Chapter 5 - A Woman with Rachel’s Face
I stared at Bishop's image until the pixels blurred.
The woman beside Maya had Rachel's dark hair and the same narrow shoulders.
But Rachel would have been forty-six.
This woman appeared barely thirty.
"It's not her," I said.
Bishop agreed.
"Facial comparison says a close resemblance, not a match."
Nathan had chosen the disguise because he knew what I would see before I noticed the differences.
Ruiz instructed us not to approach.
Her surveillance team followed the pair to an apartment over a closed pharmacy.
Maya slipped inside alone.
Minutes later, a fire alarm emptied the building.
No fire.
Just a staged diversion.
By the time agents entered, the apartment was empty.
On the table sat a digital player containing one recording.
Rachel's voice filled my car when Bishop played it.
"David, if they ever use my face to frighten you, remember I was the one who taught you to look twice."
The recording ended with three notes from Nora's childhood lullaby.
Ruiz confirmed the recording had been made before Rachel died.
She also found a paper receipt beneath the player.
A thrift store in Richmond had sold a wooden music box two days earlier.
Its buyer had signed the name R. Vance.
I had no time to mourn how easily someone was using my wife against me.
We drove to the store with federal agents, not alone.
The clerk remembered a customer who paid cash and asked unusual questions about the donor.
"She wanted to know whether the family ever came back," the clerk said.
"Did she give a destination?"
"Just asked where the nearest post office was."
Security footage showed the same woman carrying the music box.
The box had a brass sparrow on the lid.
Daniel's key fit a hidden compartment beneath the mechanism.
Inside was a microfilm strip and a folded note.
I DON'T NEED YOU TO AVENGE ME.
I NEED YOU TO TELL THE TRUTH.
The note was unmistakably Rachel's.
I read it beside a stack of secondhand baby clothes and felt my knees weaken.
For years I had mistaken silence for protecting my daughter.
Rachel had been asking me to do the opposite.
Ruiz studied the microfilm against the light.
"If this is what I think it is," she said, "we may have proof that Northbridge was created with stolen government funds."
Her phone rang.
She listened and turned pale.
"The warrant team at Northbridge just went missing."
Then a new message appeared on my screen.
May you like
BRING THE KEY TO THE PLACE WHERE NATHAN DIED.
