“Why?”
The smile disappeared.
“Not yet.”
“Not yet?”
“Mara.”
“She's safe.”
“Where?”
“With June.”
Elias relaxed slightly.
Kuda leaned forward.
“Who stabbed you?”
Silence.
“Elias.”
“Voss.”
The name struck an old nerve.
Adrian Voss.
Former military contractor. Founder of Voss Strategic Services. Connected to half a dozen investigations, convicted of nothing.
His company had provided security at the auction operation Daniel Sutter exposed.
Kuda had suspected him after Eylian.
Suspicion was all anyone ever had.
“You've been hiding from Voss for twelve years?”
“Not just him.”
“Then who?”
Elias looked toward the door.
“Everyone.”
Kuda's anger finally surfaced.
“You let us bury you.”
“I know.”
“You let your mother die thinking her son was dead.”
Pain crossed Elias's face.
“I know.”
“You let me stand over an empty grave every year.”
“I know.”
Kuda stood abruptly.
“Then explain it.”
Elias closed his eyes.
“When they took me after Eylian, they knew everything.”
“Who took you?”
“Voss's people.”
“They knew your name?”
“Names. Addresses. Your daughter's school. Ghost's ex-wife. June's house. Everything.”
Kuda slowly sat again.
Elias continued.
“They wanted the original ledger Sutter made.”
“What ledger?”
“The records. Payments. VINs. names. Officers on payroll. Voss thought Sutter gave it to me.”
“Did he?”
Elias opened his eyes.
“Yes.”
Kuda stared.
“I hid it before they caught me.”
“Where?”
“I'll tell you when Mara's somewhere nobody can reach.”
Kuda leaned closer.
“You think she's in danger?”
“I know she is.”
“Why come back here?”
“I didn't plan to.”
Elias's breathing became labored.
“Lena died eight months ago.”
“Mara's mother?”
He nodded.
“Cancer. After that, it was just us. I kept moving. Arizona, Utah, Idaho. Never stayed anywhere long.”
“And Voss found you.”
“Three weeks ago.”
“How?”
“I don't know.”
Elias looked toward the window.
“I thought I lost them outside Tonopah. Two nights ago, one of them found me at a gas station.”
His hand moved weakly toward the wound.
“I got Mara out. Made it to Red Rock because I knew about the veterans' ride.”
Kuda understood.
“You knew we'd be there.”
“I hoped.”
“Why didn't you come yourself?”
“I was afraid they'd be watching the fairground.”
“All watched,” Kuda murmured.
Elias looked at him.
“Now you understand.”
The words written twelve years earlier had never been poetry.
They had been a warning.
Every road.
Every contact.
Every familiar place.
Watched.
Kuda's anger didn't disappear.
But it changed shape.
“You should have trusted me.”
“I trusted you enough to stay away.”
“That isn't trust.”
“It is when coming home gets your family killed.”
Kuda had no answer.
A nurse knocked.
“Time.”
Kuda stood.
Elias caught his wrist.
“The vest.”
“I've got it.”
“Inside lining. Left side. There's a second key.”
Kuda frowned.
“For what?”
Elias's eyes began closing.
“The thing that proves I didn't disappear for nothing.”
They found the second key sewn into the vest exactly where Elias said.
It was tiny, silver, and stamped with the number 214.
Ghost turned it over.
“Safe-deposit box?”
“Too small.”
“Bus station locker?”
“Maybe.”
Kuda looked at the brass key Mara had carried.
Two keys.
Two pieces of a puzzle.
Before he could investigate further, a dark blue sedan entered the hospital parking lot.
It drove past once.
Then again.
Ghost noticed it first.
“Same car?”
Kuda watched from the window.