“What?”
“Don’t.”
Rachel held up both hands.
“I said nothing.”
“You’re thinking loudly.”
Daniel walked to the refrigerator.
“Is there food?”
Emma answered automatically.
“Left drawer. Pasta.”
Rachel grinned.
Daniel glanced over.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“You two are weird.”
“You have no idea,” Emma muttered.
They ate at the kitchen table.
For twenty minutes nobody mentioned the investigation.
Rachel told Daniel about their mother’s broken dishwasher.
Emma complained about Rachel’s driving.
Daniel listened.
Normal life felt almost unreal.
Then Rachel noticed the notes.
“Wow.”
Emma groaned.
“Not you too.”
“You left all of these?”
Daniel said, “Forty.”
Rachel stared at Emma.
“Forty?”
“Please stop saying the number.”
Rachel picked one from the bookshelf.
She read aloud.
“Day 96. Your stupid fern finally grew a new leaf. I’m taking full credit.”
Daniel looked toward a green fern by the window.
“You saved it?”
Emma shrugged.
“It was dramatic.”
“It was dead.”
“It was misunderstood.”
Rachel laughed.
Daniel watched Emma.
He wondered how many invisible things she had repaired while he was gone.
The plant.
The house.
Maybe parts of him he had not yet seen.
Later, Rachel went upstairs.
Emma remained in the kitchen.
Daniel gathered the notes.
“What are you doing?”
“Putting them together.”
“Why?”
“Evidence.”
She gave him a look.
“Emotional evidence.”
“Same thing.”
He spread them across the table chronologically.
Day 12.
Day 27.
Day 41.
Some were jokes.
Some serious.
Day 73.
Rachel got promoted today. She pretended she wasn’t proud. She is.
Day 119.
Your neighbor Mrs. Franklin asked if you were safe. I said yes. I hope I wasn’t lying.
Day 164.
I heard your voice on speakerphone tonight. You sounded tired.
Day 190.
Come home.
Daniel stopped.
The note contained only those two words.
Emma was looking elsewhere.
He counted.
“Thirty-nine.”
She frowned.
“What?”
“There are only thirty-nine.”
“No.”
He counted again.
Thirty-nine.
“You said forty.”
“I wrote forty.”
“Where’s the last one?”
Emma’s expression changed.
“I don’t know.”
Daniel began searching.
Coffee maker.
Books.
Cabinets.
Staircase.
Rachel came downstairs when she heard drawers opening.
“What happened?”
“One note is missing.”
Rachel shrugged.
“Maybe you miscounted.”
Emma said, “I didn’t.”
Daniel looked at her.
“What was on it?”
“I don’t remember.”
“Emma.”
“I wrote them over eight months.”
“Was it another confession?”
“No.”
“Something about Caleb?”
Emma froze.
Daniel saw it.
“Was it?”
“I don’t know.”
Rachel leaned against the counter.
“Think.”
Emma closed her eyes.
Then opened them.
“Oh.”
Daniel stepped closer.
“What?”
“The forty-first.”
“You said forty.”
“I counted forty visible notes.”
“Meaning?”
Emma’s face tightened.
“There was another one.”
“Where?”
“I hid it.”
Daniel stared.
“Why?”
“Because I wrote it after the investigators interviewed me.”
Rachel straightened.
“What did it say?”
Emma looked toward the stairs.
“I wrote down something Caleb told me years ago.”
Daniel’s pulse jumped.
“What?”
“A name.”
The room went silent.
Emma moved toward the staircase.
She knelt beside the bottom step.
Her fingers traced the underside.
“There was a loose piece of molding.”
Daniel crouched beside her.
Emma pulled.
The thin wooden strip came free.
Behind it was an empty space.
Nothing inside.
She went pale.
“It’s gone.”
Rachel whispered, “Who knew?”
“No one.”
Daniel looked at the broken edge of the molding.
Fresh scratches marked the wood.
Someone had removed it recently.
He stood.
“You’re sure the note had a name?”
“Yes.”
“Whose?”
Emma looked at him.
“When Caleb came home after his court-martial, he used to get drunk and talk about an officer who protected people moving stolen fuel.”
Daniel waited.
“What name?”
Emma whispered it.
“General Thomas Rourke.”
Daniel felt his blood turn cold.
Rachel frowned.
“Who is that?”
Daniel could barely answer.
“The man who personally approved my early return.”
His phone rang.
All three of them stared at it.
May you like
The caller ID displayed one name.
GENERAL ROURKE.
