Chapter 3 - The Stranger in the Black Raincoat
The FBI brought Harold and Diane Morrison to a secure field office outside Washington before sunrise.
I wanted to sit in the interrogation room.
Mara refused.
For once, I listened.
Not because I trusted the process.
Because I was terrified that if I looked at Diane for another minute, I would lose control.
At 3:46 a.m., I sat in a conference room staring at a photograph of Caleb.
No.
Gabriel Voss.
That was the name Mara insisted belonged to him.
But the photograph in the file looked nothing like the man I knew.
He was twenty-two.
Clean-shaven.
Military-short hair.
Hard eyes.
Underneath:
GABRIEL ALEXANDER VOSS.
The file listed three other known aliases.
None were Caleb Morrison.
“So which one is real?” I asked.
Mara stood by the window.
“We think Gabriel.”
“Think?”
“The birth certificate exists.”
“That doesn’t mean anything anymore.”
“No.”
I rubbed my forehead.
“What did he do?”
“His original work involved secure logistics.”
“That sounds intentionally vague.”
“It is.”
“For who?”
“Government contractors. Overseas operations.”
“And then?”
“He started moving information privately.”
“Selling it?”
“Yes.”
“To criminals?”
“Foreign buyers. Corporations. Sometimes intelligence services.”
I felt sick.
“And you believe he used me to watch you.”
“Yes.”
“Mara, you joined the FBI after Caleb and I were already married.”
“I interned with the Justice Department before that.”
I understood.
“He was waiting.”
“Maybe.”
Nine years.
Waiting.
Watching.
Building a family.
I thought about our first date.
A little Italian restaurant in Alexandria.
Caleb had laughed when the waiter spilled water on him.
Had that laugh been real?
Our wedding day.
Noah’s birth.
The night my mother died.
Caleb had held me for hours.
How much of a person could be a lie before none of him was real anymore?
The door opened.
An agent entered.
“We got something from Diane.”
Mara turned.
“What?”
“She gave us an address.”
My heart jumped.
“Where?”
“An abandoned farm outside Middleburg.”
“Is Noah there?”
“We don’t know.”
“I’m going.”
“Elise—”
“No.”
I stood.
“You already know how this argument ends.”
Forty minutes later, dawn was beginning to brighten the sky.
Rain had become mist.
The farm sat behind a long gravel road bordered by trees.
No vehicles.
No lights.
Agents entered first.
Mara made me stay inside the SUV.
I counted seconds.
One hundred and twelve.
Then Mara appeared.
Her face told me everything.
Noah wasn’t there.
I got out.
“What did they find?”
She hesitated.
“Come inside.”
The farmhouse smelled abandoned.
But one room was clean.
A table.
Two chairs.
A map of Virginia.
Burned documents in a fireplace.
On the table sat Noah’s red rain jacket.
I stopped.
“No.”
Mara caught me.
“He was here.”
I grabbed the jacket.
It was still damp.
Inside one pocket was a toy dinosaur.
Noah carried that dinosaur everywhere.
My hands shook.
Then I noticed something under the table.
A folded piece of notebook paper.
Child’s handwriting.
MOMMY.
I dropped to my knees.
Inside:
Daddy says we are playing a secret travel game. I want to come home. He said you will meet us soon.
Love Noah.
I pressed the paper against my mouth.
“He thinks I’m coming.”
Mara crouched beside me.
“That matters.”
“How?”
“Caleb isn’t frightening him.”
“Yet.”
Mara looked around the room.
“And Caleb expected you to find this.”
I looked at her.
“He left clues.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
An agent called from the hallway.
“Found a camera.”
A tiny security camera was hidden above the doorway.
Connected to a battery pack.
Mara removed the memory card.
Twenty minutes later, we watched the footage.
Caleb entered the farmhouse with Noah.
The stranger in the black raincoat followed.
The same man from my hallway.
Noah sat at the table eating crackers.
Caleb crouched beside him.
“Mommy’s coming later.”
“Promise?”
“I promise.”
My throat tightened.
The stranger stepped closer.
“We need to move.”
Caleb looked annoyed.
“Give him a minute.”
“You’re getting sentimental again.”
Caleb stood.
“Watch your mouth.”
The stranger laughed.
“You spent a decade pretending to be a suburban father. Maybe you forgot what this is.”
Caleb’s expression became dangerous.
“I know exactly what this is.”
The stranger pointed toward Noah.
“Then stop treating the kid like he matters.”
Caleb moved so quickly the camera blurred.
He shoved the man against the wall.
“If you ever talk about my son like that again—”
The stranger smiled.
“There he is.”
Caleb released him.
Noah looked frightened.
Caleb immediately turned.
“It’s okay, buddy.”
The video stopped.
Mara stared at the screen.
“What?”
I asked.
“That man.”
“You recognize him?”
“I think so.”
She pulled out her phone.
After several minutes, she showed me a photograph.
