Chapter 6 - REBECCA'S NOTE
Rebecca’s handwriting had been verified from old records.
She was alive two months ago.
Maybe alive now.
The storage unit also contained newspaper clippings.
Daniel’s engagement announcement.
My photograph.
The cruise itinerary.
A map of Miami.
Rebecca had been watching us.
Trying to reach me.
The anonymous messages came from her.
Donnelly stared at the evidence.
“We thought the messages came from our own surveillance leak.”
I looked at her.
“You weren’t the only person trying to warn me.”
“No.”
Rebecca had been moving carefully for three years.
Why not go directly to police?
The answer was hidden in another note.
Fisk has someone inside.
Donnelly stopped reading.
“Inside where?”
I asked.
“Law enforcement?”
“Possibly.”
That changed the room.
If Rebecca believed Daniel had protection, every old failed investigation looked different.
Jennifer’s hiking report.
Marisol’s boating death.
Rebecca’s disappearance.
Patterns ignored.
Files closed.
Evidence lost.
Donnelly called her supervisor through a secure line.
Nobody outside the task force would receive updates.
Then I remembered something.
During our wedding reception, Daniel had disappeared for twenty minutes.
He said he was talking to his best man.
There was no best man in the storage footage.
Donnelly pulled hotel cameras.
Daniel met a man near the loading dock.
A man wearing a sheriff’s department lapel pin.
Facial recognition identified him.
Deputy Chief Paul Grayson.
Retired from federal service.
Currently a maritime-security consultant.
Donnelly’s face went hard.
“Grayson reviewed Rebecca Hale’s cruise disappearance.”
I stared at her.
“So Rebecca was right.”
Grayson had been inside the original investigation.
He had recommended no federal action.
He called the evidence consistent with voluntary disappearance or accidental overboard death.
Now he was meeting Daniel on our wedding night.
The ship was still moving south.
The captain offered to divert to Nassau for a handoff.
Donnelly refused.
“If Grayson has people waiting at port, Daniel is safer here.”
I looked through the glass at my husband.
He was suddenly very interested in the floor.
Then ship security brought in an intercepted message from Daniel’s prepaid phone.
Sent after the cabin incident.
One sentence.
She wasn’t supposed to fight back.
Recipient:
PG.
May you like
Paul Grayson.
The man who helped bury Rebecca’s disappearance knew Daniel planned something for me too.
