Chapter 7 - Daniel Disappears
His car was found at the airport.
Empty.
No suitcase.
No phone.
No Daniel.
The police did not call it a disappearance.
Adults are allowed to go missing.
Federal investigators called it something else.
Potential flight risk.
Agent Blake arrived at Evelyn’s office just after sunrise.
“Do you know where he would go?”
“No.”
“Family?”
“His mother died years ago.”
“Friends?”
“Most of them work for him.”
“Property?”
I hesitated.
Then remembered something.
“A lake house.”
Evelyn looked at me.
“You own a lake house?”
“Not officially.”
Daniel’s father had used one when we were dating.
Northern Wisconsin.
Quiet.
Remote.
Daniel always said it belonged to a friend.
I gave Blake the location.
Agents reached it before noon.
Empty.
But someone had been there recently.
Fresh food.
Coffee.
A burned pile of papers in the fireplace.
And one torn receipt.
Vanessa Cole.
Gas station.
Thirty miles away.
So much for Daniel blaming her.
By afternoon, Vanessa had vanished too.
I sat beside Noah while he built a model plane at the kitchen table.
My phone stayed face down.
I was done letting Daniel’s chaos decide every minute of our day.
Noah looked up.
“Can I call Dad?”
My throat tightened.
“Not right now.”
“Is he busy?”
“Yes.”
That was technically true.
“Will he come to my game Saturday?”
I looked away.
“I don’t know.”
Noah nodded like he expected that answer.
That hurt worse than crying would have.
At 6:12, Evelyn called.
“Turn on the news.”
I did.
A photo filled the screen.
Daniel.
Not arrested.
Not at the airport.
At a small private marina.
Security footage showed him boarding a boat with another man.
Marcus Vale.
The contractor from the photograph.
Evelyn spoke through the phone.
“This just got much bigger.”
Then the news anchor said something that made me stand.
Authorities are investigating whether company executive Daniel Mercer may possess documents connected to a wider federal contracting probe.
Documents.
That was why he ran.
Not money.
Records.
And if Daniel had records, he had leverage.
By 8:00, every major outlet was repeating the story.
At 9:30, I received an encrypted email.
No sender name.
One line.
If Daniel gives them the ledger, you lose everything too.
Attached was a photograph.
Not of Daniel.
Of me.
Taken that afternoon.
May you like
Standing outside Noah’s school.
Someone was watching us.
