Chapter 6 - The Night Emma Died
Nathan Hale wasn't running.
Riley found him in the parking structure sitting inside his car.
Alone.
Hands on the steering wheel.
He didn't seem surprised when she opened the passenger door.
"You were going to leave?"
"No."
"Then why disappear?"
"Because I remembered something."
Riley sat.
"Where were you the night Emma died?"
Hale closed his eyes.
"With Daniel Cross."
That was worse than Riley expected.
"Start talking."
Sixteen months earlier, before Daniel's supposed helicopter death, Hale received a message from him.
Daniel claimed to have evidence about a corruption network at Fort Alden.
They met off post.
Daniel gave Hale partial records.
Enough to make Hale believe him.
Then he asked Hale to help retrieve a witness.
Emma Castillo.
"But Emma died three years ago," Riley said.
"That's what I later learned."
Riley stared.
"What did Daniel tell you?"
"That she was alive under another identity."
Riley felt the pattern.
Daniel manipulated time.
Records.
Deaths.
Identities.
Hale continued.
He followed Daniel to an abandoned garage.
Nobody was there.
Daniel left after receiving a call.
Hale never saw him again.
The next morning, Hale was informed Daniel had died in a helicopter accident.
"I spent months thinking that meeting was some kind of final attempt to expose Grant."
"Why didn't you report it?"
"I did."
"To whom?"
Hale gave a bitter smile.
"Colonel Grant."
Riley almost laughed at the cruelty of it.
Grant buried the report.
Hale eventually began his own quiet investigation.
That investigation led him to Riley.
"So Daniel knows you were looking."
"Yes."
"And now he's framing you."
"Maybe."
"Maybe?"
Hale looked at her.
"What if I'm not the captain in Emma's video?"
Riley remembered.
The still frame showed bars.
Nothing more.
No face.
They returned to the lab.
Technicians enhanced the corrupted frame.
Uniform.
Captain rank.
Left hand holding the photograph.
A ring.
Military academy ring.
The same style Grant had worn.
But the engraving was different.
Class of 2008.
Hale graduated in 2012.
Daniel Cross never attended the academy.
Major Lawson did.
Riley stared.
"Lawson was a captain when Emma recorded this."
Exactly.
The second person wasn't Hale.
It was Bradley Lawson.
Grant had enabled the system.
Daniel had exploited it.
Lawson had helped both.
Now Lawson was missing.
Possibly because Daniel no longer trusted him.
Riley finally saw the shape of the case.
Three corrupt men.
Not one mastermind.
Grant stole money.
Lawson protected the unit and concealed complaints.
Daniel discovered the system and transformed himself from investigator into extortionist.
Each thought he controlled the others.
Emma threatened them all.
But who killed her?
They located Lawson through a vehicle registered to his brother.
A cabin forty miles outside town.
SWAT surrounded it.
Riley stayed behind the tactical team.
Inside, Lawson was alive.
Alone.
Handcuffed to a radiator.
When freed, he immediately asked for protection.
"From Daniel?"
Lawson nodded.
"Tell us what happened to Emma."
Lawson cried.
Riley had seen manipulative crying.
This wasn't that.
This was a man whose fear had finally overwhelmed pride.
"I moved the reports," he admitted. "I threatened transfers. Grant ordered me to protect the command."
"And Emma?"
"Daniel wanted her evidence."
"Did you hurt her?"
"No."
"Did Grant?"
"No."
"Then who caused the crash?"
Lawson looked at Cole, who had been brought for identification.
Cole stared back.
Lawson whispered, "There was no accident."
Riley's heart kicked.
"What?"
"Emma knew Daniel was following her. She left the installation that night."
"Then?"
"She called me."
"Why you?"
"Because she wanted immunity."
"What did you do?"
"I told her to meet me."
"Where?"
"Highway 18 overlook."
Lawson broke down.
Daniel arrived first.
They argued.
Emma tried to leave.
Daniel followed her.
Lawson followed both.
Emma's car went over an embankment.
"Did Daniel hit her?"
"I couldn't see."
"Was she alive?"
"Yes."
Riley leaned closer.
"What?"
"She survived the crash."
Cole stood suddenly.
"What did you say?"
"She survived."
"Then how did she die?"
Lawson stared at the floor.
"She didn't."
Silence.
Even Riley struggled to process it.
"Emma Castillo is alive?"
"She was when I last saw her."
"Where?"
"Daniel pulled her from the car. Said if Grant believed she was dead, he could use her."
Laura Castillo had been told her sister died.
The Army had records.
Death notification.
Closed file.
Everything fabricated.
Riley grabbed Lawson's shirt.
"Where is Emma now?"
"I don't know."
Hale pulled Riley back.
Lawson continued quickly.
"Daniel kept her hidden because she was leverage. Then she escaped."
"When?"
"About a year later."
"Where did she go?"
"I don't know."
Riley thought of the photograph from Barracks C.
The mysterious figure wearing CASTILLO.
The person who had photographed the hazing.
"She's here."
Hale understood.
"Emma sent some of the messages."
Lawson shook his head.
"Then Daniel will kill her."
Riley's phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
A live location pin.
Building Twelve.
Then a message.
COME ALONE IF YOU WANT EMMA ALIVE.
Hale saw it.
"No."
Riley already knew it was a trap.
But traps worked best when both sides understood that.
She looked at Cole.
"You want to make something right?"
"Yes."
"Then listen carefully."
Forty minutes later, Riley entered Building Twelve alone.
At least that was what Daniel was supposed to believe.
She climbed to Room 204.
The door stood open.
Emma Castillo sat inside.
Alive.
Older than her photograph.
Thinner.
A scar along her temple.
But unmistakably alive.
Riley stopped.
"Emma?"
Emma looked up.
"Close the door."
"Where's Daniel?"
"Close it."
Riley did.
Emma rose.
"You shouldn't have come."
"You invited me."
"No."
Riley's blood chilled.
Emma held up her phone.
"I didn't send that message."
A floorboard creaked behind Riley.
She turned.
Daniel Cross stood in the doorway.
Alive.
Holding a pistol pointed downward.
Not at Riley.
Not yet.
He smiled.
"Finally."
Emma backed away.
Daniel looked at Riley's uneven hair.
"You really did tell Mercer to keep going."
Riley kept her voice calm.
"You've been watching."
"I've been watching everyone."
"Why bring me here?"
Daniel stepped inside.
"Because you're the last clean witness."
"To what?"
He smiled.
May you like
"To Emma Castillo's second death."
Then the door slammed shut behind him.
