Chapter 4 - Ray’s Second Life
Cormac replayed the whisper three times.
He knew the voice.
June could see it.
“Evelyn?”
He didn’t answer.
That was answer enough.
They raced back to the diner.
The basement had been searched.
Nothing obvious was missing.
But someone had left a red lipstick mark on Ray’s old coffee mug.
Cormac stared at it.
Evelyn had worn that exact shade.
June watched something happen to him she had not believed possible.
Cormac Riley looked afraid.
Not of violence.
Of hope.
Hope could be crueler.
June understood that.
For six weeks she had dreamed Ray was alive, only to wake furious at herself.
Now she placed a hand on Cormac’s arm.
He looked down at it.
“You don’t have to pretend with me,” she said.
“Pretend what?”
“That this doesn’t hurt.”
His gaze remained on her hand.
“Dangerous habit.”
“What?”
“Being kind to men like me.”
June removed her hand.
“Don’t worry. I’m recovering.”
The investigation deepened.
Ray had apparently spent years documenting Declan’s network.
The $2.4 million was bait.
The true prize was evidence connecting Declan to judges, contractors, police officials, and rival crews.
Evelyn had discovered the network first.
Ray had helped her disappear.
Cormac had believed she was dead.
That was the debt Ray referred to.
He had saved Evelyn from someone inside Cormac’s own organization.
But why had she never returned?
Cormac had no answer.
June found one clue.
Ray’s recipe box.
One card had no recipe.
Just coordinates.
They led to a storage facility outside the city.
Unit 317.
Inside were boxes of records.
And photographs.
Ray and Evelyn had worked together for years.
Nothing romantic.
Something stranger.
They were building a case.
Against Declan.
And against someone else whose name had been removed from every page.
June found a photograph of Ray sitting beside Evelyn.
Between them was a third person.
The face had been cut away.
Cormac examined it.
“The coat.”
“What?”
“I know that coat.”
June waited.
“My brother wore it.”
Cormac had a younger brother.
Patrick Riley.
Dead for fifteen years.
Or supposedly dead.
June almost laughed from exhaustion.
“Does anyone in your world stay dead?”
“Apparently not.”
They searched until dawn.
In the last box June found a sealed letter.
Cormac’s name was written across it.
He opened it.
Evelyn’s handwriting.
Cormac read silently.
Then handed it to June.
Cormac,
If you are reading this, Ray failed to keep June outside it.
I am sorry.
Declan is not the head of the network.
Patrick is.
June looked up.
Cormac had gone completely still.
His younger brother had supposedly died in a warehouse fire.
The body had been identified by dental records.
Cormac whispered, “I buried him.”
“So did I,” June said quietly. “Apparently funerals don’t mean much to these people.”
He almost smiled.
Then footsteps sounded outside the storage unit.
Cormac shut off the light.
Men entered the corridor.
June and Cormac hid behind shelving.
One man said, “Shaw wants the widow alive.”
Another asked, “And Riley?”
A pause.
“Patrick wants his brother brought home.”
Cormac’s hand tightened around his gun.
June held her breath.
The storage door began rising.
Light spilled beneath it.
A pair of polished shoes appeared.
May you like
Then a familiar voice said:
“Cormac. It’s been a long time.”
