Chapter 6 - The Person Behind the Photograph
Hayes signaled everyone to stay back.
Two soldiers moved around the house.
Dad reached for Mom.
I stayed near Noah's room, every instinct screaming that my first responsibility was upstairs.
The knock came again.
Three deliberate taps.
Hayes approached the back door.
“Identify yourself.”
A woman's voice answered.
“Rebecca Lawson.”
Grant went pale.
“Peter's wife.”
Hayes opened the door only after the soldiers outside confirmed she was alone.
Rebecca Lawson entered shaking.
She was in her late forties, wearing the same dark coat from the photograph.
Mom had recognized it because Rebecca had attended one of Dad's company holiday parties years earlier.
Rebecca looked at me.
“Major Mercer?”
“Yes.”
“I didn't photograph you to hurt you.”
“Then why?”
“Because Peter told me someone would die if I stopped watching.”
Hayes searched her for weapons.
Nothing.
She handed me a phone.
“Everything is there.”
Photographs.
Messages.
Audio recordings.
Peter Lawson had been terrified.
Not of Daniel.
Of Vance.
Rebecca explained that Lawson had spent years moving diverted equipment through shell contractors.
He claimed Vance controlled the operation.
When Daniel discovered discrepancies, Lawson tried to warn him.
“Then why was Lawson at the motor pool?” I asked.
“To stop him from driving.”
I stared.
“What?”
“Peter discovered someone had tampered with Daniel's vehicle.”
“Why didn't he call police?”
“Because he was involved in everything else. He thought he'd be arrested.”
Hayes asked, “Did he reach Captain Mercer?”
Rebecca cried.
“He was too late.”
The footage suddenly made sense.
Lawson hadn't necessarily been Daniel's killer.
He might have been trying to save him.
“Where is Peter?”
Rebecca looked at me.
“He didn't leave the country.”
Ortiz's intelligence was wrong.
“Where is he?”
“Fort Reynolds.”
Hayes stared.
“Impossible.”
“He has access through an old contractor credential.”
“Why go back?”
“To retrieve the original authorization ledger.”
The ledger could prove who ordered the diversions.
“And Vance?”
Rebecca's face went white.
“Peter believes Vance knows.”
Hayes immediately called CID.
The next hour moved fast.
Fort Reynolds was locked down.
Lawson was located inside an abandoned storage building.
Alive.
He surrendered.
And in his possession was the ledger.
By dawn, General Vance was detained for questioning.
Not convicted.
Not yet.
But the wall around him had cracked.
I sat on the porch as sunrise appeared.
Mom brought me a blanket.
“You should sleep.”
“I don't think I remember how.”
She sat beside me.
For a while neither of us spoke.
Then she said, “Your father was wrong.”
I looked at her.
“So were you.”
She nodded.
“I know.”
“You stood there.”
“I know.”
“You let him tell Noah we belonged in a garage.”
Her eyes filled.
“I was afraid of another fight.”
“And avoiding the fight meant letting him hurt me.”
“Yes.”
There was no excuse.
I appreciated that she didn't invent one.
“I am sorry.”
I looked toward the street.
Military vehicles remained outside.
Yesterday, the sight would have felt like power.
Now it felt like responsibility.
“I don't need everyone to understand my career,” I said. “I never did.”
Mom nodded.
“But I needed my family to treat me like family.”
“I know.”
“Daniel understood that.”
Her voice cracked.
“He was a good man.”
“Yes.”
Later that morning, Dad approached.
He had moved a heater into the garage.
Not for sleeping.
He was packing the old pullout couch for disposal.
I almost smiled.
“Symbolic?”
“Embarrassingly.”
He looked at me.
“I can't undo yesterday.”
“No.”
“I can make sure I never do it again.”
“That takes more than throwing away furniture.”
“I know.”
It wasn't forgiveness.
But it was a beginning.
Vanessa was harder.
She sat alone in the kitchen.
Grant had gone with investigators voluntarily.
When I entered, she looked exhausted.
“Do you think he's guilty?”
“I think he hid things.”
“That's not what I asked.”
“I don't know.”
She wiped her eyes.
“I was horrible to you.”
“Yes.”
“You don't have to agree that quickly.”
“I've had a long night.”
She almost laughed.
Then she cried.
“I was jealous.”
“Of what?”
“You.”
I stared.
“My husband is dead.”
“I know how terrible it sounds.”
“Then don't make me comfort you for saying it.”
She nodded.
Fair.
She explained anyway.
My career.
My marriage.
The way Daniel looked at me.
The way I never seemed impressed by Grant's money.
She had interpreted my distance as superiority.
“I didn't tell you about my rank because you never asked.”
That silenced her.
“I assumed.”
“Yes.”
“I'm sorry.”
I looked at her.
“Be better.”
She nodded.
My phone rang.
Ortiz.
“We have the ledger.”
“And?”
“It connects Vance directly to twelve unauthorized transfers.”
My heart raced.
“Daniel's death?”
“Not yet.”
“Meaning?”
“We found evidence Vance ordered surveillance on Daniel. But no direct order to sabotage the vehicle.”
“So someone else may have done it.”
“Yes.”
“Lawson?”
“He denies it.”
I closed my eyes.
“Who had motor-pool access?”
“We're compiling names.”
Then she added, “One name may be familiar.”
I opened my eyes.
“Who?”
“Major, before I tell you, sit down.”
I didn't.
“Tell me.”
“The maintenance credential used forty minutes before Daniel's accident belonged to someone officially listed as deceased.”
My skin went cold.
May you like
Ortiz spoke the name.
And the phone nearly slipped from my hand.
