Chapter 3 - The Colonel Who Knew Too Much
Ethan didn't greet him.
He watched Mercer's hands.
The colonel stopped when he saw Detective Ortiz.
“Seems I've arrived at a bad time.”
“You could say that,” Ethan replied.
Mercer claimed Richard had called him.
Richard immediately denied it.
That was the first crack.
The second came when Ortiz showed Mercer the photograph.
Mercer stared at it.
“Where did you get this?”
“You tell us.”
“I met Vale once.”
“Once?” Ortiz asked.
“Charity event.”
Ethan knew Mercer well enough to recognize rehearsed calm.
“What charity?”
Mercer hesitated.
Wrong move.
Ethan stepped closer.
“You always told us hesitation gets people hurt.”
Mercer's eyes hardened.
“This isn't a deployment.”
“No. It's my kitchen.”
Ortiz asked Mercer to come to the station.
He refused until she reminded him that refusing voluntarily meant she could seek other options.
He left with her.
Ethan watched through the window.
Samuel spoke behind him.
“He's scared.”
“Mercer?”
“Yes.”
“He doesn't scare easily.”
“Everybody scares when the right secret gets close enough.”
Ethan drove to the lighthouse that evening with Ortiz's permission and two officers following at a distance.
Sophia had taken him there after their wedding reception.
They had buried a small metal box beneath a bench as a joke—a time capsule containing vows, photographs, and a bottle opener Ethan had insisted future civilization would need.
The box was still there.
Inside, beneath their old letters, was a memory card.
Ethan inserted it into a laptop at the police station.
Files filled the screen.
Sophia had been investigating financial fraud involving Carter Construction.
But Richard wasn't the architect.
Martin Vale was.
Vale had used Richard's company to route money through government subcontractors.
And one of the people approving those contracts had connections to Mercer's procurement office.
Sophia had discovered everything accidentally while helping her father reorganize records.
Then Ethan opened an audio file.
Richard's voice.
“I'll go to the police.”
Sophia answered.
“No. Vale has somebody inside Ethan's chain of command.”
“How do you know?”
“He showed me Ethan's deployment schedule.”
Richard cursed.
Sophia continued.
“I need proof before Ethan comes home.”
The recording ended.
Ethan sat back.
Richard had lied.
But Sophia had trusted him.
At least at first.
Ortiz entered.
“We found something.”
Mercer's phone records showed repeated contact with a prepaid number.
The same number had called Martin Vale before Vale disappeared.
“Can you arrest Mercer?”
“Not for knowing somebody.”
“What about the messages to me?”
“No connection yet.”
Ethan hated waiting.
Then the ICU called.
Sophia had moved.
Not awakened.
Moved.
A hand.
A response to pain.
Something.
Ethan reached the hospital before Ortiz.
He sat beside Sophia for the first time.
Her hand looked small inside his.
“Hey, Soph.”
Nothing.
“I came home early.”
His voice cracked.
“Worst surprise I've ever planned.”
A monitor continued its steady rhythm.
“I know about Vale.”
Sophia's fingers moved.
Ethan froze.
“Sophia?”
Her eyelids fluttered.
A nurse entered.
“Don't push her.”
Sophia's lips moved.
Ethan leaned closer.
“What?”
Barely audible.
“Dad…”
“He's safe.”
Her brow tightened.
“No.”
“What are you trying to say?”
“Dad… didn't…”
Didn't what?
Her heart rate increased.
The nurse moved Ethan back.
“Enough.”
Sophia's eyes opened for one second.
She looked directly at Ethan.
“Mercer.”
Then she slipped back into unconsciousness.
Ethan called Ortiz immediately.
No answer.
Again.
No answer.
He walked into the corridor.
Richard was approaching.
“What happened?”
“She said Mercer's name.”
Richard stopped.
Ethan studied him.
“What haven't you told me?”
Richard sat down.
“Vale and Mercer served together years ago.”
Ethan stared.
“You knew that?”
“I learned it after Sophia was hurt.”
“How?”
“Vale called me.”
“After the attack?”
“Yes.”
“What did he want?”
“The files.”
“Which files?”
“The ones Sophia hid.”
Ethan's phone rang.
Ortiz.
He answered.
“Detective?”
A male voice responded.
“Not Detective Ortiz.”
Ethan went cold.
“Who is this?”
“You already know.”
Martin Vale.
“Where's Ortiz?”
“Alive.”
“For now?”
Vale laughed softly.
“Still a Marine.”
“What do you want?”
“What Sophia stole.”
Ethan looked through the glass at his wife.
“You attacked her.”
“I went to talk.”
“She has thirty-one fractures.”
A pause.
“When I left that house, Sophia was standing.”
Ethan's breath stopped.
“You're lying.”
“Ask Richard.”
Ethan turned.
Richard looked terrified.
Vale continued.
“Richard arrived before I left.”
“Then who hurt her?”
“That is the question you should've asked first.”
The call ended.
Ethan grabbed Richard's jacket.
“Was Sophia standing when Vale left?”
Richard didn't answer.
“Was she?”
“Yes.”
Ethan released him as if burned.
“Then what happened?”
“I don't know. When I came back inside—”
“Back?”
Ethan stared.
“You left her?”
“For two minutes. I chased Vale.”
“And somebody else entered.”
Richard's face collapsed.
“I think so.”
Ethan remembered Samuel's video.
The second figure.
They had assumed that person came out with Richard.
What if the figure had entered while Richard was chasing Vale?
Ethan called Samuel.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Then Samuel sent a photograph.
It showed the abandoned garage behind Ethan's house.
One sentence followed.
I REMEMBERED HIS FACE.
A second message arrived.
COME ALONE.
May you like
Then a third.
HE'S HERE.
