Chapter 7: What Rennie Knew
Carla's voice was different when she called.
Quieter.
The way a person gets quiet when they are holding something heavier than they expected.
"The folder is real," she said.
"And Cole — it's not thin.
This woman kept records for three years.
Dates, locations, vehicle descriptions, names.
She wrote down everything she saw and everything she was told and everything she figured out on her own." A pause.
"She's smart.
She documented it like someone who knew one day she'd need it to save her life."
"Or her daughter's life."
"Yes." Carla paused again.
"There are twelve names in here.
Four of them I recognize from federal watch lists.
One of them is a sitting city councilman in—"
"Don't say it on the phone."
"Right.
Sorry." He could hear her turning pages.
"There are also photographs.
She must have used a disposable camera — old school, printed and physical.
Locations, vehicles, faces.
Some of the faces match names on the list."
"Is it enough?"
"For the Chicago case?
Cole, this doesn't just help their case.
This is their case.
This is everything they've been trying to build for four years sitting in a blue folder in a storage unit."
Cole sat down on Rudy's porch step.
The lights at the end of the road were still there.
Decker's truck, the SUV, the van.
Waiting.
"Who do you know at the Chicago field office?" he asked.
"I know the lead agent on the active inquiry.
We've crossed paths twice.
She's good."
"Can you reach her tonight?"
"It's two in the morning."
"Carla."
"Yes," she said.
"I can reach her tonight."
"Tell her what you found.
Tell her there's a man named Warren Fitch parked at the end of a road in—" He gave the county.
"Tell her he has vehicles and men and he is planning to take a child at six in the morning using a coerced document.
Tell her if she wants what's in that folder, she needs to move before dawn."
Silence.
"Cole, if I make this call, it becomes federal.
It goes places neither of us controls after that."
"Good," he said.
"That's exactly where I want it to go."
Another pause.
Then: "All right.
Give me thirty minutes."
He sat on the porch step and watched the lights.
Priest came out and sat beside him without being asked.
They didn't speak for a while.
"You going to tell me what's happening?" Priest said eventually.
"Rennie kept records on Decker's operation.
Three years of documentation.
Carla has it.
She's calling federal agents right now."
Priest absorbed this.
"And the girl?"
"Lila is mine," Cole said.
It was the first time he had said it out loud to anyone.
The words felt strange and solid at the same time, like something that had always been true and had only just been named.
"Rennie's letter makes it clear.
I'll get a DNA test to make it legal, but I already know."
Priest was quiet for a moment.
"She's got your chin," he said.
Cole almost laughed.
It came out wrong — too rough, too close to something else.
He pressed his fist against his mouth for a second and looked at the sky.
"Yeah," he said.
"She does."
At four-forty in the morning, Carla called back.
"The agent's name is Sandra Okafor," she said.
"She's been running the Fitch inquiry for two years.
When I told her about the folder she went very quiet and then she said, and I'm quoting directly: *Tell me you have the physical documents in your hands right now.* I told her yes.
She said she'd have a team at your location by five-thirty and at the storage unit within the hour."
"She's moving that fast?"
"Cole, she's been trying to build this case for two years with almost nothing.
I just handed her everything." A pause.
"She also said — and this part is for you specifically — she said the coerced document Fitch used on the girl's mother is worthless the moment the coercion is established.
She said don't let him take the child.
She said she'll handle the rest."
Cole stood up.
"Tell her we'll be here."
He went inside and up the stairs.
He knocked softly on Lila's door.
June opened it.
Lila was awake, sitting up, the bracelet still in her hand.
"Something's happening," Lila said.
It wasn't a question.
"Yes," Cole said.
"Good things.
But I need you to stay up here with June for a little longer.
Can you do that?"
She looked at him with those eyes — his eyes, Rennie's face, something entirely her own underneath both.
"Is my mom going to be okay?" she asked.
"I'm going to make sure of it," he said.
"I promised."
She nodded.
She lay back down.
June pulled the blanket up.
Cole went back downstairs.
At five-seventeen, the lights at the end of Rudy's road were joined by four more sets of headlights coming from the opposite direction.
Federal plates.
At the truck, Decker's door opened.
He stepped out and looked at the vehicles coming toward him.
May you like
For the first time, his face did something Cole had never seen it do before.
It went uncertain.
