Chapter 23 - THE CALL
Daniel turned the phone toward Leah.
She read the message.
Her face went blank.
Marcus noticed.
“You know what that means.”
Leah didn't answer.
Daniel's voice stayed calm.
“Who called you?”
She looked at him.
“Before I went into Carver's office?”
“Yes.”
Leah sat down.
“A blocked number.”
“What did they say?”
“That Carver kept old military files.”
Daniel stared at her.
“You never told me that.”
“I thought it was a tip.”
“It was a tip.”
She looked confused.
Daniel continued.
“The question is from who.”
Leah remembered the call.
Male voice.
Older.
Slow.
He knew Carver's schedule.
He knew which cabinet contained the documents.
He knew exactly what Leah needed to photograph.
Marcus frowned.
“So somebody sent her in.”
Daniel looked at him.
“Yes.”
Leah's anger rose.
“I'm not some idiot who got manipulated.”
Daniel looked at his daughter.
“I didn't say you were.”
“Sounds like it.”
“You found real evidence.”
He leaned forward.
“But somebody wanted you to find it.”
That silenced her.
The investigator pulled Leah's phone records.
Blocked caller.
Routed through three internet services.
Dead end.
Almost.
One routing node had been reused once.
Three years earlier.
A number associated with a motel in Delaware.
Daniel and the investigator drove there.
The motel manager remembered nothing.
The records remembered more.
Room 214.
Cash payment.
Guest name:
D. HALE.
Leah stared at the printed registration card.
“He's alive.”
Daniel shook his head.
“He was alive three years ago.”
Then the manager returned carrying an old lost-property box.
“You people said Hale?”
Daniel looked at him.
The man reached inside.
Pulled out a cheap paperback book.
Inside the cover was handwriting.
One sentence.
If Miller comes looking, give him page 118.
Daniel opened it.
Page 118 had been cut out.
Behind it was a photograph.
Leah.
Taken from across the street.
Three years earlier.
Daniel's face hardened.
May you like
On the back:
SHE'S THE ONLY ONE CARVER WILL UNDERESTIMATE.
