Daniel had no idea what ledger the writer meant.
But he knew where to start.
He returned to Bellwood.
He hadn't lived there for years.
Yet the moment he arrived, memories returned.
The old diner.
The courthouse.
The police station.
The street where Thomas had once bought coffee every morning.
Everything looked smaller.
Older.
But Daniel felt something else.
Someone was watching him.
On his second day in town, an unfamiliar car followed him.
On the third day, someone entered his motel room.
Nothing was stolen.
Nothing was disturbed.
Except one thing.
The old photograph of Thomas was no longer on the nightstand.
Someone had moved it.
Daniel knew then that the past wasn't dead.
It had simply been waiting.
Michael Harris had joined the Bellwood Police Department twenty years after Thomas Mercer disappeared.
He had heard the story.
Everyone had.
But he had never taken it seriously.
Thomas Mercer was a name in an old file.
A photograph in a cabinet.
A mystery that belonged to another generation.
Until Daniel showed him the badge.
Harris couldn't stop thinking about it.
That night, he returned to the station.
He opened the old case file.
The folder was thin.
Far too thin.
Harris read every page.
Then he noticed something.
The original evidence log was missing.
He searched the archive.
Nothing.
He checked the digital records.
Nothing.
Then he remembered an old storage room in the basement.
The door was locked.
Harris found the key.
Inside were boxes covered in dust.
He searched for Thomas Mercer.
Box after box.
Nothing.
Finally, he found an old brown envelope.
On the front were three words:
MERCER — 1988.
Harris opened it.
Inside was a photocopy.
A handwritten note was attached.
The handwriting was unmistakably old.
If anyone ever asks why Officer Mercer disappeared, check the names on the ledger.
Harris stared at the page.
Then he noticed another detail.
A signature.
Captain Richard Vale.
Harris knew the name.
Vale had been one of the most respected officers in Bellwood.
He had later become police chief.
He had died twelve years earlier.
Harris sat back.
For the first time, he wondered whether the story he'd been told about Thomas Mercer was a lie.
The next morning, Harris returned to the road where he had stopped Daniel.