"That's my job."
Reed smiled.
"You should be careful."
Daniel stepped closer.
"Is that a threat?"
"No."
Reed leaned toward him.
"Advice."
Daniel stared at him.
Then said:
"Here's some advice for you."
Reed waited.
"Tell the truth before someone else tells it for you."
Daniel walked away.
He didn't see Reed's expression.
But Reed understood.
The game was ending.
Investigators returned to the highway.
They searched the exact location where Daniel had been arrested.
After several hours, they found something.
A small piece of metal.
Not the missing badge.
Something else.
A broken clasp.
It belonged to an old badge holder.
Then another investigator found a small patch of disturbed gravel.
Underneath it was a shallow metal container.
Inside:
Documents.
Photographs.
And a handwritten notebook.
Daniel immediately recognized the handwriting.
Marcus Vale.
He was alive.
Or at least, he had been alive when the notebook was written.
The notebook contained dates.
Names.
Payments.
Locations.
And one final entry.
"If I disappear, look beneath the old bridge."
Daniel remembered the highway.
The old bridge was less than a mile from where he had been stopped.
Investigators searched beneath it.
They found an abandoned maintenance room.
Inside was a chair.
A table.
A blanket.
Empty food containers.
And photographs.
Someone had been living there.
Recently.
Then they found another clue.
A fingerprint.
The laboratory processed it.
The result came back the next morning.
Marcus Vale.
Daniel stared at the report.
Elena covered her mouth.
For twelve years, everyone had assumed her father was gone.
But the evidence suggested otherwise.
He had been hiding.
And someone had been helping him.
The question was:
Who?
Then Daniel noticed a photograph.
It showed Marcus standing beside a young police officer.
The officer was Daniel's father.
Daniel looked at Elena.
"Our fathers knew."
She nodded.
"They must have."
Daniel understood.
His father had known Marcus was alive.