Chapter 4 - Kane’s Confession
Hannah hit Kane before anyone could stop her.
His chair crashed backward.
Agents stepped between them.
“Did you kill him?” she demanded.
“No.”
“Did you help?”
Kane looked at the floor.
“Yes.”
He had been a young major assigned to security review. Michael found unauthorized compartments. Kane had been told they were classified medical spaces.
“And you signed the certification.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“My wife was pregnant. I wanted the promotion. Thorne told me not to ask questions.”
“So you didn’t.”
“No.”
Hannah’s fists tightened.
Kane continued.
“Michael confronted me. I admitted I had signed. He said mistakes could still be corrected.”
“Did you correct yours?”
“I tried.”
He handed an agent a small brass key.
“Locker 214. Old rail depot in National City.”
“What’s there?”
“Evidence Michael gave me the night before he died.”
Hannah stared.
“You hid it for twelve years?”
“I was afraid.”
“People suffered while you were afraid.”
“I know.”
Her phone rang.
Her mother.
Hannah answered.
No voice.
Only breathing.
Then a man said:
“Don’t go to Locker 214.”
The line died.
Hannah raced to Clara’s house with agents.
The front door stood open.
On the kitchen table sat a note:
GO HOME, HANNAH.
NOT YOUR WAR.
Hannah folded it.
“It became my war twelve years ago.”
Against orders, she went to the rail depot.
Locker 214 contained ledgers, a camera card, and a file marked MERCER.
The first page was a beneficiary statement for a trust called Harbor Meridian.
Trustee: Elias Thorne.
Trustee: Nathan Vale.
Trustee:
Clara Mercer.
Hannah stopped breathing.
Kane whispered, “Signatures can be forged.”
She glared at him.
“You don’t get to defend my family.”
An agent inserted the camera card.
Audio played.
Her father’s voice:
“Clara, if you’re hearing this, he knows.”
Then a door slammed.
Admiral Thorne’s voice followed.
“You should have stopped digging.”
Michael answered:
“You should have stopped burying people.”
A gunshot cracked through the recording.
May you like
Then someone whispered:
“Move the body. Make it the highway.”