The stranger.
Older image.
Name:
Victor Soren.
Former covert logistics specialist.
Wanted in connection with multiple identity fraud and espionage investigations.
“He worked with Caleb?” I asked.
“Years ago.”
“So why is Caleb with him now?”
“Maybe he has no choice.”
I looked at her.
“You’re defending him?”
“No.”
“Sounds like it.”
“I’m trying to understand what he’s doing.”
Mara replayed the clip.
“Notice something?”
“What?”
“Caleb left this camera.”
“So?”
“He knew we would find it.”
I stared.
“He wants us following.”
“Maybe.”
“Why?”
Mara didn’t answer.
Then an agent rushed inside.
“We intercepted a message.”
“What message?”
“A burner phone registered near Warrenton.”
He handed Mara a printed transcript.
Just one sentence:
BIRD IS MOVING. MOTHER FOLLOWS.
My blood chilled.
“Mother.”
Mara nodded.
“You.”
“Who sent it?”
“Unknown.”
“To who?”
“Unknown.”
Fantastic.
I walked toward the window.
Fields stretched into morning fog.
Somewhere out there was my son.
And the man who had lied to me for almost a decade.
Then my phone rang.
Everyone froze.
My phone had been returned after technicians checked it.
Unknown number.
Mara raised one finger.
“Speaker.”
I answered.
“Hello?”
Static.
Then Caleb.
“Elise.”
My knees weakened.
“Where is Noah?”
“He’s safe.”
“Put him on.”
“Elise—”
“Put my son on the phone.”
A pause.
Then:
“Mommy?”
My eyes filled instantly.
“Noah.”
“Are you coming?”
“Yes.”
Mara shook her head sharply.
I ignored her.
“Yes, sweetheart.”
“Daddy says we have to travel.”
“I know.”
“I don’t like this game.”
“I know, baby.”
Caleb came back.
“That’s enough.”
“Don’t you dare hang up.”
“Elise, listen carefully.”
“I’ve been listening for nine years.”
Silence.
That landed.
“I deserve that.”
“You deserve much worse.”
“Yes.”
“Where are you?”
“I can’t tell you.”
“Then bring Noah home.”
“I can’t.”
“Why?”
“Because the people I was trying to escape know about him.”
“Victor?”
Long pause.
“How do you know that name?”
“Mara.”
Caleb cursed quietly.
“Elise, Victor isn’t the problem.”
“He broke into our house.”
“No. He walked in because I let him.”
“That isn’t better.”
“I know.”
“Who is the problem?”
Caleb went silent.
Then he said something I didn’t expect.
“Mara’s boss.”
I looked at my sister.
Her face changed.
“What?”
Caleb continued.
“Deputy Director Nathan Crowe.”
Mara grabbed the phone.
“You’re lying.”
Caleb laughed once.
“No, Mara. That’s what you’ve been wrong about from the beginning.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Crowe has been feeding your task force bad intelligence for four years.”
Mara went still.
“He’s why I disappeared thirteen years ago.”
“That’s impossible.”
“Is it?”
The line crackled.
Caleb spoke faster.
“Elise, I need you to remember the day we met.”
“What?”
“The bookstore.”
“Yes.”
“What book were you holding?”
My mind raced.
A travel guide.
“Italy.”
“What city?”
“Florence.”
“No.”
I frowned.
“It was Florence.”
“No. Look inside the book.”
“What?”
“I bought it for you afterward. It’s still in our house.”
Mara was already signaling an agent.
Caleb whispered:
“Page 214.”
Then the line went dead.
We returned home.
Agents found the travel guide on a shelf in my office.
Page 214.
Inside the spine was a thin memory card.
My hands became ice.
Mara inserted it into an isolated laptop.
A folder appeared.
CROWE.
Hundreds of files.
Bank transfers.
Encrypted messages.
Photographs.
Government documents.
Mara stared at the screen.
“Oh my God.”
“What?”
She opened one photograph.
Deputy Director Nathan Crowe stood beside Victor Soren.
Date: eleven years earlier.
Another image.
Crowe with Harold Morrison.
Another.
Diane.
Another.
Caleb.
Mara whispered:
“They all know each other.”
The truth suddenly became uglier than betrayal.
Caleb hadn’t simply been running from the FBI.
Someone inside the FBI had been part of the network all along.
Then Mara opened one final file.
A scheduled message.
Recorded yesterday.
Caleb appeared on screen.
“If Elise is watching this, then Crowe has already moved.”
He looked exhausted.
“I have Noah because Crowe ordered Victor to take him. I got there first.”
I stopped breathing.
Caleb continued.
“If I bring Noah to the FBI, Crowe gets him.”
Mara stared.
Caleb looked directly into the camera.
“Mara, if you want your nephew alive, trust no one above you.”
May you like
The recording ended.
And for the first time since midnight, I realized the man I was chasing might also be running from the same people trying to find him.
