"Who could that be?"
Daniel didn't answer.
He was thinking about the people who had known Thomas.
And one name suddenly came to mind.
"Your department has an old personnel file."
Harris frowned.
"Whose?"
Daniel looked at him.
"Thomas's partner."
Her name was Evelyn Carter.
In 1988, she had been a young officer assigned to work with Thomas.
She was the last person officially recorded as seeing him.
But Evelyn had disappeared from Bellwood shortly afterward.
Harris searched old records.
He found her.
She was alive.
Living in another state.
Harris called her.
She didn't answer.
He called again.
Nothing.
Then Daniel tried.
He left a message.
"This is Daniel Mercer. Thomas's brother."
Evelyn called back thirty minutes later.
Her voice was old.
But steady.
"I wondered when someone would come looking."
Daniel sat down.
"You knew?"
"I always knew."
"Did Thomas die?"
Silence.
"I don't know."
Daniel closed his eyes.
"Then what happened?"
Evelyn took a long breath.
"Thomas discovered the corruption inside the department. But he also discovered something bigger."
"What?"
"People were being protected."
"Who?"
"People with money."
Evelyn explained that Thomas had gathered evidence.
He planned to expose everyone.
But someone inside the department learned about his investigation.
Thomas was warned.
He refused to stop.
The night before he disappeared, Thomas met Evelyn.
"He gave me something," she said.
"What?"
"A photograph."
"Do you still have it?"
"Yes."
"Where?"
Evelyn gave them an address.
Before hanging up, she said:
"Daniel?"
"Yes?"
"Your brother trusted you."
Daniel swallowed.
"Why?"
"Because he knew you would never stop looking."
Evelyn lived in a quiet town two hours away.
She was eighty now.
When Daniel arrived, she opened the door herself.
For several seconds, the two simply looked at each other.
Then Evelyn whispered:
"You have his eyes."