Silence.
“They took Daniel's laptop. They searched everything.”
She placed a hand on Emily's shoulder.
“I was pregnant.”
Mason looked at the sleeping girl.
Rachel continued:
“I didn't know who inside Mercer Transport I could trust.”
“So you thought I was involved?”
“I didn't know.”
That hurt.
But he understood.
At the time, Mason sat on the company board.
He controlled fleet operations.
He knew executives Rachel feared.
He had been part of the world surrounding the crime even if he knew nothing about it.
“You could've called later.”
“I wanted to.”
“Eight years.”
Rachel looked at him.
“I watched you become president of a motorcycle club called the Night Wolves.”
Mason almost laughed.
“We're not criminals.”
“I know that now.”
“Then why tell Emily to find the wolf?”
Rachel looked at her daughter.
“Because Daniel trusted you.”
The room became quiet.
Rachel opened her purse.
She removed an old photograph.
Daniel and Mason beside motorcycles.
Both wearing the original Night Wolves wolf patch.
Before it became a club insignia.
Back when it was simply a patch the brothers designed together.
“Daniel carried this photograph in his wallet,” Rachel said.
“He told me if anything happened and I ever had nowhere else to go, find Mason.”
Mason could barely speak.
“Then why didn't you?”
Rachel looked toward Emily.
“Because I was afraid the people who killed Daniel would be waiting for exactly that.”
DNA results were unnecessary to Mason.
Emily's habits told him before any test could.
The way she tilted her head when confused.
The dimple.
The way she separated the marshmallows from breakfast cereal and saved them until last.
Daniel had done that.
Still, legal reality required proof.
Rachel agreed.
Three days later, Mason sat in the Night Wolves clubhouse holding the result.
Probability of biological relationship consistent with paternal uncle.
He stared for a long time.
Red sat opposite.
“You okay?”
“No.”
“Good.”
Mason looked up.
“Good?”
“Means you're not pretending.”
He placed the paper down.
“I had a niece for seven years.”
“You didn't know.”
“I should've.”
“How?”
He had no answer.
Guilt loved impossible standards.
Mason visited Rachel's temporary safe apartment that afternoon.
Police had arranged protection because Eric Sloan was cooperating with investigators while his company attorneys fought over what he knew.
Emily opened the door.
“Wolf!”
Mason stopped.
Rachel laughed for the first time.
“She means you.”
“I have a name.”
Emily thought.
“Wolf is better.”
Mason entered.
Rachel made coffee.
Awkward silence settled.
Eight years of silence had weight.
Finally Mason asked:
“What does she know about Daniel?”
“Not much.”
“Why?”
“How do you explain murder to a child?”
“You don't start there.”
Rachel stared into her cup.
“I told her her father died before she was born.”
“Pictures?”
“Some.”
Emily ran into the bedroom and returned carrying a small box.
Inside:
Daniel's watch.
A keychain.
Three photographs.
A worn Tennessee Titans cap.
Mason touched the hat.
His throat closed.
“He loved this stupid thing.”
Emily smiled.
“Mom says he wore it everywhere.”
“He did.”
“Was he funny?”
Mason nodded.
“Very.”
“Brave?”
“Sometimes.”
“Strong?”
Mason looked at Rachel.
“Not as strong as he thought.”
Rachel understood.
Daniel was human.
Not a saint created by death.
Mason said:
“He hated onions.”
Emily looked horrified.
“I hate onions.”
“See? Definitely related.”
She laughed.
Later, Rachel asked Mason privately:
“What happens now?”
“With what?”
“Emily.”
Mason frowned.
“What do you mean?”
“You know she's family.”
“I knew that ten minutes after meeting her.”
Rachel's face tightened.
“You're angry at me.”
“Yes.”
She flinched.
Mason continued:
“But I'm not taking that anger out on her.”
Rachel nodded.
“And you?”
“What about me?”
“Are you going to disappear again?”
Mason stared.
The question was unfair.
Yet deserved.
Rachel had disappeared.
But Mason had also spent years refusing to search very hard after the first attempts failed.
Anger had made absence convenient.
“I don't know what we're supposed to be,” he said.
“Neither do I.”
“But I'm here now.”
Rachel looked toward Emily.
“That might be enough to start.”
Daniel's old evidence had not vanished completely.
Rachel had hidden a memory card.
Not in a safe.
Not with lawyers.
Inside Daniel's watch.
Mason stared when she showed him.
“He always said nobody steals broken watches.”
The card contained spreadsheets.
Shipment numbers.
Chemical codes.
Driver logs.
Payments to shell companies.
And several voice memos Daniel recorded during his investigation.
One included Eric Sloan.
Another included Mercer Transport's former chief financial officer:
Victor Hale.
No relation to Rachel.
Victor had retired after Daniel's death.
Now investigators reopened everything.