Chapter 4 - The Photograph Behind the Wall
Jack switched off the light.
Darkness swallowed the cellar.
Lena heard Nolan draw his weapon.
Above them, a floorboard creaked.
One step.
Then another.
Jack put a finger against his lips.
Lena could hear her own heartbeat.
The footsteps stopped directly above the cellar door.
Nolan moved toward the stairs.
Jack caught his shoulder.
They exchanged a look.
A flashlight beam appeared beneath the door.
Then a voice.
“Lena?”
She stopped breathing.
She knew that voice.
“Carlos?”
Jack frowned.
Her coworker called again.
“Lena? Are you down there?”
Nolan opened the door with his gun raised.
Carlos screamed.
“Jesus Christ!”
“What are you doing here?” Lena demanded.
Carlos held up both hands.
“Looking for you!”
“How did you find us?”
“I didn't. I followed Nolan.”
The sheriff swore.
Carlos stared at the wall of photographs.
“What the hell is this?”
Lena didn't have the energy to explain.
Jack searched Carlos for weapons.
Nothing.
“Did anyone follow you?”
“I don't think so.”
“That isn't an answer.”
Carlos looked offended.
“I was trying to help.”
Lena believed him.
Then she remembered her mother's letter.
Do not trust anyone simply because they knew us.
She suddenly understood how exhausting paranoia could become.
Jack turned the lights back on.
They searched the cellar.
Behind a cabinet, Lena noticed a narrow seam in the wooden paneling.
She pushed.
Nothing.
Then she remembered the key.
It had two teeth on opposite ends.
One had opened the cellar.
The other fit a tiny concealed lock.
The panel clicked.
Behind it was a photograph.
Only one.
Lena removed it.
Her father stood beside a motel sign.
On the back:
When Lena learns the truth, take her to Room 217. She must choose what happens next.
Beneath that was an address in Arkansas.
Nolan shook his head.
“No.”
Jack looked at him.
“You don't decide anymore.”
“Vale will expect us to follow Daniel's trail.”
“Maybe Daniel expected Vale to expect that.”
Carlos stared between them.
“Could someone explain who Vale is?”
Lena folded the photograph.
“No.”
Carlos blinked.
“No?”
She looked at him.
For the first time in her life, Lena understood why her parents had kept secrets.
Knowledge could make someone a target.
“I’m sorry.”
Carlos nodded slowly.
Then headlights swept across the farmhouse windows.
Everyone froze.
Not one vehicle.
Three.
Jack extinguished the lights.
Nolan whispered, “Back exit.”
They moved through the barn.
Voices sounded outside.
Men spreading out.
Searching.
Lena followed Jack through tall grass until they reached an old drainage ditch.
They crawled.
Behind them, the farmhouse door burst open.
A flashlight swept over the field.
Carlos whispered, “This is the worst Tuesday I've ever had.”
Despite everything, Lena nearly laughed.
They reached the tree line.
Jack's truck was compromised.
Nolan's patrol car was visible from the road.
Carlos pointed toward an old sedan.
“My car.”
They squeezed inside.
Carlos drove.
For the first hour nobody spoke.
Eventually Nolan asked, “Where?”
Lena held the photograph.
“Arkansas.”
Jack nodded.
Nolan didn't.
“If Daniel left that message years ago, the motel could be watched.”
“Then you don't have to come,” Lena said.
Nolan looked at her in the rearview mirror.
“I promised your mother I'd protect you.”
“My mother also told me not to trust you.”
Carlos glanced at Nolan.
“Ouch.”
Nolan almost smiled.
“She was a smart woman.”
Lena looked out the window.
“Then earn my trust.”
“How?”
“No more lies.”
Nolan was quiet.
Finally he said, “There's something Jack hasn't told you.”
Jack stiffened.
“Nolan.”
“No more lies, remember?”
Lena turned.
“What?”
Nolan looked at Jack.
“Tell her why Daniel chose you.”
Jack's jaw tightened.
“Because we were friends.”
“Not good enough.”
“Tom.”
“Tell her.”
Lena stared at Jack.
He finally spoke.
“Before I helped your father, I worked for Vale.”
She felt the air leave the car.
“What did you do?”
“Security.”
Nolan gave a bitter laugh.
“That's the polite version.”
Jack stared forward.
“I intimidated people.”
“Did you kill anyone?”
Silence.
Lena asked again.
“Did you?”
“No.”
She wanted to believe him.
“But you hurt people.”
“Yes.”
“Why did Dad trust you?”
“Because I gave him evidence.”
“Why?”
Jack looked down at his hands.
“Vale ordered something I couldn't live with.”
“What?”
Jack's voice became quieter.
“He ordered surveillance on a twelve-year-old girl.”
Lena understood.
“Me.”
“Yes.”
“I was your assignment?”
“At first.”
The confession hurt in a way she hadn't expected.
Jack continued.
“I watched you leave school. I watched you buy candy with your friends. I photographed your house.”
Lena's eyes filled with disgust.
“Stop.”
“One afternoon you dropped your backpack. Papers went everywhere. I was sitting across the street.”
“Stop.”
“You were alone. I could have taken you.”
Carlos's hands tightened on the steering wheel.
Jack looked directly at Lena.
“But I couldn't.”
“So you became a hero?”
“No. I became a coward who finally stopped being one.”
He gave Daniel everything.
Names.
Accounts.
Safe houses.
Orders.
Daniel used that information to stage his disappearance.
Lena looked at Jack for a long time.
“You were the reason he had to leave.”
“Yes.”
“And the reason he survived.”
Jack didn't answer.
Nolan did.
“Yes.”
Hours later they reached Arkansas.
The motel looked nearly abandoned.
A flickering vacancy sign buzzed above the office.
Room 217 was upstairs.
Lena inserted the key.
It opened.
The room was empty except for a bed, a lamp, and an old television.
Nothing unusual.
Then Lena noticed a picture frame.
A generic landscape.
She removed it.
Behind it was a hole in the wall.
Inside sat a digital recorder.
Lena pressed PLAY.
Static.
Then a man's voice.
Older than she remembered.
But unmistakable.
Her father's.
“Lena, if you're hearing this, then I failed to keep the past away from you.”
She covered her mouth.
Jack lowered his head.
Daniel continued.
“I don't know how old you'll be when you hear my voice. I don't know whether you'll forgive me.”
Lena began crying.
“But there is one thing I need you to know before anything else.”
A pause.
“I never stopped being your father.”
She sat on the bed.
“I watched from a distance because distance kept you alive. Every birthday I wanted to call. Every Christmas I nearly came home.”
His voice broke.
“I was there when you graduated.”
Lena sobbed.
“I was there when your mother died.”
She shut her eyes.
“I stood across the street from the church because I had promised Claire I wouldn't risk your life for my grief.”
Then Daniel's tone changed.
“There is evidence Vale never found.”
Jack looked up.
“Your mother hid it.”
Nolan frowned.
“Where?”
Daniel answered from seventeen years of silence.
“She hid it somewhere nobody would search.”
May you like
A pause.
“In my grave.”
