Chapter 10 - The Chief
Dana spoke first.
“Chief Pike, lower the weapon.”
He laughed.
“You’re trespassing in my county.”
“On private property owned by Lily Carter.”
Dana’s team had better position.
Pike knew it.
Then he smiled again.
“You think cameras matter here?”
“Not here,” Dana said. “Washington.”
His smile disappeared.
We detained them under the authority of the federal warrant.
Pike demanded a local judge.
Dana ignored him.
Lily stood in front of the shelves of erased police reports.
“You buried these.”
Pike looked at her.
“Your husband had difficult relationships.”
“He strangled women.”
“No convictions.”
“Because you erased the complaints.”
Pike’s jaw tightened.
The tunnel evidence went into federal custody.
Then we found a hidden room behind the cabinet.
Inside was a cot.
Food.
Medication.
A radio.
Someone had been living there.
On the wall were newspaper clippings about Ashbridge.
My old federal photo had a red circle around it.
So did Lily’s wedding announcement.
A message was written in marker:
MICHAEL, IF YOU FIND THIS, I COULDN’T COME TO YOU.
Under the cot was a recorder.
Caleb Voss’s voice.
“I stayed hidden because Keene told me Ward was compromised. He told Ward I was dead. He told the Whitmores I would keep laundering records if they left my sister alone.”
Dana looked at me.
Voss had been trapped between lies.
The recording continued.
“Richard knows less than he thinks. Evelyn knows more. Harrison is dead, but the machine is not.”
Then Voss named the person currently controlling it.
Thomas Keene.
Retired federal deputy director.
The man who had convinced me to quit.
The recorder ended with coordinates.
Dana entered them.
A house on the Massachusetts coast.
Registered to a shell company.
Then Lily’s phone rang.
Richard.
We let it record.
His voice was shaking.
“Lily, please. My mother lied to me.”
She stared at the phone.
“About what?”
“About why I married you.”
Lily’s face hardened.
“You knew exactly why.”
“No.”
May you like
He started crying.
“I was told your father killed Caleb Voss.”
