Chapter 12 - The Witness Who Disappeared

The invoice passed through investigators' hands before I learned anything more about it.

It might have been genuine.

It might have been bait intended to make me chase a false story.

Both possibilities frightened me.

Reyes called with news that Andrew Mercer's former operations manager, Lena Price, had asked to speak with the board.

Lena said she knew why mission communications had been rerouted.

We arranged to meet under appropriate protection at a federal office.

I arrived early and waited beside a window overlooking a parking lot.

Lena never entered.

Her attorney called instead.

She had disappeared after leaving home that morning.

I felt the familiar coldness of a mission going wrong, the point where ordinary facts suddenly carried extraordinary stakes.

"Has anyone located her vehicle?" I asked.

"Not yet," Reyes said.

Ryan was waiting in the hallway.

"Tell me what I can do."

"Stay out of the investigation.

Protect your own career."

He stared at me.

"You always say things like that when you're worried."

"I'm worried because you're my brother."

It was the first time I'd said it without having to defend the relationship in months.

He looked down.

"I want to deserve that."

By evening Lena's car had been found at a transit station.

Her purse was inside and her phone was switched off.

The authorities treated her disappearance seriously, while carefully avoiding assumptions about what had happened.

Then my father arrived at my hotel.

He knocked once and entered before I could answer.

"You must call off the investigation."

"I can't."

"You don't know what Mercer will do."

The truth escaped him so naturally that neither of us spoke for several seconds.

"What will he do, Dad?"

He stared at the carpet.

"I made a deal years ago.

I thought it would keep everyone safe."

"Everyone?"

"You and Ryan.

Your mother.

The house."

I remembered Daniel's mother at the gate.

"Who did the deal protect when Daniel died?"

He didn't answer.

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