Walter felt grief and anger collide.
“I was at the pharmacy.”
“Yes.”
“You were in this house.”
“Yes.”
“And you didn’t wait for me.”
Michael’s eyes filled.
“I couldn’t.”
Walter looked away.
“She knew she was saying goodbye.”
“Yes.”
Walter’s throat tightened.
“What did she tell you?”
Michael smiled faintly.
“She said you’d forgive me eventually.”
Walter laughed once.
“She overestimated me.”
“No. She knew you.”
Walter looked at the dark kitchen window.
Then Michael said something strange.
“She also told me the camera would matter.”
Walter turned.
“What?”
Michael stared at him.
“The dash camera.”
Walter felt a chill.
“The one Daniel installed?”
Michael shook his head.
“No.”
Walter frowned.
“There was only one.”
“No.”
Michael reached into his coat.
He placed a small black device on the table.
Walter stared.
A memory card.
Michael said, “Daniel’s camera wasn’t the only camera in your car.”
Walter’s heart began pounding.
“What are you talking about?”
“Mom installed another one.”
Walter stared.
Michael continued.
“She didn’t trust Daniel even after he turned.”
Walter’s mouth went dry.
“Where?”
“Behind the rear interior light.”
Walter remembered the tiny housing.
He had assumed it was part of the alarm system.
Michael pushed the memory card toward him.
“She had it installed two months before she died.”
“Why?”
“To record anyone who accessed your car.”
Walter looked at the card.
“She thought somebody might search it.”
“Yes.”
“Did they?”
Michael’s expression became serious.
“Dad.”
Walter waited.
Michael said, “The card wasn’t empty.”
The hidden camera had recorded the inside of Walter’s car for nearly two years.
Most of the footage was useless.
Walter driving.
Groceries.
Church.
Rain.
Coffee.
But motion detection captured anyone entering the vehicle while Walter was absent.
Reyes appeared four times.
Twice for legitimate reasons.
Once to install the visible dash camera.
Once six months later.
That second visit lasted nine minutes.
He opened the camera housing.
Changed something.
Then left.
But there was another visitor.
A woman.
Walter stared at the screen.
He recognized her immediately.
Elaine Mercer.
The state investigator.
The woman who had apologized in the feed-store parking lot.
The woman who had helped arrest Pike.
The woman who had sat in his kitchen.
The footage was dated seven months before the traffic stop.
Mercer entered Walter’s unlocked garage.
Opened his sedan.
Removed the dash camera’s memory card.
Copied it using a laptop.
Returned it.
Then attached a small device beneath the dashboard.
Walter stared.
“What is that?”
Michael’s face was grim.
“A transmitter.”
Walter looked at him.
“For Pike?”
“We don’t know.”
Walter’s blood went cold.
“Mercer was working with Pike?”
Michael shook his head.
“That’s what we assumed at first.”
“What do you mean at first?”
Michael opened another video.
Three months later.
Mercer returned.
This time she removed the transmitter.
Then she sat inside Walter’s car.
Alone.
For six minutes.
She appeared to be crying.
Then she took something from her coat.
A photograph.
She placed it against the steering wheel.
The hidden camera captured it.
Walter leaned closer.
The image was blurry.
Michael enlarged it.
A young man in military uniform.
Walter stared.
He knew the face.
Not personally.
From an old photograph in Daniel Reyes’s home.
Luis Reyes.
Daniel’s brother.
The man whose stolen twelve hundred dollars supposedly pushed Reyes toward the investigation.
Walter whispered, “Why does Mercer have a picture of Luis?”
Michael looked at him.
“Because Luis Reyes wasn’t Daniel’s brother.”
Walter turned.
“What?”
Michael spoke slowly.
“Luis Reyes was Elaine Mercer’s father.”
Walter stared.
Impossible.
Michael continued.
“Daniel Reyes isn’t Daniel Reyes.”
The room became silent.
Walter could hear the refrigerator again.
Always the refrigerator when his world changed.
“Who is he?”
Michael looked at the memory card.
“His real name is Daniel Mercer.”
Walter’s heart slammed against his ribs.
“Mercer.”
Michael nodded.
“Elaine’s older brother.”
Walter stood so quickly his chair scraped backward.
“No.”
“It’s true.”
“No.”
“Dad—”
“Daniel told me his brother died.”
“He did.”
Walter froze.
Michael continued.
“There was a Luis Reyes. Daniel used the identity after Luis died.”
“Why?”
“To infiltrate Pike’s network.”
Walter stared.
Michael shook his head.
“Not for the state.”
“Then who?”
Michael’s answer was almost a whisper.
“For their father.”
Walter looked again at Elaine crying inside his car.
The photograph.
The transmitter.
The camera.
Pieces rearranged themselves one final time.
“Who was their father?”
Michael leaned forward.
“Luis Mercer was a state narcotics investigator.”
Walter felt the air leave the room.
“Was?”
“Twenty years ago, he discovered that a young deputy named Raymond Pike was protecting a drug pipeline.”
Walter said nothing.
“Luis Mercer tried to expose him.”
Michael paused.
“He died in a car accident three days before he was supposed to testify.”
Walter closed his eyes.
Not an accident.
He knew before Michael said it.
“Pike killed him?”
“We believe Pike arranged it.”
Walter opened his eyes.
“So Daniel and Elaine…”
“Spent most of their adult lives building a case.”
Walter looked at the hidden camera footage.
“And me?”
Michael’s voice softened.
“You became part of it because of me.”
Walter sank into the chair.
Everything had begun decades earlier.
Before Cole.
Before Michael.
Before the three thousand dollars.
Before Walter had ever met Reyes.
A murdered investigator.
Two children.
A corrupt deputy who became sheriff.
A son who joined the same department.
A mother who protected a key.
An old veteran with a cup of coffee.
Layers upon layers.