Chapter 13 - THE PRICE OF SILENCE
Ruth's disappearance brought every part of the case into the same terrible room.
Bell organized the local response, Desai coordinated the financial and interstate leads, and Naomi helped me understand what I could safely do without endangering the search.
I wanted to drive through every street in Virginia calling her name.
Instead I provided photographs, old addresses, contacts, and every scrap of history I could remember.
Lily saw me pacing and asked who was lost.
"A friend," I said.
"Are we going to find her?"
"A lot of good people are looking."
She placed her stuffed fox in my hands.
"She can have this until she's not scared."
I hugged Lily and promised to keep the fox safe.
The investigators found Ruth's car at a shopping center, but nothing establishing whether she had traveled voluntarily or under threat.
A camera showed a woman with her build entering a dark van.
The image was too distant to determine whether she was being forced.
At the same time, Derek's lawyer made a new offer.
Derek would provide the identity of Blackbird if prosecutors considered recommending a lower sentence in any eventual agreement.
The request came before several charges had even been resolved.
I hated that the man who hurt Lily was trying to barter the danger he created.
Desai reminded me that cooperation could lead to victims being found, but that any agreement belonged to legal decision-makers and would require verification.
"He doesn't get to decide what truth is worth," I said.
"No," she answered.
"But we can't ignore information that may save someone."
Derek's first disclosure named Patricia as a logistical contact and Caleb as a financial backer.
He said Blackbird was the person who recruited him and that she knew enough about my military work to frighten him.
He claimed he never expected Lily to be in the house when the device activated.
"He told Evelyn a babysitter was upstairs," I said.
"He knew there wasn't one."
"We have that documented," Desai replied.
"His story will be tested against it."
When prosecutors confronted Derek with his earlier call, he insisted he had been panicking because the closet contained proof of Blackbird's plot.
He refused to explain why he had left the trap untouched.
The cowardice in his answer no longer surprised me.
What surprised me was a document found in his Richmond apartment: a photograph of a woman wearing black shoes, taken in front of the old red door.
Her face was turned away.
On her wrist was a narrow bracelet with three blue stones.
I had seen that bracelet at a military family readiness fundraiser.
It belonged to a civilian coordinator named Meredith Vale.
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The same office whose account had accessed my return itinerary.
