Then Daniel disappeared.
Three days later, Ray received the silver ring in the mail.
There was no note.
No explanation.
Only the ring.
Ray had kept it.
He had worn it for fifteen years because it was the last thing he had from his brother.
Now he understood why Daniel Bennett had written about it.
"Did you know your brother worked with Thomas Bennett?" Mason asked.
Ray nodded.
"Eventually."
"When?"
"After the quarry accident."
Mason stared.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because I didn't know whether my brother was alive."
Ray looked at Leah.
"Your brother's letter suggests he knew Daniel."
Leah nodded.
"Maybe they were working together."
Ray shook his head.
"Or maybe one of them was investigating the other."
Mason looked toward the storage room entrance.
A sound came from outside.
A vehicle door closing.
They all turned.
Someone was approaching.
Ray reached for the flashlight.
Mason stepped toward the doorway.
A shadow crossed the narrow window.
Then a voice spoke.
"Leah?"
She froze.
It was a man's voice.
A voice she hadn't heard in fifteen years.
A voice she had spent half her life believing she would never hear again.
"Leah, it's me."
The door opened.
A man stood in the corridor.
He was thinner than Mason remembered from the photographs, with dark hair turning gray at the temples.
His face carried several scars.
But his eyes were unmistakable.
Leah dropped the folder.
"Daniel?"
The man nodded.
Then he said:
"You're supposed to be dead."
Leah took one step forward.
"So are you."
For a moment, neither moved.
Then Daniel Bennett walked into the room.
He looked at Mason.
And his expression changed.
"You're the man who saved me."
Mason nodded.
"Fifteen years ago."
Daniel looked down.
"I've been looking for you."
Mason stared at him.
"Why?"
Daniel removed a small black device from his jacket.
"Because the people who cut your brake line aren't trying to silence you."
He looked toward Ray.
"They're trying to make sure you never discover what really happened to my sister."
Leah stepped closer.
"What happened to me?"
Daniel looked at her.
His eyes filled with something that seemed almost like regret.
Then he answered.
"Leah, the man who ordered the attack on our truck wasn't Father."
Silence filled the room.
Mason looked at him.
"Then who?"
Daniel turned toward Ray.
And for the first time, Mason saw the man who had spent fifteen years hiding from the truth look genuinely terrified.
"Your best friend knows."
Ray's face became rigid.
Mason slowly turned.
"Ray?"
Daniel continued.
"He was there that night."
Ray closed his eyes.
Leah stepped backward.
"What?"
Daniel placed the black device on the table.
"The man driving the second vehicle was Daniel Mercer."
Ray's brother.
The man who had disappeared fifteen years earlier.
The man whose ring Ray still wore.
Mason looked at Ray.
"Is that true?"
Ray's silence lasted too long.
Then he nodded.
"Yes."
Leah covered her mouth.
Mason felt as if the floor had shifted beneath him.
Ray looked directly at him.
"But there's something Daniel doesn't know."
Daniel frowned.
"What?"
Ray took a breath.
"The man driving the second vehicle wasn't trying to kill Leah."
He looked at Mason.
"He was trying to kill you."
Mason's expression hardened.
"Why?"
Ray's voice broke.
"Because you weren't supposed to survive the quarry road either."
And then, from somewhere outside the storage building, three gunshots shattered the morning silence.
The first gunshot struck the metal door.
The second shattered the narrow window beside it.
The third punched through a cardboard box, sending papers scattering across the concrete floor.
For one frozen second, nobody moved.
Then Ray Mercer shouted.
"DOWN!"
Mason grabbed Leah by the shoulder and pulled her behind the filing cabinet. Daniel threw himself against the opposite wall, knocking over a wooden chair. Another shot cracked through the building, followed by the unmistakable sound of a vehicle engine revving outside.
"How many?" Mason shouted.
Ray crouched beside the doorway.
"At least two!"
"Armed?"
"What do you think?"
Mason looked at the broken window. Sunlight entered through the jagged glass, illuminating dust floating in the air. He could hear footsteps outside, moving across the gravel.
Daniel crawled toward the table.
"Give me the device."
Mason grabbed his jacket.
"Don't move."
"They'll take it!"
"They'll take it after they get through us."
Daniel looked at him.
For the first time since entering the storage room, he seemed to understand that Mason was not simply an older biker who had once rescued him. He was a man who had spent decades surviving situations that other people would never have imagined.
Mason turned toward Ray.
"Is there another exit?"
Ray nodded toward the rear wall.
"Loading door. It opens into the old platform."
"Can we get through?"
"Maybe."
"Then we're leaving."
Leah looked at Daniel.
"Who are they?"
Daniel shook his head.
"I don't know."
"You said you knew they were coming!"
"I knew someone would come eventually. I didn't know it would be today."
Another bullet struck the metal shelving.
Ray cursed.
"Enough. Move!"
Mason helped Leah stand. Daniel grabbed the black device, while Ray pulled open the rear door.
The corridor beyond was dark and smelled of damp concrete.
They hurried through it.
Behind them, the front entrance rattled.
Someone was trying to force it open.
Mason reached the loading door first. He pulled the handle.
It didn't move.
"Locked," he muttered.
Ray pushed past him.
"Stand back."
He struck the lower hinge with a metal bar. The first blow did little. The second loosened it. On the third, the old mechanism gave way.
The door opened.
Cold air rushed inside.
They emerged onto the abandoned platform.
The railway tracks stretched toward the northern hills, disappearing behind a curve.
Ray pointed toward the trees.
"Through there. There's an old service road."
They ran.
Mason kept Leah between himself and Daniel. Ray followed behind them, looking back every few seconds.
They reached the tree line just as the loading door slammed open.
A man appeared in the doorway.
He raised a handgun.
Mason heard Daniel shout.
Then a bullet struck the ground near his foot.
They disappeared into the trees.
For several minutes, nobody spoke.
They followed the narrow service path until they reached a drainage ditch hidden beneath thick vegetation. Ray dropped into it first.
"Stay down."
Mason helped Leah climb in.
Daniel sat beside her, breathing heavily.
Ray looked toward the station.
A vehicle passed along the access road.
Then another.
The men were searching.
Mason leaned against the concrete wall.
His heart was pounding, but his mind had become strangely calm.
He looked at Ray.
"Now."
Ray wiped dirt from his face.
"What?"
"You're going to tell me everything."
Ray looked away.
Mason's voice hardened.