## CHAPTER 18 — THE PRISONER WHO VANISHED
Harrison was charged with attempted murder before Judge Vale was officially declared dead.
Dana challenged the timeline, but the district attorney’s office claimed the paperwork had been prepared because Vale had previously reported threats from Harrison.
The threats were fabricated.
Emails appeared to show Harrison demanding money and access to sealed accounts.
His electronic signature authenticated every message.
The court denied bail.
Khloe watched her brother being taken away in handcuffs.
One year earlier, Harrison had stood beside her on the same courthouse steps and promised that the people who hurt her would face justice.
Now the courthouse was consuming him.
“I’ll get you out,” Khloe said.
Harrison looked at Nora.
“Do not let anyone take her for a medical examination.”
“Why?”
“They need her blood to access something.”
“What?”
“I don’t know yet.”
A guard pulled Harrison away.
Inside the detention transport, he found a message scratched into the metal wall.
DANIEL IS COMING.
Meanwhile, Evan Mercer was scheduled to be questioned about the Family Protection Initiative.
The prison vehicle transporting him never reached the courthouse.
It was discovered beneath an overpass.
The guards were unconscious.
The rear door had been opened with an official emergency code.
Evan was gone.
Police announced that he had escaped.
Khloe did not believe it.
Evan called her from an unknown number that evening.
“I didn’t escape,” he whispered. “They took me.”
“Where are you?”
“I can’t see outside.”
“Who took you?”
“A woman with a blue scarf.”
Dr. Shaw.
Khloe activated the call trace Harrison had installed on her phone.
Evan continued.
“They want the code.”
“What code?”
“Your daughter’s trust has a biological lock.”
Khloe looked toward Nora.
“She’s one year old. She doesn’t know a code.”
“They need her blood and the phrase Daniel entered when he created the account.”
“What phrase?”
“That’s why they took me. They think my family knows it.”
A door opened on Evan’s end of the call.
His breathing became uneven.
A man spoke in the background.
The voice sounded older.
Calm.
Familiar.
Khloe had not heard it in twenty-three years, but she remembered it from childhood.
“Tell my daughter I’m sorry.”
Khloe froze.
“Dad?”
The line disconnected.
She immediately called Harrison’s detention facility.
The guard claimed Harrison was unavailable.
“What happened to him?”
“He was transferred.”
“Transferred where?”
“I can’t provide that information.”
Dana checked the court system.
There was no transfer order.
Leo contacted the detention center directly.
Harrison’s cell was empty.
Security footage showed two federal agents removing him.
The federal agency denied sending anyone.
Both Harrison and Evan had disappeared within the same hour.
Then Khloe received a photograph.
Harrison and Evan were sitting in separate chairs inside a windowless room.
Between them stood a man whose face had been turned away from the camera.
On his hand was the wedding ring Daniel Cole had worn before his death.
The message beneath the photograph said:
May you like
Bring Nora to the courthouse, or choose which man comes home.
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