Chapter 5 - The Blue Book
Daniel’s notebook looked disappointingly ordinary beneath the evidence-room lights.
Natalie had expected it to become more impressive now that people were afraid of it.
Instead, the cover was bent.
Coffee had stained one corner.
A childish bird occupied the bottom of page twelve.
Her husband had drawn that bird during a phone call with their insurance company.
She remembered him turning the notebook toward her afterward.
A visual representation of our coverage.
She had laughed so hard she spilled tea.
Now a financial investigator named Rachel Kim turned the page with gloved hands.
“Your husband was careful.”
Natalie swallowed.
“He was annoying about receipts.”
Rachel smiled briefly.
“That probably helped.”
The notebook did not contain a complete prosecution wrapped in blue cardboard.
It contained references.
Shipment numbers.
Payment dates.
Account fragments.
Names that meant nothing until compared with independent records.
Nora’s documents supplied part of the comparison.
Current banking records supplied more.
A pattern began to emerge.
Legitimate freight contracts had been used to move undeclared weapons through subcontractors.
Profits were diverted through consulting companies.
Victor appeared at several points.
Other names connected him to businesses still operating.
Daniel had discovered the earlier network.
Someone had kept it alive after he disappeared.
“Does this prove what happened to him?” Natalie asked.
Rachel did not pretend.
“Not yet.”
That was becoming the hardest answer.
Not no.
Not yes.
A door left open just enough to keep grief moving.
Outside, Adrian waited with Lydia.
Natalie stopped in front of him.
“What did your father know?”
His face tightened.
“I don’t have a complete answer.”
“What do you think?”
“I think he chose not to know things that protected his income.”
“And you?”
“I did the same with some parts of the business.”
She stared at him.
“Were you involved in the weapons?”
“No.”
“Did you hurt people?”
The corridor became very quiet.
Adrian looked toward Lydia.
She did not rescue him.
“Yes,” he said.
Natalie’s chest tightened.
“Threats. Violence. Years ago, mostly. That distinction doesn’t make it acceptable.”
“Mostly?”
“I’ve kept men on staff because people were afraid of them.”
“Mason?”
“He has used force protecting me. He’s also stopped me from doing things I would have regretted.”
“That isn’t the same as answering.”
“No,” Adrian said. “It isn’t.”
He took a breath.
“I’m arranging a full review with counsel. There may be things I need to disclose that have nothing to do with Daniel.”
Natalie looked at the man Lucy called Apron Man.
The man who had learned where they kept the plates.
The man whose name had helped keep witnesses quiet for ten years.
She could not make one erase the other.
“I need distance.”
He nodded immediately.
“Of course.”
“And you don’t come to the house unless I agree.”
“Understood.”
“No messages through Lucy.”
His expression hurt.
He still answered.
“Understood.”
That night, Lucy asked why he had not come.
Natalie sat beside her.
“Mr. Vale has some things he needs to put right.”
“Did he do something bad?”
“Yes.”
“To us?”
“Not directly. But grown-ups can hurt people by what they ignore, too.”
Lucy thought about that.
“Like when someone gets bullied and everybody pretends they didn’t see?”
Natalie’s throat tightened.
“Yes. Sometimes like that.”
“Is he fixing it?”
“I think he’s trying.”
“Then why can’t he have spaghetti?”
Because I am starting to care about him, Natalie thought.
Because that makes being careful harder.
Instead, she said, “Trying matters. So does giving people time.”
Lucy leaned against her.
“Okay.”
The next morning, Rachel called.
The investigators had identified a retired driver connected to Daniel’s last known movements.
His name was Samuel Price.
For years, he had received monthly payments from one of Victor’s companies.
Recently, those payments stopped.
He had contacted a lawyer.
He was willing to speak.
Natalie gripped the phone.
“Does he know where Daniel is?”
Rachel paused.
“He says he knows where your husband was taken.”
For ten years, Natalie had lived beside a sentence without an ending.
Now someone was finally offering the last words.
May you like
She was not sure she could survive hearing them.
She knew she could not keep living without them.
