Chapter 4 - THE MAN WHO VANISHED
Daniel knew Evan Wallace.
Everybody at the company knew Evan.
Twenty-six years old.
Expensive sneakers.
Cheap excuses.
His father gave him a management title even though Evan showed up around noon and disappeared whenever real work started.
“He hated me,” Daniel told Detective Pike.
They had moved the family into a waiting room while Daniel sat across from Pike and Officer Collins.
“Why?”
“Because I called him out.”
“For what?”
“Stealing.”
Pike stopped writing.
“What did he steal?”
Daniel leaned back.
“Materials. Copper. Power tools. Sometimes cash from customers who paid deposits.”
“And you reported him?”
“To Richard.”
“What happened?”
“Richard told me to mind my own business.”
Collins glanced at Pike.
Pike frowned.
“When was this?”
“About two weeks before the robbery.”
Pike tapped his pen.
“You didn’t tell us that.”
“Yes, I did.”
“No, you didn’t.”
Daniel stared at him.
“I told you during the second interview.”
Pike shook his head.
“You said you had problems with Evan. You never said stealing.”
Daniel laughed without humor.
“Maybe because your partner kept interrupting me.”
Pike’s expression shifted.
“What partner?”
Daniel stopped.
“You serious?”
“Who interviewed you with me?”
“The bald guy.”
Pike’s face went blank.
“There was no one else in that room.”
Daniel felt a chill move across his back.
“Yes, there was.”
Collins leaned forward.
“What did he look like?”
“Forties. Big. Bald. Scar near his right ear.”
Pike slowly set down his pen.
“What?”
Daniel looked between them.
“What?”
Pike stood.
“Collins, I need a phone.”
“There’s one outside.”
Pike headed toward the door.
Daniel grabbed his sleeve.
“Who was he?”
Pike pulled free.
“I don’t know.”
“You were talking to him!”
“I thought he was with intake.”
Daniel stood.
“You thought?”
Pike’s face tightened.
“I was working thirty hours without sleep. Your interview happened after shift change.”
“So some random man sat in on an interrogation?”
“I said I don’t know.”
Daniel slammed both hands on the table.
“You put me in jail!”
Collins immediately stood between them.
“Daniel.”
“No!”
He pointed at Pike.
“My daughter stopped sleeping because of you. My son thinks I disappeared because he was bad. My wife is working double shifts to keep our apartment.”
Pike’s jaw flexed.
“I know.”
“You don’t know a damn thing.”
The door opened.
Officer Baker stepped inside.
“Problem?”
“No,” Collins said.
Baker looked at Daniel.
“Sounds like one.”
Daniel noticed something.
A tiny pale line behind Baker’s right ear.
A scar.
His stomach turned cold.
Daniel stared.
Baker noticed.
“What?”
Daniel didn’t answer.
Baker touched the side of his neck.
“What are you looking at?”
Daniel’s mind raced.
The interrogation room.
The fluorescent light.
Pike walking in and out.
That bald man sitting in the corner.
The scar.
Daniel remembered the voice.
Low.
Flat.
Almost bored.
You should make this easy on yourself, Reyes.
Daniel slowly looked at Collins.
Then at Pike.
Then back at Baker.
“That was you.”
Baker’s face didn’t move.
“What was me?”
“You were in my interrogation room.”
Collins turned sharply.
“Baker?”
He laughed.
“You’ve been locked up too long.”
Daniel stepped toward him.
“You told me to confess.”
Baker’s smile vanished.
Pike moved closer.
“Officer Baker, were you at Central Precinct on May twelfth?”
Baker looked at Pike.
“No.”
Pike studied him.
Daniel’s pulse pounded.
Then a radio on Baker’s belt crackled.
A dispatcher’s voice said, “Unit seven, be advised, suspect Evan Wallace has been located.”
Everyone froze.
The dispatcher continued.
“He’s alive.”
Daniel swallowed.
May you like
Then came the rest.
“And he says Daniel Reyes planned the robbery.”
