Chapter 7: The Last Move Marcus Made
I didn't respond.
I forwarded it to Agent Reyes before Daniel had crossed the kitchen to read it over my shoulder.
"Don't touch it," I said.
"Don't reply.
Don't call him back."
"I know."
"Does he have my number because he has your phone, or because he found it another way?"
Daniel's face had gone tight.
"My work contacts are synced to the company server.
If he still has admin access to the system—"
"He pulled my number from your work profile."
"Yes."
I called Agent Reyes.
She picked up on the first ring.
"I saw it," she said.
"We're moving the timeline up."
"How far up?"
"Tonight, if the judge signs by four o'clock."
"What do we do until then?"
"Nothing that looks different from any other day.
Is Lily at school?"
"Yes."
"Keep her there.
Go about your morning.
If Marcus or anyone contacts you again, forward it and do not respond.
Do you understand?"
"Yes."
"Claire." Her voice was steady.
"You've done everything right.
Let us finish it."
She hung up.
Daniel was standing in the middle of the kitchen.
He looked like a man who had been holding a wall up for eleven weeks and could feel his arms starting to give.
"It's almost over," I said.
"I know."
"Sit down."
He sat.
I made coffee.
Real coffee, the first cup I'd actually finished in two days.
I set one in front of him and kept one for myself and sat across from him at the kitchen table.
"Tell me something I don't know," I said.
"About Marcus.
Who he actually is."
Daniel wrapped both hands around the mug.
"He started the same way I did," he said.
"Regional freight, mid-level accounts, working his way up.
He was good at it.
Better than me, honestly, at the relationship side.
Clients liked him.
He remembered things — kids' names, anniversaries, what sports teams people followed." He paused.
"Somewhere along the way he started taking on clients he shouldn't have.
I don't know if it was debt or greed or someone who made him an offer he didn't know how to refuse.
But by the time I found those invoices, he'd been running the shell operation for at least two years."
"Did he know you'd found it?"
"Not immediately.
I was careful.
But three weeks ago, Agent Reyes told me he'd started asking questions internally about who had accessed the billing archive in October.
That's when I knew he was closing in."
"And this morning he contacted me directly."
"He's trying to find the edge of what I know.
If he can talk to you, he thinks he can read how much I've told you, which tells him how much I know."
"He thinks I'm the weak point," I said.
"He thinks most spouses are."
I looked at my coffee.
"He's not entirely wrong about most situations," I said.
"But he picked the wrong household."
Daniel looked at me across the table.
Something in his face loosened slightly.
Not a smile.
More like a man remembering why he married someone.
At 2:17 p.m., Agent Reyes sent a single text to Daniel's phone.
*Signed.*
At 4:45 p.m., I was in the school pickup line when my phone rang.
Unknown number.
Not the same burner as before.
A different one.
I let it ring.
It rang again immediately.
I let it ring again.
A voicemail appeared.
I forwarded the notification to Agent Reyes without listening to it and kept my eyes on the school doors.
Lily came out at 4:52, backpack bouncing, holding a drawing she'd made of our family.
She held it up through the car window before she even opened the door.
"That's you," she said, pointing to a yellow figure.
"And that's Daddy.
And that's me.
And that's our house."
"I can see that," I said.
"It's beautiful."
She climbed in and buckled herself.
"Is Daddy home?"
"He will be soon."
She accepted this completely, the way she always did, and started telling me about something that had happened at recess involving a disputed jump rope rule and a girl named Priya who was very fast.
I drove home listening to her talk.
At 6:08 p.m., Agent Reyes called.
"It's done," she said.
"Marcus Hale was taken into custody forty minutes ago at his office.
The Columbus address was executed simultaneously.
Three additional individuals were detained."
I pulled into the driveway and put the car in park.
"Was anyone h*rt?"
"No.
It went smoothly."
Lily was already unbuckling in the back seat, still talking about Priya and the jump rope.
"Thank you," I said.
"Thank Daniel," Agent Reyes said.
"He did something genuinely difficult for a long time.
Most people don't."
She hung up.
I sat in the driveway for a moment.
The same driveway where I'd crouched behind the car thirty-six hours ago holding a paper towel and a piece of evidence I didn't understand.
"Mommy," Lily said from the back seat.
"Are we getting out?"
May you like
"Yes," I said.
"We're getting out."
