Chapter 7 - The Missing Camera.
Claire denied receiving any call from the prepaid phone.
She denied knowing it existed.
She denied ever speaking to Captain Reed outside official meetings.
Detective Ortiz listened without interrupting.
Alex did not.
"Then why is your number on a phone hidden under my daughter's crib?"
Claire sat upright in her hospital bed.
"I don't know."
"That's not good enough."
"You think I planted it?"
"I think someone is lying."
Claire's face hardened despite the bruise around her eye.
"I almost burned to death beside your wife."
"And somehow the one piece of evidence that could destroy Vale was hidden under my child's bed."
"That phone isn't my evidence."
"How do I know?"
Emily watched from the doorway.
She had insisted on coming despite the pain in her incision.
She expected Claire to look offended.
Instead, Claire looked frightened.
Not frightened of Alex.
Frightened of the phone.
"What number did it call from?"
Ortiz read the last four digits.
Claire went pale.
"That's impossible."
"Why?"
"Because I know that number."
Alex leaned forward.
"From where?"
Claire looked at Emily.
"It belonged to Jake Morrison."
The room went silent.
Alex stared at her.
"Jake's dead."
"I know."
"His phone burned in the warehouse."
"The department reimbursed the family for it, yes."
Claire swallowed.
"But the number was reactivated six months ago."
Ortiz asked, "How do you know?"
"Because someone called me from it after I first accessed the Mercer inspection archive."
Emily felt the hairs rise along her arms.
"What did they say?"
Claire's voice dropped.
"They told me dead men don't make good witnesses."
Alex backed away from the bed.
His face had gone empty.
Emily recognized the look.
It was the same expression he wore when pain was too large to show in pieces.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
Claire's eyes filled.
"Because I knew you'd do exactly what you're doing now."
"What am I doing?"
"Making it personal."
Alex laughed without humor.
"They used my dead partner's number to threaten you."
"That's why I needed you thinking clearly."
"You needed me useful."
Claire looked away.
Emily understood then that Claire had manipulated him too.
Not romantically.
Strategically.
She had known Jake's death would make Alex impossible to turn away.
That truth did not absolve Alex of keeping secrets, but it rearranged Emily's anger once again.
Ortiz requested the call records.
Within an hour, the carrier confirmed that Jake's old number had been reactivated through a corporate account owned by a Vale subsidiary.
The activation request had been approved using the digital credentials of a city employee.
Marcus Reed.
"We have enough for a warrant," Ortiz said.
"Then arrest him," Emily replied.
"We have to find him first."
Reed's department vehicle had been discovered abandoned beneath an interstate overpass.
His phone was inside it.
His badge was on the dashboard.
There was blood on the driver's seat.
Alex stared at the crime scene photographs and said nothing.
Ben arrived later that afternoon with new information from the elevator.
He had returned to the damaged building with a fire investigator.
"The elevator security camera wasn't destroyed by heat."
Alex looked up.
"What happened to it?"
"Someone removed it before the fire."
Ben placed photographs on the table.
Four clean screw holes marked the place where the camera housing should have been.
The wiring had been clipped neatly.
"Maintenance records show it was inspected yesterday morning."
Emily frowned.
"By who?"
Ben handed her the report.
The technician's signature read D. HAYES.
Emily looked at him.
"Hayes?"
Ben's face tightened.
"My brother."
Alex stood.
"Your brother works for Vale?"
"He works for a subcontractor that services elevators."
"You never mentioned that."
"Because until ten minutes ago, I didn't know he had been in that building."
Alex's voice sharpened.
"What's his name?"
"Daniel."
"Call him."
Ben did.
The call went directly to voicemail.
He tried again.
Nothing.
Ortiz requested Daniel Hayes's address and dispatched officers.
They found his apartment door open.
The living room television was on.
A cup of coffee still sat warm on the kitchen counter.
Daniel was gone.
On his desk was a company laptop with the hard drive removed.
In the trash was a photograph torn into four pieces.
Ortiz reconstructed it and sent the image to Ben.
He stared at the screen.
It showed Daniel standing beside Captain Reed at a department charity golf tournament.
Neither man was looking at the camera.
They were looking at Victor Vale.
Ben sank into a chair.
"I didn't know."
Alex's jaw clenched.
"I believe you."
Ben looked up, surprised.
"Why?"
Alex pointed at the photograph.
"Because if you were part of this, you wouldn't have brought us the card."
Emily watched the two men.
Trust had become a luxury none of them could afford, yet they were spending it anyway.
That evening, Grace breathed on her own for twenty-seven seconds before the ventilator alarmed.
Emily counted every one.
Alex stood beside her counting too.
When the nurse left, Emily whispered, "I don't know how to forgive you yet."
Alex nodded.
"You don't have to."
"But I need you alive."
He looked at her.
"I'm not going anywhere."
The promise had barely left his mouth when Ben's phone rang.
He answered.
His face drained of color.
"Daniel?"
A man's breathing came through the speaker.
Then a whisper.
"Ben, don't let them move the pregnant woman."
Ben stood.
"Where are you?"
"They're inside the hospital."
The line clicked dead.
May you like
At that exact moment, the fire alarm began ringing on the maternity floor.
GIVE THIS TO ALEX
