Chapter 6 - The Man Who Was in Two Places
Peter Vale looked ordinary in his employment photograph.
Forty-nine, graying hair, a trimmed beard, and the careful expression of someone accustomed to standing behind people richer than himself.
He had worked for the Carter estate for thirteen years.
His sworn statement claimed he picked Ryan up in Dallas at 3:40 p.m. and drove him to a business dinner.
The garage camera placed Ryan at the estate at 3:26 p.m., several hours' drive away.
Both accounts could not be true.
But proving that a statement was false wasn't the same as proving who had ordered the lie.
Bell subpoenaed vehicle records, toll data, and work schedules under the appropriate process.
Evelyn filed our emergency response with only the evidence available for lawful use in family court.
The hospital records supported continued protection.
Elise's interview was handled through carefully limited references so we wouldn't needlessly expose her account.
Roarke tried to portray my concern as a professional vendetta.
"She knows how to build a case," he wrote. "She is doing exactly that against a child's father."
I read the paragraph aloud in Evelyn's office.
"He wants my competence to look like malice."
"Yes," she said. "And he wants you angry enough to prove him right."
That evening I received a call from a school counselor, Miss Patel, who had worked with Elise before my deployment.
She sounded nervous.
"I don't know whether I should be calling you," she admitted.
"You can ask my attorney to coordinate if that feels safer."
"I just keep thinking about something Elise said last month."
She had described a class assignment where children recorded messages for a parent.
Elise had refused to let her father preview hers.
When Miss Patel asked why, Elise said, "He changes my words before Mommy hears them."
The counselor had noted it in the school's student support record.
She hadn't understood its significance at the time.
I thanked her and gave her Bell's contact information.
Then I called Evelyn.
The next morning the counselor received a letter from Roarke's office warning her against disclosing private school matters.
The letter arrived before Bell had publicly identified her as a witness.
The timing made my skin crawl.
Someone was monitoring who spoke to me.
Daniel suggested my phone might be compromised.
The threat message with the backpack photo had arrived on a number associated with a prepaid account.
I turned my personal device over for a consensual security review and used a separate channel for sensitive coordination.
By afternoon Bell had a different problem.
The security employee had disappeared from his apartment.
His truck was gone, his phone off, and his manager claimed not to know where he was.
A handwritten envelope had been left at his door.
Inside was a copy of his own affidavit with a red line drawn through the sentence placing Ryan in Dallas.
May you like
On the back, somebody had written: 'Ask Vivian what she promised me.'
