WHEN MY DAUGHTER’S MMA BOYFRIEND SENT HER TO THE ER, I WENT STRAIGHT TO HIS GYM. HIS COACH LOOKED AT MY GRAY BEARD AND LAUGHED, “GET OUT OF HERE, GRANDPA, UNLESS YOU WANT TO LEAVE IN A BODY BAG.”
“MOVE!”
I dropped behind the engine block.
Another crack.
Glass shattered somewhere behind us.
This was no gym.
No controlled confrontation.
Someone wanted silence.
Hollis looked at me.
“We need the stairwell.”
“Who is Evergreen?”
“Later.”
“Now.”
“You want to d/i/e curious?”
“No.”
“Then move.”
We moved.
No heroic charge.
No impossible combat.
We ran.
Through the stairwell.
Down two levels.
Ruiz and Pierce met us behind a fire door.
Ruiz stared at Hollis.
“You’re coming with us.”
Hollis laughed breathlessly.
“You have no idea who you’re dealing with.”
“Try me.”
He looked at me.
Then at Ruiz.
“Evergreen is a network.”
“What kind?”
“Politicians. contractors. cops. people with money.”
“Led by who?”
Hollis wiped dust from his face.
“Raymond Vale helped build it.”
“Helped?”
“He didn’t create it.”
“Who did?”
Hollis went silent.
Ruiz stepped closer.
“Detective.”
He looked toward Marcy’s floor.
“If I say the name, none of us walk away from this.”
Ruiz replied, “Someone just fired at you in a hospital garage. I’d say that ship sailed.”
Hollis almost smiled.
Then his eyes met mine.
“Charles Mercer.”
I frowned.
“Mercer?”
“Cal Mercer’s father.”
The gym coach.
I pictured Cal laughing at my gray beard.
“He’s involved?”
“Cal?”
Hollis shook his head.
“He doesn’t know.”
“Charles?”
“Owns trucking companies, casinos, half a dozen logistics firms.”
I remembered Dustin bragging about Raymond’s businesses.
Maybe not all of them belonged to Raymond.
“Why photograph my family?”
Hollis stared at me.
“Because of you.”
“What about me?”
“You trained someone.”
I felt a knot forming in my stomach.
“Who?”
“A Marine named Evan Mercer.”
Cal’s younger brother.
The name returned from a place I hadn’t visited in years.
Corporal Evan Mercer.
Twenty-three.
Bright.
Funny.
Fearless when he shouldn’t have been.
He had trained under me before deploying overseas.
“What does Evan have to do with this?”
Hollis studied my face.
“You don’t know.”
“Know what?”
“Evan didn’t d/i/e overseas.”
My breathing stopped.
Official reports said his vehicle had been struck during deployment.
Carol had attended his memorial with me.
Cal had been there.
So had Charles Mercer.
“What are you talking about?”
“He survived.”
“No.”
“He did.”
“Where is he?”
Hollis swallowed.
“Witness protection.”
My mind rejected the words.
“For what?”
“He came home and started working for his father.”
“And?”
“He discovered Evergreen.”
“What happened?”
“He copied records.”
The flash drive.
My pulse climbed.
“Evan made the drive?”
“Yes.”
“Then how did Dustin get it?”
Hollis looked away.
“He gave it to someone he trusted.”
“Who?”
“Raymond.”
I almost laughed at the absurdity.
“Why trust Raymond?”
“Because Raymond wanted out.”
“Out?”
“Evergreen stopped being business years ago.”
“What did it become?”
Hollis stared at the concrete floor.
“A machine.”
Ruiz spoke quietly.
“For what?”
“Control.”
Bribery.
Extortion.
Cr/i/me.
M/u/rder.
Enough leverage to destroy anyone who resisted.
Raymond hadn’t been threatening us.
He had been trying to keep the evidence from the people above him.
Possibly.
I still didn’t trust him.
“Where is Evan now?”
“I don’t know.”
“You said witness protection.”
“I said he was placed in it.”
“Was?”
Hollis looked at me.
“He disappeared two years ago.”
My phone rang.
Unknown number again.
I stared at it.
Hollis whispered, “Don’t.”
I answered.
“Daniel Carter.”
A man spoke.
Older.
Calm.
“I’m disappointed.”
“Charles Mercer?”
Silence.
Then a soft laugh.
“So Marcus told you.”
Hollis closed his eyes.
Charles continued.
“You always were persistent, Daniel.”
“You know me.”
“Of course I do.”
“Why?”
“My son admired you.”
“Evan?”
“He never stopped talking about you.”
“What happened to him?”
“You taught him loyalty.”
“I taught him discipline.”
“You taught him to believe some lines shouldn’t be crossed.”
“And you crossed them.”
A pause.
“Repeatedly.”
His voice remained pleasant.
“Bring me the drive.”
“No.”
“I expected that.”
“What do you want with my family?”
“Nothing.”
“Then stay away.”
“I would be delighted to.”
“After you get the drive.”
“Correct.”
“Why was my house being watched four months before Marcy found it?”
Charles went silent.
That silence told me the question mattered.
Finally:
“Because Evan contacted you.”
“He never did.”
“He tried.”
I remembered something.
A letter.
Months ago.
No return address.
Inside had been a blank birthday card.
I assumed someone mailed it by mistake.
I had thrown it into a desk drawer.
