Chapter 8 - The Good Man With the Badge
Andrew Mercer had spent half his career trying to imprison Roman Vale.
Roman had always assumed it was because Mercer hated criminals.
Walter's letter suggested a darker possibility.
Mercer wasn't trying to destroy Roman.
He was trying to control him.
Samuel paced.
“If Mercer works for Victor, every investigation makes sense.”
“How?” Renley asked.
Roman answered.
“Mercer removed Victor's competitors.”
“By arresting criminals?”
“Yes.”
“That sounds good.”
“Until you realize he arrested only the ones Victor wanted gone.”
Renley understood.
“The law became Victor's weapon.”
Roman nodded.
Exactly.
They needed someone clean.
Walter's letter provided another clue.
Find Mara Ellis. She believed Evelyn when nobody else did.
Roman knew the name.
Mara had been his mother's closest friend.
After Evelyn died, Mara disappeared from Roman's life.
They located her in Vermont.
She refused the first call.
Then Renley spoke.
“Mrs. Ellis, I delivered food to Walter Pike.”
Silence.
“You knew Walter?”
“Yes.”
Another silence.
“Put Roman on.”
Mara agreed to meet.
She arrived two days later at the community kitchen rather than Roman's safe house.
She was seventy, sharp-eyed, and unimpressed by wealth.
The moment she saw Roman, she slapped him.
Renley's mouth fell open.
Roman didn't move.
“That,” Mara said, “was for becoming everything your mother feared.”
Roman nodded.
“Fair.”
Then Mara hugged him.
“That was because she would've wanted someone to.”
Roman nearly broke.
Over coffee, Mara explained the final years before Evelyn's death.
Evelyn had discovered Victor's network.
Walter had copied financial records.
Samuel, then a teenage errand boy trying to escape his criminal father, helped Evelyn send documents to a journalist.
The journalist disappeared.
Victor learned of the betrayal.
Walter wanted to run.
Evelyn wanted to expose everything.
Then her car crashed.
Walter blamed himself.
“He vanished to protect you,” Mara said. “But he also vanished because he was ashamed.”
Roman stared into his coffee.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“I tried.”
“When?”
“At Evelyn's funeral.”
Roman remembered chaos.
Men.
Security.
His father's disappearance days later.
“I was seventeen.”
“You told me your mother had died because weak people couldn't survive your world.”
Roman looked away.
Mara's eyes filled.
“That wasn't you speaking. That was grief wearing armor.”
Renley listened silently.
Roman finally asked the question.
“Is Mercer corrupt?”
Mara nodded.
“He was a young agent then. Walter discovered payments connected to his father.”
“Can we prove it?”
“With the drive.”
“But we can't give it to him.”
“No.”
Mara reached into her purse.
She pulled out a business card.
“Federal Judge Rebecca Sloan.”
Samuel frowned.
“A judge?”
“Evelyn's cousin.”
Roman stared.
“My mother had family?”
“She had people she kept away from you for their safety.”
The tragedy of his childhood expanded.
Everybody had been protecting everyone by staying apart.
And in the end, separation had nearly destroyed them all.
They contacted Judge Sloan discreetly.
She listened.
Then she arranged a secure meeting with an independent task force.
Roman agreed to turn over the drive.
But first, he made copies.
Walter would have approved.
At midnight, Roman received a text from an unknown number.
YOU SHOULD HAVE STAYED IN YOUR CAGE.
Another message followed.
A photograph.
Renley riding her bicycle six months earlier.
Taken from a distance.
Roman's blood went cold.
A third message.
WALTER WASN'T THE ONLY ONE WE WATCHED.
Roman immediately went to Elena.
“We need to move you.”
Again.
Elena looked exhausted.
“My daughter needs school.”
“I know.”
“She needs normal.”
“I know.”
“She needs a life that isn't guarded.”
“I know.”
Elena stared at him.
“Can you give her that?”
Roman had no answer.
The next morning Renley didn't come downstairs.
Elena checked her room.
Empty.
Her backpack was gone.
The window was open.
Roman's men searched the property.
No signs of forced entry.
No blood.
No struggle.
Then Roman found a note on the kitchen table.
Written in Renley's handwriting.
I'm tired of everyone getting hurt because of me.
I'm going home.
Roman closed his eyes.
Elena whispered, “She's twelve.”
Roman grabbed his keys.
Outside, Miles ran toward him.
“Boss.”
“What?”
“The city bus camera.”
Miles held up a phone.
The footage showed Renley entering a bus.
But she was not alone.
A man in a baseball cap followed two seconds later.
The same man who had watched her outside St. Matthew's.
Roman stared at the screen.
His worst fear had just happened.
Renley had left willingly.
But someone dangerous had followed.
May you like
And the next bus camera never showed her getting off.
---
