Tessa asked Bennett to explain who would receive their contact details. The investigator described the immediate reporting process and gave them a number for questions, writing it on the back of her card. Daniel watched his wife check that number against her phone. It was a small act of insistence, and he was glad she had enough strength left to make it.
Then Tessa's phone lit up with a message from an unfamiliar number. It contained a photograph of Daniel's shop from across the street and five words: Tell him to return it.
Tessa did not answer the message. She set the phone on the blanket between herself and Daniel, and for a moment neither of them spoke; the photograph showed the shop's blue door, the crooked OPEN sign, and their family name above the window.
Bennett asked permission to document it. She recorded the displayed number and time, then explained that the original message should remain on the device even if Tessa made a separate copy.
“Can you find whoever sent it?” Tessa asked.
“We can investigate. The number on a screen may not identify the person using it.”
Daniel wanted a faster answer. He also knew that every honest limitation sounded like helplessness when someone had just photographed the place where he earned a living.
They were discharged after two in the afternoon. A family friend drove them home while another adult stayed at the repair shop until closing, and Grant arranged a patrol supervisor outside the chain of command responsible for the morning event to take the threat report.
Daniel noticed the distinction. He had not asked for a police car at his door, only for the message to be taken seriously, and he was grateful when the supervisor asked what would make them feel safer rather than announcing what they must do.
At home, Tessa placed Lily's bassinet beside the couch. Daniel lowered himself onto the cushions and watched his daughter breathe until his eyes ached.
His sister called shortly afterward. She had notified the city solicitor and requested an independent investigation through the state public integrity bureau, along with an outside review of the equipment allegations.
“I am recording my conflict and stepping out of investigative decisions,” Evelyn said. “That doesn't mean I stop being your sister.”
“People will say you pulled strings.”
“Some will. We make the process clear enough that they can examine it.”
Daniel told her about the photograph. The silence that followed was brief but absolute, and he could hear how hard she worked to keep her voice steady.
“Did they take the report?”
“Yes.”
“Then I will ask for confirmation that it reached the outside team. I won't tell them what conclusion to reach.”
He wanted to tell her she was allowed to sound angry. Instead, he asked if she had eaten, and she laughed once, without amusement.
After the call, Tessa brought him soup. A strip of adhesive from the hospital still clung to his arm, and she peeled it away with the same patience she used when removing a bandage from Lily's heel.
“You didn't know about the drive,” she said.
“I carried it.”
“That isn't the same thing.”
He nodded, but guilt had already taken root. He wondered whether he had made his family a target by agreeing to an ordinary favor, then hated himself for thinking the favor was the mistake instead of the threat.
At four, Owen Price finally returned his call. His voice was thin and breathless, and he asked first whether the baby was all right.
Daniel said she was. “Did you put a drive in that envelope?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
Price did not answer immediately. Then he admitted that he had been afraid Daniel would refuse and that he had seen a gray sedan outside his apartment twice that week.
Daniel closed his eyes. “You should have let me choose.”
“I know.”
There was no excuse after it, which made the apology harder to dismiss. Daniel gave Price the investigator's number and told him to explain everything directly, including what he had concealed from Daniel.
Before they hung up, Price asked whether Mercer had taken the envelope. Daniel said no, and the older man's breathing changed.
“I recognized him in the video,” Price whispered. “He was at the facilities warehouse last Thursday.”
Daniel sat upright despite the pain. “Doing what?”
“Standing beside the contractor while they loaded city equipment into a private truck.”