Chapter 12 - THE LAST NAME
I tackled Daniel.
The bullet tore through the cabin wall behind us.
Agents opened fire toward the ridge.
“Shooter north side!”
Daniel and I crawled behind a truck.
“Are you hit?”
“No.”
“Stay down.”
Ramirez led two agents toward the trees.
Minutes later, shots stopped.
The shooter escaped.
Again.
But he left behind a rifle.
And one fingerprint.
We returned to the station with Daniel under federal protection.
Mom still didn’t know.
Not yet.
I couldn’t tell her until Daniel was secure.
Forensics opened the flash drive.
The files were devastating.
Audio recordings of Voss bribing officials.
Videos of Grady threatening witnesses.
Bank records tying Ryan to shell companies.
And one folder labeled:
ALEXANDER.
Inside were recordings of a man instructing Voss.
The voice sounded familiar.
Too familiar.
Then the technician enhanced it.
I knew immediately.
State Senator Alexander Cole.
Former district attorney.
The man who had personally praised Paul Grady nine years earlier for his “professional handling” of Daniel’s disappearance.
The network went higher than anyone imagined.
Cole controlled investigations through political appointments.
Voss made the money.
Grady handled enforcement.
Daniel’s evidence could destroy all of them.
But there was another file.
A video.
Daniel appeared on screen nine years younger.
He looked into the camera.
“My name is Daniel Morgan. I helped Charles Voss create fraudulent billing accounts.”
He confessed everything.
Then he said something I hadn’t expected.
“My brother Mark doesn’t know. My family doesn’t know. Rachel doesn’t know.”
He swallowed.
“If I survive this, I’m going to prison. I understand that.”
I looked toward Daniel through the glass.
He wasn’t asking to escape consequences.
Maybe he never had.
Later, I entered the interview room.
“Why hide for nine years if you planned to confess?”
Daniel looked exhausted.
“Harris told me the department was compromised.”
“It was.”
“I sent evidence anonymously twice.”
“What happened?”
“People died.”
I sat down.
“Victor Lane?”
He nodded.
“Another witness named Thomas Reed too.”
My stomach dropped.
Thomas Reed had died in a car accident.
“I realized every time I moved, someone paid.”
“So you disappeared.”
“Yes.”
“And Harris helped.”
“He took forty thousand from Grady’s payoff stash. Used it to buy documents and move me.”
“Why stop contacting him?”
“I stopped trusting everybody.”
Fair.
Then I asked the question I feared most.
“Why visit Evan?”
Daniel’s eyes filled with tears.
“Because I’m human.”
He laughed bitterly.
“I spent years telling myself staying away made me a good father.”
His voice cracked.
“Then one night I drove past the house and saw him through the window.”
He wiped his face.
“I couldn’t do it anymore.”
Silence.
“I gave him the key in case Ryan ever found the backpack.”
“You gave an eight-year-old child evidence criminals would kill for.”
“He was four.”
“That makes it worse.”
Daniel nodded.
“I know.”
For once, he didn’t defend himself.
Then an alarm sounded.
Officers began running.
Ramirez entered.
“Mark, we’ve got a problem.”
“What?”
“Ryan Keller escaped during transport.”
Daniel stood.
May you like
“He’ll go for Evan.”
I was already moving.
