Chapter 36 - The List of Names
The hidden code took federal analysts forty-eight hours to partially decode.
Those forty-eight hours felt like four months.
We moved into a hotel under temporary security.
Elaine complained about everything.
“The coffee is weak.”
“Mom.”
“The pillows are insulting.”
“Mom.”
“And why does every hotel room have lighting designed for interrogation?”
Nick looked at me.
“Please make her stop.”
“I’m not suicidal.”
Nora stayed with us.
Caleb worked remotely.
Baby Anna became the calmest person in the building.
On the third morning, Agent Cho arrived carrying a folder.
“We decoded enough to understand what Marcus hid.”
Nick sat forward.
“A wallet?”
“Yes.”
“How much?”
“Approximately 2.7 million dollars at current value.”
Caleb whistled.
Nora looked sick.
“That money belongs to victims.”
“Likely.”
“But Marcus said the names mattered more.”
Agent Cho nodded.
“He was right.”
She opened the folder.
Inside were twenty-seven names.
Some I recognized from news coverage decades earlier.
Others meant nothing.
Then Nick touched one.
“Melissa Grant?”
My stomach dropped.
Melissa.
The woman who had hired Nick after his firing.
The boss who gave him a second career.
The person who later helped him build fraud-prevention programs.
“Why is Melissa on the list?” I asked.
Agent Cho turned the page.
“She transferred money to one of Voss’s shell companies twenty-nine years ago.”
Nick stared.
“No.”
“Forty thousand dollars.”
“She never told me.”
“It may not mean what you think.”
Nick stood.
“She knew about Marcus. She knew what happened to me.”
“She may have been a victim.”
“Then why hide it?”
I touched his arm.
“Sound familiar?”
He stopped.
That hurt him.
Good.
Sometimes the truth should.
Agent Cho continued.
“There are other names. Bank executives. Accountants. Attorneys. Several people connected to early cryptocurrency exchanges.”
“Accomplices?” Caleb asked.
“Some appear to be.”
“And Melissa?”
“Unknown.”
Nick immediately called her.
No answer.
Again.
No answer.
He left a message.
“Melissa, it’s Nick. Please call me.”
Ten minutes later, her husband called.
Melissa was missing.
She had left for work the previous morning and never arrived.
Her car was found at a grocery-store parking lot.
Her purse was inside.
Her phone was gone.
Nick turned white.
“This is because of the list.”
Agent Cho was already moving.
“Do not assume that.”
But everyone did.
By evening, Melissa’s disappearance hit local news.
Nick sat alone beside the hotel window.
I joined him.
“She saved me.”
“She hired you.”
“She gave me dignity when nobody else wanted the headline attached to my name.”
“You earned the job.”
“She took the chance.”
He stared at the city.
“What if she helped Voss?”
“Then we deal with that truth.”
“And if she was another victim?”
“Then we help her.”
He gave me a bitter smile.
“You make everything sound simple.”
“No. I make it sound survivable.”
His phone rang.
Unknown number.
Everyone froze.
Agent Cho motioned for silence.
Nick answered.
“Hello?”
A woman whispered.
“Nick.”
Melissa.
He stood.
“Where are you?”
“I don't know.”
Agent Cho began tracing.
Melissa was crying.
“He took me.”
“Leon?”
“Yes.”
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“Where?”
“I said I don't know.”
Her voice trembled.
“He wants the letters.”
Nick looked at Agent Cho.
“What does he want with you?”
“Because I know what the names mean.”
Agent Cho leaned closer.
Nick asked, “What do they mean?”
Melissa began crying harder.
“They're not just victims.”
“What are they?”
“A network.”
“What network?”
“The people who helped Leon hide the money.”
My skin went cold.
Melissa continued.
“I paid him once.”
Nick closed his eyes.
“Why?”
“Because I was stupid.”
“That doesn't explain forty thousand dollars.”
“It wasn't an investment.”
“What was it?”
A long pause.
Then Melissa whispered:
“I bought my brother’s silence.”
Nick looked confused.
“What?”
“My brother worked for Leon.”
The call abruptly ended.
Agent Cho shouted instructions.
Technicians traced the signal.
Less than thirty seconds.
But enough.
Industrial district.
South Des Moines.
Nick reached for his coat.
Agent Cho blocked him.
“No.”
“Melissa is there.”
“Which is exactly why you stay here.”
“I can help.”
“You can help by not becoming leverage.”
Nick froze.
The old version of him would have argued.
Would have run.
Would have tried to fix.
Instead, he slowly removed his hand from the coat.
“Bring her home.”
Agent Cho nodded.
“We’ll try.”
Three hours later, the hotel hallway erupted with movement.
Nick stood.
I grabbed his hand.
Agent Cho appeared.
Her coat was wet.
Her face exhausted.
“Melissa is alive.”
Nick sagged against the wall.
“And Leon?”
“Gone.”
Of course.
But for the first time, he had left evidence behind.
Blood.
Fingerprints.
And one handwritten message painted across a warehouse wall.
THE KELLERS STILL OWE ME.
Nick stared at the photograph.
Then quietly said:
May you like
“No.
We don't.”
