Chapter 3: Uncle Daniel
The medical team pushed me out of the room.
Harper backed against the wall as doctors surrounded Violet’s bed.
“What did she say?” Harper asked.
I looked at her.
“She said you knew.”
Harper shut her eyes.
“I knew Daniel was coming. I didn’t know he would hurt her.”
“She also said ‘uncle.’”
Harper went still.
Daniel Reese had been Uncle Daniel since Violet was old enough to speak.
He had attended school plays when I was overseas. He had taught her to ride a bicycle. He had carried her asleep from our car after her ninth-birthday party.
He had promised me that if anything happened during a deployment, he would protect my family.
A familiar voice came from behind us.
“What happened?”
Daniel stood at the end of the hallway.
He wore jeans, a gray shirt, and a dark Sentinel Global jacket. A fresh bandage covered his right hand.
Harper stared at him as though she had seen a ghost.
Daniel hurried forward.
“I came as soon as I heard.”
“How did you hear?” I asked.
“Harper called me.”
I looked at Harper.
She shook her head.
Daniel noticed.
His expression changed for less than a second.
That was enough.
I grabbed the front of his jacket and drove him against the wall.
Nurses shouted.
Detective Grant appeared from the waiting area.
Daniel kept his hands down.
“Mason, listen to me.”
“You were inside my house.”
“No.”
“Harper disabled the alarm for you.”
“I asked her to, but I never went.”
I tightened my grip.
“Then why did you text her asking about the security log?”
Daniel’s eyes moved toward Grant.
The detective stepped between us.
“Let him go.”
I released Daniel slowly.
Grant looked at the bandage.
“What happened to your hand?”
“Cut it fixing a fence.”
The bandage was clean, but a narrow scratch extended beneath it. A black thread clung to the adhesive.
Violet’s backpack was black.
Daniel noticed me looking.
He pulled his hand behind his back.
“You think I could hurt her?” he asked. “I helped raise that girl.”
“Then show me your phone.”
“I left it in the car.”
“Convenient.”
Grant positioned himself between us again.
“Mr. Reese, you should come to the station and make a statement.”
Daniel looked at him.
Something passed between them.
Recognition.
Not the ordinary recognition between a detective and a witness.
Something quieter.
Something practiced.
Daniel began walking toward the elevator.
I followed.
He stopped when the doors opened.
Without turning around, he spoke so softly only I could hear.
“You need to stop digging into Ashfall.”
The elevator doors opened.
Daniel stepped inside.
“You should be beside your daughter, Mason.”
Then he faced me.
“Because the people who entered your house may come back to finish what they started.”
May you like
The doors closed between us.
Behind me, Violet’s heart monitor continued screaming.
