He'll carry the blame. That's all he needs to do.
Daniel felt sick.
He opened another recording.
This time, Thomas was speaking to someone else.
The transfer is complete. Margaret is alive, but she won't be returning.
A second voice responded.
And the daughter?
Thomas paused.
She's young. She'll believe whatever the evidence tells her.
Daniel closed his eyes.
He had trusted Thomas.
He had defended him.
He had spent years believing that the man was one of the finest officers he had ever known.
Then he heard a third voice.
A familiar voice.
His own.
It was a recording from eleven years earlier.
Sir, the girl is asking whether her father is responsible.
Thomas answered:
Tell her the investigation is complete. She needs to accept what happened.
Daniel froze.
He remembered that conversation.
He remembered being instructed not to discuss the investigation with Emily.
He had followed orders.
He had thought he was protecting a grieving teenager.
But he had helped bury the truth.
A noise came from behind him.
Daniel turned.
A man stood in the doorway.
Richard Vale.
Older now, with gray hair and a scar running along his jaw.
"You should have listened to the message," Vale said.
Daniel reached for his weapon.
"Stay where you are."
Vale smiled.
"You're just like Thomas. Always arriving too late."
"Did you cause the accident?"
Vale shrugged.
"Your question is irrelevant."
"Did you arrange the truck?"
"Thomas arranged the truck. I arranged the people."
Daniel's eyes narrowed.
"Why?"
"Because Margaret had something that belonged to very powerful people."
"And you killed her?"
Vale shook his head.
"No. I kept her alive. That was more useful."
Daniel stepped closer.
"Where is Thomas?"
Vale's smile widened.
"Perhaps you should ask him yourself."
A voice came from the darkness behind Daniel.
"Hello, Danny."
Daniel turned.
Thomas Reed stood in the corridor.
Alive.
The man looked older, but his posture was unchanged.
He was holding a gun.
Daniel stared at him.
"You faked your death."
Thomas nodded.
"It was necessary."
"Why?"
"Because I knew eventually someone would discover the records."
"You let me believe you were dead."
"I needed you to keep looking respectable. You were becoming a good officer."
Daniel's expression hardened.
"You used me."
Thomas sighed.
"I gave you a career."
"You used a grieving family. You destroyed Arthur's life. You separated a mother from her daughter."
Thomas lowered his gun slightly.
"You don't understand the scale of what we were protecting."
"I understand enough."
Thomas looked at the computer.
"Turn it off."
Daniel didn't move.
Thomas raised the weapon.
"Now."
Daniel slowly reached toward the keyboard.
But he pressed a different key.
A small red light appeared on the terminal.
The files were uploading.
Thomas noticed.
"Stop!"
Daniel stepped backward.
"Too late."
Thomas fired.
The bullet struck the wall beside Daniel.
Daniel dropped behind the desk as the alarm began sounding.
Then the lights came on.
Police officers flooded the building.
Vale attempted to escape through the rear entrance, but he was stopped outside.
Thomas lowered his weapon.
For a moment, he looked almost disappointed.
"You were supposed to be smarter than this, Daniel."
Daniel emerged from behind the desk.
"I was. I just trusted the wrong person."
Thomas was arrested.
The recordings were secured.
And the truth about the Bennett accident finally became public.
But as Daniel stepped outside, his phone rang.
It was Emily.
He answered immediately.
"Emily?"
Her voice was shaking.
"Daniel, something has happened."
"What?"
She struggled to speak.
"Mom is gone."
Daniel froze.
"What do you mean?"
"Someone took her from the hospital."
He looked back toward the building where Thomas had just been arrested.
Then his phone received a new message.
A photograph appeared.
Margaret was sitting in the back of a black car.
Beside her was a man Daniel recognized.
Richard Vale.
Below the photograph was a short message:
THE FILES ARE ONLY HALF THE TRUTH. BRING THE ORIGINAL NOTEBOOK, OR YOU WILL NEVER SEE MARGARET AGAIN.
Daniel looked toward the police officers.
The case was far from over.
And somewhere across town, Arthur Bennett was still waiting for his family to come home.
The photograph on Daniel's phone remained on the screen.
Margaret was sitting in the back of a black car. Her hands were tied, and her face looked exhausted. Beside her sat a man Daniel had spent the last several hours trying to arrest.
Richard Vale.
But there was something Daniel couldn't understand.
He had watched officers surround the abandoned records facility. He had seen Vale being stopped near the rear entrance. He had even heard an officer confirm that the suspect was in custody.
So how could Vale be sending him a photograph from inside a moving vehicle?
Daniel zoomed in.
The photograph was not recent.
There was a reflection in the car window showing a digital clock. It displayed 9:17 p.m.
The current time was 12:36 a.m.
The photograph had been taken more than three hours earlier.
Daniel immediately called the officer who had arrested Vale.
"Where is he now?"
"In custody."
"Did he have a phone?"
"We recovered one."
"Check whether he sent any scheduled messages."
There was a pause.
"One moment."
Daniel waited.
Then the officer returned.
"There's a message scheduled to be delivered to several numbers. It was sent automatically."
Daniel looked at the photograph again.
"Can you trace the original location?"
"We're trying."
Daniel ended the call and turned toward Emily, who was standing beside the patrol car.
She had been crying.
"Is Mom alive?" she asked.
Daniel put his phone away.
"I believe she is."
"Where is she?"
"We're trying to find out."
Emily shook her head.
"Every time I think we're close to getting her back, someone takes her away again."
Daniel wanted to reassure her, but he knew empty promises would only make things worse.