Cho called the number listed for the shop.
A man answered.
“Harbor Point Auto.”
“May I speak with Thomas Reed?”
“Speaking.”
“My name is Daniel Cho. I'm with the State Bureau of Investigation. I need to ask you about Thomas Bell.”
The line went quiet.
Then the man said, “I wondered how long it would take.”
Cho closed his eyes for a moment.
“Are you Thomas Bell?”
“Yes.”
“Are you safe?”
A pause.
“I think so.”
“Your father is alive.”
There was a sound on the other end, small and broken. Then nothing.
“Thomas?”
“Is he all right?”
“He's been looking for you for twenty-two years.”
Thomas breathed in sharply.
“Can I speak to him?”
“We can arrange that. But first I need to know whether you're willing to give a statement.”
“I'll tell you everything.”
“Then we will come to you.”
“Don't bring local police.”
“We'll use a state team.”
“And don't tell Eleanor Vale.”
Cho looked at Eli, who had entered the room.
“Why?”
“Because she isn't the one who ordered me taken. Her father was. But she knows where the records are. She knows what happened to the people on that list.”
“Do you have the list?”
“I have part of it.”
“Where?”
“Somewhere she can't reach.”
“Thomas, we need to protect you.”
“I've spent twenty-two years protecting myself. I'm tired of it.”
• • •
The reunion was arranged in a quiet room at a state facility. Walter arrived before dawn, wearing his best suit. He had shaved carefully and combed his white hair. He carried the framed photograph of Thomas beside the Mustang.
When the door opened, the man who entered was not the boy in the photograph. His hair was gray at the temples. A thin scar crossed his left cheek. He walked with a slight stiffness in one leg.
But Walter knew him.
“Tommy?”
Thomas stopped.
For a long moment, neither moved. Then Walter crossed the room.
Thomas's face crumpled. He dropped his bag and caught his father in both arms.
Walter held him as if the years could be pressed out of them by strength alone.
“You're alive,” he whispered.
“I'm sorry, Dad.”
“Don't.”
“I should have come home.”
“Don't.”
“I thought they would hurt you.”
Walter pulled back just enough to look at his son's face. “They hurt us anyway.”
Thomas bowed his head.
They sat together for a long time. No one asked questions. No one mentioned the investigation. Eli stood outside the room, listening only to the quiet sounds of two people who had lost each other and somehow found a way back.
When Thomas finally came out, his eyes were red.
“Deputy Mercer,” he said.
“Thomas.”
“You stopped the excavator.”
“I did.”
Thomas shook his hand. “Then I owe you more than I can say.”
“You don't owe me anything.”
Thomas looked through the glass at his father. “I owe him twenty-two years.”
Eli had no answer.
• • •
The first formal interview lasted six hours. Thomas described how he had uncovered the fraud, how Rusk had offered to help him escape, and how the plan had turned into an ambush at the quarry.
“Rusk drove me there,” Thomas said. “He told me a state investigator would meet us. I believed him because he had helped me copy the records. Then Arthur Vale arrived with two men.”
“What happened?” Cho asked.
“They took my bag. They wanted the ledger. I told them it wasn't there.”
“Where was it?”
“In the Mustang.”
Cho glanced at Eli.
Thomas continued. “Arthur said he could make the whole thing disappear. He said my father would be safer if I stopped asking questions. I refused. One of the men hit me. Rusk stood there and watched.”
“Did they kill anyone?”
“Not that night. They put me in the truck and drove north. I escaped three days later when they stopped at a motel. I got to Canada with help from a truck driver.”
“Why didn't you contact your family?”
“Because they found me once. I was working under another name when a man came into the garage and asked about a green Mustang. I left that night. I thought if I contacted Dad, they'd follow the call.”
“Who found you?”
“I don't know. But I recognized the ring he wore. It had the Vale company crest.”
“Eleanor?”
“No. Her father.”
Cho turned a page. “You said Eleanor knows where the records are.”
Thomas nodded. “After Arthur died, she took over the development division. She found the old files. I think she has been trying to locate the original list for years.”