Jack leaned over the screen.
“Daniel never mentioned Martin.”
“Maybe he didn’t know.”
Emma thought about the lawyer who had sat beside her during probate.
The man who had touched her shoulder at Laura’s funeral.
The man who had asked whether Emma planned to keep her mother’s old jewelry.
She felt nauseated.
“What happens now?”
“We locate Hale.”
“Isn’t he at his office?”
“No.”
Martin had disappeared thirty minutes after calling police.
His cellphone was off.
His house was empty.
The gray SUV was recovered near the river.
Inside were Emma’s necklace and photographs of her.
The men from the diner were gone.
Federal investigators believed Martin Hale had been searching for Daniel’s evidence before authorities reopened the old case.
Emma remained at the repair shop for safety.
Two days passed.
Nothing.
On the third evening she received an email.
The sender was unknown.
Subject line:
YOUR MOTHER LIED TO YOU TOO.
Emma opened it before Jack could stop her.
The message contained a video file.
Jack called Brooks immediately.
Emma played it.
The image showed her mother.
Laura Collins.
Older.
Thin.
Wearing the scarf she used during chemotherapy.
Emma stopped breathing.
The recording date was three weeks before Laura died.
“Emma,” Laura said on screen, “if you are watching this, something has gone very wrong.”
Emma sat.
Jack stood behind her.
Laura continued.
“I have spent most of your life believing that protecting you meant keeping you ignorant.”
Emma began crying before the next sentence.
“I was wrong.”
Laura explained everything.
Daniel’s warnings.
The final argument.
Jack arriving three weeks after Daniel’s death.
The truth about the collision.
The pendant.
“I hated your father for involving you,” Laura said. “You were a baby. I thought hiding his evidence was reckless.”
Laura removed the microfilm.
She placed it inside the music box.
Then she kept the empty pendant.
Years passed.
Nobody came searching.
Laura eventually believed the danger was over.
But after her cancer diagnosis, Martin Hale contacted her unexpectedly.
He claimed he wanted to update estate documents.
Then he asked about Daniel.
Laura became suspicious.
That was why she recorded the video.
Emma paused.
“When was this sent?”
Jack checked the email metadata.
“Scheduled delivery.”
“By my mother?”
“Maybe through a service.”
Emma resumed.
Laura looked into the camera.
“I need to tell you something else about Jack Mercer.”
Emma glanced toward him.
Jack went pale.
On screen, Laura continued.
“Jack promised Daniel he would protect you if anything happened.”
Emma slowly turned toward him.
“You promised my father?”
Jack said nothing.
Laura’s recording answered.
“Daniel asked Jack to stay away unless you were in danger. He believed men connected to Cascade would watch everyone in his life.”
Emma looked at Jack.
“All these years?”
Jack nodded.
She felt suddenly betrayed again.
“You knew where I was?”
“Yes.”
“For my entire life?”
“From a distance.”
“How often?”
“Once or twice a year.”
Emma stood.
“You watched me grow up?”
Jack’s eyes lowered.
“Yes.”
“School?”
“Sometimes.”
“Graduation?”
“Yes.”
“My mother’s funeral?”
Jack swallowed.
“Yes.”
Emma stared.
A memory surfaced.
A gray-bearded biker standing under a tree beyond the cemetery.
She had noticed him for only a second.
“That was you.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you talk to me?”
“I promised Daniel.”
“You’re obsessed with promises.”
Jack accepted the accusation.
Emma turned back to the screen.
Laura said,
“I asked him to stay away too.”
Emma closed her eyes.
Of course.
Two dead parents.
One living stranger.
All deciding her life without her.
The recording continued.
Laura apologized.
She said Daniel had not been perfect.
He had debts.
A temper.
Bad judgment.
He occasionally drank too much.
But he had never abandoned Emma.
“I made you believe the worst thing about him because I thought it would keep you from searching for the truth.”
Emma whispered,
“You stole him from me.”
Laura, frozen decades and miles away, could not answer.
