Chương 5
“Our mother still thinks you got divorced because Garrett cheated.”
“That story keeps her from calling him.”
Maya was quiet.
Then: “Are you alone?”
Elena looked at Lucian.
“No.”
Maya’s tone changed.
“Who is there?”
“A patient.”
“At three in the morning?”
“Maya.”
“Right. Not asking.”
“Thank you.”
“I am absolutely asking later.”
Elena almost smiled.
“I know.”
“If you need me to come—”
“No.”
“El—”
“No. Stay with the kids.”
Another silence.
This one hurt.
Maya said softly, “Okay.”
Elena ended the call.
Lucian looked away first.
“You have a sister.”
“You have ears.”
“She knows about him.”
“Some.”
“Not everything.”
Elena’s voice cooled.
“You don’t get everything either.”
Lucian nodded.
“Understood.”
She opened the cash envelope.
“What can we buy with this that won’t get us arrested faster?”
“A motel.”
“Too traceable if Garrett has my face.”
“A different car.”
“With forty-eight hundred dollars?”
“I know people.”
“You don’t know which ones are trying to kill you.”
He had no answer.
Elena took the burner phone Garrett had planted and placed it on the concrete.
“Can this be tracked?”
“Yes.”
“Even powered off?”
“Depends on what’s inside.”
“You know electronics?”
“I know people who do.”
“Trusted people?”
He gave her a tired look.
“Currently under review.”
She removed the battery.
Then she wrapped the phone in aluminum foil from an emergency cooking kit and put it inside an empty paint can.
Lucian watched.
“You’ve done this before?”
“No.”
“Where did you learn that?”
“The internet.”
He considered that.
“Terrifying.”
At 3:40 a.m., Lucian called one person.
He did not use names.
He said, “I need to know if the north warehouse is active.”
The voice on the other end answered too quickly.
Lucian hung up.
Elena stared at him.
“What?”
“He said yes.”
“And?”
“The north warehouse burned eighteen months ago.”
She sat very still.
“So that person is compromised.”
“Yes.”
“You called expecting a lie.”
“I called hoping for one.”
“Why?”
“Because now I know.”
“That is possibly the most expensive way to maintain friendships I’ve ever seen.”
Lucian set the phone down.
“My turn.”
“What?”
“You call someone who knew Garrett.”
“No.”
“We need information.”
“I need you alive enough not to collapse into my emergency supplies.”
“We need both.”
Elena folded her arms.
Lucian did not push.
That was worse.
She stared at the floor.
A small dark spot had appeared where rainwater dripped from his borrowed sweatpants.
“You really look ridiculous.”
“I’m aware.”
“Good.”
Five minutes later she called a man named Thomas Reed.
Reed had been Garrett’s patrol partner for three years.
He had also been the only officer Elena remembered standing in her kitchen once, looking at a purple bruise on her wrist, then looking at Garrett and choosing silence.
Elena had hated him almost as much as Garrett.
She still had his number because hatred preserved strange things.
The number remained active.
A sleep-thick voice answered.
“Hello?”
“Reed.”
Silence.
Long enough to identify her.
“Jesus.”
“Not quite.”
“Elena?”
“Yes.”
He breathed twice into the phone.
“Where are you?”
“That was fast.”
“I mean—where have you been?”
“Far away.”
“You shouldn’t call me.”
“Why?”
Another silence.
Lucian watched her expression.
Reed said, “Garrett left the department.”
“When?”
“Two years ago.”
That surprised her.
“Voluntarily?”
“No.”
“What happened?”
“I’m not discussing this.”
Elena almost disconnected.
Then Reed said, “Wait.”
She waited.
“He got caught accessing restricted databases.”
Her mouth went dry.
“What databases?”
“You know what kind.”
“Say it.”
“Address histories. DMV. Incident reports. Protective-order records.”
Elena stood.
Lucian’s posture changed.
“Mine?”
“I don’t know.”
“You know.”
“No, Elena, I genuinely do not. Internal Affairs locked half of us out during the investigation.”
“Was he prosecuted?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because the department wanted him gone more than they wanted a scandal.”
Elena laughed once.
No humor.
“Of course.”
“Listen to me. He blamed you.”
“For what?”
“For everything after.”
“I hadn’t seen him in five years.”
“I know.”
“You let him say that?”
Reed snapped, “What exactly do you want from me?”
There it was.
Self-protection.
Even now.
Elena felt something in her chest settle.
Not heal.
Settle.
She had spent years imagining the people around Garrett as terrified witnesses to something too powerful to stop.
Maybe some had been.
Reed had also simply been a coward.
Both things could be true.
“I want to know who he works for.”
Reed said nothing.
Elena waited.
Finally he said, “Private security. Mostly.”
“Mostly?”
“Debt collection. Investigations. Skip tracing. Whatever pays.”
“Company?”
“He’s bounced around.”
“Last one.”
“I don’t know.”
“Thomas.”
“Don’t call me that like we’re friends.”
“We aren’t.”
That landed.
Reed breathed out.
“Dane Risk Solutions.”
Garrett had named the company after himself.
Of course he had.
“Address?”
“I don’t have it.”
“You’re lying.”
“Yes.”
The admission startled her.
Reed continued, quieter, “Because if I give you anything and he finds out, I have a wife.”
“So did I.”
“I know.”
“No. You watched. That isn’t the same as knowing.”
Lucian looked away.
Reed’s voice dropped.
“I was afraid of him.”
Elena said, “So was I.”
“I know.”
“No. You don’t get to say that either.”
She ended the call.
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Then Lucian said, “You got the company name.”
Elena stared at the phone.
“Yes.”
“He gave you something.”
“He gave me the minimum amount necessary to feel better about himself.”
“You sound angry.”
“I am.”
“At him or yourself?”
Elena looked up.
Lucian immediately said, “That was too far.”
“Yes.”
“I apologize.”
It was the first apology she had heard in years that arrived without explanation attached.
She hated him a little for that too.
They searched the company from the storage facility’s ancient desktop terminal in the front office, where a sleepy attendant watched a basketball replay and barely noticed them.
Dane Risk Solutions had no current website.
State corporate records listed Garrett as registered agent.
May you like
The mailing address led to a commercial building on Harbor Avenue.
More interesting was an old cached employment listing describing investigative support for “corporate loss prevention, legal recovery, executive protection, and high-risk asset location.”
