“That's what the report said.”
Victoria took out her phone.
“Get me Vanessa Reed.”
At the federal field office, Officer Reed sat in a secure interview room.
She looked exhausted.
Her eyes were red.
When Victoria entered, Reed immediately stood.
“Is my brother alive?”
Victoria paused.
“No.”
Reed covered her mouth.
For a moment, she couldn't speak.
Then she sat down.
Victoria placed the photograph on the table.
“Do you recognize this?”
Reed looked at it.
Her eyes widened.
“That's my mother.”
“And the woman beside her?”
“Eleanor Carter.”
Victoria nodded.
“You knew her?”
Reed looked down.
“She used to visit our house.”
“Why?”
“My mother said they worked together.”
“On what?”
Reed hesitated.
“Something called Harborlight.”
Victoria sat opposite her.
“Tell me what your mother told you.”
Reed took a breath.
“She said the program was supposed to protect people. She said witnesses were being moved because their lives were in danger.”
“And then?”
“Then she found out some of them were never arriving at their destinations.”
Victoria waited.
Reed continued.
“She tried to report it. But before she could, someone came to our house.”
“Who?”
“I was seventeen. I didn't see his face.”
“What happened?”
“My mother told me to hide in the laundry room. I heard shouting. Then a crash.”
Reed's voice trembled.
“When I came out, she was gone.”
Victoria stared at her.
“Did you ever see her again?”
“No.”
“Did you report it?”
“My father said she had been in an accident. He told me not to ask questions.”
“Who was your father?”
Reed looked up.
“General Nathaniel Cross.”
Victoria went completely still.
“What?”
Reed nodded.
“He raised me after my mother disappeared.”
The pieces began falling into place.
Vanessa Reed was not simply an officer whose name had been used in a false complaint.
She was the daughter of the man at the center of the investigation.
And she had grown up believing her mother was dead because of an accident.
Victoria leaned forward.
“Did General Cross know you were responding to David's address?”
Reed shook her head.
“I don't know.”
“Did he know you were investigating Harborlight?”
“No.”
“Then why did your brother have the Carter address?”
Reed closed her eyes.
“Because he worked for my father.”
Victoria sat back.
Silence filled the room.
Finally, Reed spoke.
“There's something else.”
Victoria looked at her.
“My mother left me something before she disappeared.”
“What?”
“A key.”
“Where is it?”
Reed reached into her pocket and removed a small brass key.
“I've kept it since I was seventeen.”
Victoria examined it.
A number was engraved on the side.
417.
She looked at Reed.
“Do you know what it opens?”
Reed shook her head.
“No.”
Victoria stared at the number.
It was the same number found in the original Harborlight medical records.
Room 417.
She stood.
“Agent Brooks!”
He entered immediately.
“Ma'am?”
“Find out where the original Harborlight medical archive was stored.”
Brooks checked his tablet.
“Old military hospital outside Norfolk.”
Victoria looked at the key.