At the end of the recording she said,
“Your father loved you more than he knew how to say.”
Then something surprising happened.
Laura smiled.
“And Jack Mercer will probably be standing nearby when you watch this because that stubborn idiot keeps promises longer than any reasonable person should.”
Despite herself, Emma laughed through tears.
Jack did too.
The video ended.
Silence remained.
Emma looked at him.
“Did you ever have children?”
Jack shook his head.
“Married?”
“Once.”
“What happened?”
“She left.”
“Because you spent your life protecting somebody else’s daughter?”
Jack almost smiled.
“Among other reasons.”
Emma sat again.
“You could have introduced yourself.”
“I wanted to.”
“When?”
“Your eighth birthday.”
Emma looked up.
“Why that one?”
“You got a red bicycle.”
She remembered.
Her mother said an anonymous friend had sent it.
“That was you?”
“No. Daniel.”
Emma froze.
“What?”
Jack opened a cabinet.
Removed a folder.
Inside were money-order receipts.
Birthday after birthday.
Christmas after Christmas.
Daniel had left money with Jack before his death.
Not much.
Enough for occasional gifts.
Emma’s bicycle.
Her first computer.
Part of her college textbooks.
“My mother said those came from her savings.”
“She didn’t want you asking questions.”
Emma ran one finger over Daniel’s signature.
For twenty-seven years she had been loved by a dead man without knowing it.
The realization was almost unbearable.
Jack sat across from her.
“Your father wasn’t a saint.”
“I know.”
“He made mistakes.”
“I know.”
“But leaving you wasn’t one of them.”
Emma nodded.
Then a motorcycle engine roared outside.
Jack immediately stood.
Rosa entered.
“Hale.”
Everyone froze.
“What?” Emma asked.
Rosa held up her phone.
“Martin Hale just called the shop.”
Jack’s jaw tightened.
“What does he want?”
“You.”
Emma felt cold.
Rosa continued.
“He says he wants to talk to Emma alone.”
“Absolutely not,” Jack said.
Emma looked at him.
“What did he say?”
“That he has something belonging to Daniel.”
Jack shook his head.
“Trap.”
“What?”
Rosa’s expression was grim.
“A letter.”
Emma stood.
“My father wrote a letter?”
“According to Hale.”
Jack said,
“He can mail it.”
“Hale says if Emma wants it, she meets him.”
“Where?”
“Cascade warehouse.”
The old warehouse had been abandoned for nineteen years.
Emma knew what Jack would say.
She also knew what she was going to do.
“No,” Jack said before she could speak.
“You don’t even know what I was going to say.”
“Yes, I do.”
Emma picked up her coat.
“Then we’re saving time.”
Nobody allowed Emma to go alone.
That did not mean she stayed behind.
Detective Brooks coordinated with federal agents.
The Iron Ridge Riders were specifically instructed to stay away.
Jack agreed.
Then immediately ignored the instruction.
“You realize this is why cops dislike you?” Rosa asked.
“They can add it to the list.”
Emma sat in Rosa’s truck.
“You promised Brooks.”
“I said I understood her request.”
“That isn’t agreeing.”
“Correct.”
They parked half a mile from the warehouse.
Federal agents had not yet moved because Martin insisted he would leave if he saw police.
Emma wore a small transmitter.
Brooks spoke through an earpiece.
“Remember, you do not enter if you see anyone besides Hale.”
Emma nodded.
Jack grabbed her wrist.
“Look at me.”
She did.
“This is not about proving courage.”
“I know.”
“You see anything wrong, you leave.”
“I know.”
“Emma.”
“I know.”
His voice softened.
“Your father would kill me if you got hurt.”
She smiled faintly.
“He sounds inconvenient.”
“He was.”
Emma walked toward the warehouse.
The building stood near old railroad tracks.
Windows broken.
Paint faded.
The Cascade Secure Logistics name still appeared faintly above the loading dock.
Martin Hale waited inside.
He wore a dark overcoat.