Chapter 6 - Nine Missing Minutes
Richard denied sending the message.
That no longer surprised Ethan.
Someone wanted them at Richard's house.
So Ortiz went first.
The laptop was there.
Placed neatly on Richard's dining table.
No fingerprints.
No intruder.
No obvious explanation.
The deleted video segment had been copied to the desktop.
Ethan watched.
Mercer entered the kitchen.
Sophia confronted him.
He demanded the drive.
She refused.
Mercer seized her arm.
She fought free.
Then Mercer shoved her.
Sophia fell against the counter.
She tried to stand.
Mercer grabbed her again.
What followed was violent but brief.
The camera captured enough.
Ethan stopped watching.
Ortiz didn't.
She had to.
When the clip ended, Mercer left Sophia unconscious on the floor.
Richard returned.
Thomas followed.
There was the truth.
Or most of it.
Mercer was arrested.
Vale turned himself in through an attorney two days later after learning Mercer intended to blame everything on him.
Vale admitted the financial conspiracy.
He admitted confronting Sophia.
He denied causing her serious injuries.
The video supported him.
Richard faced charges for obstruction and providing false information.
He didn't fight them.
“I deserve whatever comes,” he told Ethan.
Sophia disagreed with the simplicity of that.
“You made a terrible choice,” she told her father from her hospital bed. “But you made it because Mercer threatened Ethan.”
Richard cried.
“I should've trusted the truth.”
“Yes.”
Sophia didn't immediately forgive him.
That mattered.
Happy endings built from instant forgiveness were just another kind of lie.
Sophia began rehabilitation.
Ethan remained beside her.
Some days she improved.
Some days she couldn't hold a spoon without shaking.
Her damaged wrist required surgery.
Walking became a battle measured in steps.
Three.
Seven.
Twelve.
Ethan celebrated every one.
Then Thomas disappeared.
Again.
This time, however, he left Ethan a letter.
There is still one account nobody found.
Vale and Mercer were not the only people being paid.
Ethan showed Ortiz.
She sighed.
“I was hoping for one normal day.”
“So was I.”
The remaining account was labeled SABLE.
Payments continued even after Mercer was arrested.
Someone else was still active.
Sophia remembered the name.
“SABLE was on Dad's original ledger.”
Richard confirmed it.
He had never identified the recipient.
Then the hospital received an envelope addressed to Sophia.
No return address.
Inside was a photograph of Ethan and Sophia's house.
Recent.
Written on the back:
THE MONEY WAS NEVER THE REAL SECRET.
Ethan called Ortiz.
Police searched the property.
Nothing.
Then Ethan noticed something beneath the porch.
A small waterproof case.
Inside was a military identification card.
Not his.
Colonel Mercer.
And beneath it was a key.
Sophia stared at it.
“I've seen that.”
“Where?”
“Mercer's office.”
The key opened a storage locker.
Inside were boxes of records.
Personnel files.
Deployment schedules.
Contractor names.
Mercer had been selling restricted logistical information through intermediaries.
That explained why Sophia's discovery terrified him.
Financial fraud was only the surface.
The files could expose years of corruption.
Ortiz contacted federal investigators.
Ethan sat with Sophia afterward.
“You okay?”
“No.”
“Me neither.”
She smiled faintly.
“Good.”
“Good?”
“I'd be worried if you were okay with this.”
He laughed for the first time in days.
Sophia reached for his hand.
“I thought I'd never see you again.”
“You don't get rid of me that easily.”
“Seven months away was a pretty serious attempt.”
“Government's fault.”
She smiled.
Then her expression changed.
“Ethan.”
“What?”
“The night before the attack, somebody called me.”
“Who?”
“I didn't recognize the voice.”
“What did they say?”
She looked toward the window.
“They said Mercer wasn't the person I should be afraid of.”
Ethan felt the familiar cold return.
“Did they give a name?”
“No.”
“But?”
“They said one sentence.”
“What?”
Sophia squeezed his hand.
“Ask your husband why his deployment ended early.”
Ethan stared at her.
His deployment hadn't ended early because of routine scheduling.
Mercer had personally signed the order.
Then Ethan's phone rang.
The caller ID displayed a name he hadn't seen in months.
MAJOR DANIEL CROSS.
Ethan answered.
Cross didn't say hello.
He said:
May you like
“Don't trust the orders that brought you home.”
Then the line went dead.
