Chapter 4 - The Place My Father Died
The address belonged to the abandoned training facility where Michael Carter had died.
Nobody wanted me to go.
So naturally, I went.
Not alone.
The message demanded that.
I had spent four years learning why blindly obeying an adversary's instructions was usually a terrible plan.
Mercer contacted federal investigators.
Academy security coordinated with local law enforcement.
Vale provided an old map of the facility.
Thomas stayed with my mother.
I carried copies of Michael's files.
The originals remained secured at the academy.
That decision probably saved everything.
The facility sat beyond a rusted gate.
Several buildings had been abandoned for years.
Mercer watched from a concealed position with officers nearby.
I entered the main structure.
“Richard?”
My voice echoed.
Nothing.
Then a light turned on.
Richard sat in a chair.
His wrists were bound.
Blood marked his lower lip.
Alive.
“Evelyn.”
I moved toward him.
“Stop.”
A voice came from behind me.
I froze.
An older man stepped from the shadows.
I recognized him from one of Michael's photographs.
Brigadier General Samuel Voss.
Retired.
Respected.
Decorated.
And, according to the records in Michael's case, connected to almost every approval signature that mattered.
“Put the case down,” Voss said.
I did.
Richard stared at me.
“I'm sorry.”
“For what?”
His eyes filled.
“For all of it.”
Voss smiled.
“Touching.”
I looked at him.
“You killed Michael.”
“I didn't say that.”
“You didn't need to.”
He moved toward the case.
“Your biological father was stubborn.”
“My father was honest.”
“That isn't always a survival skill.”
Richard lunged against the restraints.
“Don't talk about him.”
Voss turned.
“You don't get to become noble now, Richard.”
I looked between them.
“What did he do?”
Voss laughed.
“Ask him.”
I did.
Richard closed his eyes.
“I knew Michael was investigating the contracts.”
“How?”
“He came to me.”
“Because your company was involved.”
“Yes.”
“Were you stealing money?”
“No.”
Voss smiled.
Richard continued.
“Someone inside my company was creating shell invoices. I discovered it after Michael showed me copies.”
“Who?”
“My business partner.”
“Name.”
“Charles Wynn.”
I remembered him.
Uncle Charlie.
Not actually my uncle.
A man who had attended birthdays, Christmas dinners, graduations before this one.
A man who had disappeared from our lives when I was thirteen.
“Where is he?”
“Dead.”
Voss said it casually.
“Heart attack.”
Richard stared at him.
“That's what they called it.”
My stomach turned.
Michael.
Wynn.
A pattern.
“Why didn't you go to authorities?”
Richard looked ashamed.
“Because Voss threatened Laura and you.”
My anger returned.
“So you lied to me for twenty-two years?”
“I thought if you never knew Michael existed, you'd never look into his death.”
“And when I joined the academy?”
“I panicked.”
The missing mail.
The altered records.
The warnings.
“You sabotaged me.”
“I tried to make you quit.”
“You called me weak.”
“I needed you to believe you didn't belong here.”
“You hit me.”
His eyes dropped.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because when you held that diploma, I saw Michael.”
His voice broke.
“And I knew I had failed.”
Voss rolled his eyes.
“This is becoming tedious.”
He reached for the case.
I stepped between him and it.
“You photographed me today.”
“Yes.”
“You accessed the archive?”
“No.”
That surprised me.
“Then who did?”
Voss smiled.
“You still haven't figured out how many people are involved.”
Outside, something moved.
Voss heard it.
His expression changed.
He pulled a handgun.
I froze.
“Tell your friends outside to stay where they are.”
He knew.
Of course he knew.
Richard shouted.
“Leave her out of this!”
“She put herself in it.”
Voss pointed toward the case.
“Open it.”
I knelt.
I opened the case.
Copies.
His face changed.
“Where are the originals?”
“Somewhere you'll never reach.”
He raised the weapon.
“Bad answer.”
Then Richard kicked the metal table beside him.
It crashed over.
I moved.
Officers entered.
Everything happened in seconds.
Commands.
Movement.
Voss turned.
Mercer tackled his arm.
The weapon hit the floor.
Two officers restrained Voss.
I crawled toward Richard.
“You okay?”
He nodded.
For the first time since childhood, I saw him without the armor of authority.
He looked old.
Tired.
Terrified.
“I don't expect you to forgive me.”
“Good.”
He nodded.
“I deserve that.”
“But you're going to tell investigators everything.”
“Yes.”
“No more protecting Mom.”
“Yes.”
“No more protecting yourself.”
He looked at me.
“Yes.”
Voss laughed from the floor.
“You think this ends with me?”
I turned.
He was smiling.
“Michael made the same mistake.”
Mercer pulled him upright.
“What mistake?”
“Thinking he found the top.”
Voss looked directly at me.
“He didn't.”
Federal investigators arrived.
Voss was taken away.
Richard was transported for medical evaluation and questioning.
I thought the nightmare had finally acquired boundaries.
I was wrong.
At 11:43 that night, I sat inside an interview room at the academy.
Thomas sat beside me.
My mother was across the hall.
Mercer was speaking with investigators.
A federal agent entered carrying Michael's original case.
She introduced herself as Special Agent Nora Bennett.
“We finished a preliminary review.”
“And?”
“Your father's evidence is substantial.”
“Enough?”
“Enough to reopen several investigations.”
Thomas closed his eyes.
I asked the question that mattered.
“Michael's death?”
“Yes.”
My throat tightened.
Agent Bennett sat down.
“But there's a problem.”
Of course there was.
“What?”
“One document is missing.”
“Which?”
“A witness statement.”
“From whom?”
“We don't know.”
She placed a photocopy on the table.
At the bottom was a signature line.
The name had been removed.
But above it remained one sentence.
I personally observed the deliberate substitution of the defective component before Captain Carter's final exercise.
A witness had seen it.
A witness could prove Michael's death was murder.
“Where's the original?”
“We hoped you knew.”
I didn't.
Thomas leaned forward.
“Michael wouldn't have left that out.”
I remembered the cassette.
“What about the recording?”
Agent Bennett nodded.
“We're processing it.”
The door opened.
A technician entered.
He looked shaken.
“We recovered the audio.”
Bennett stood.
“And?”
The technician looked at me.
“There are two voices.”
“Michael and who?”
He swallowed.
“We identified the second speaker.”
My phone rang before he could say the name.
My mother.
I answered.
“Mom?”
She whispered.
“Evelyn, don't trust the person sitting with you.”
I slowly looked around the room.
Thomas stared at me.
Agent Bennett watched.
The technician stood beside the door.
My mother whispered again.
“The witness never disappeared.”
May you like
The line went dead.
Then someone knocked three times from the other side of the interview-room door.
