Chapter 12 - COLE CHANGES SIDES
At 3:07 the following morning, Detective Alvarez received a call from an unknown number.
The caller was Cole Mercer.
He wanted a deal.
For fifteen years Cole had helped Jason create false documents, move money, and disappear when situations became dangerous.
But Sarah’s kidnapping had changed something.
According to Cole, Jason had become reckless.
He no longer trusted anyone.
Including Cole.
“I’m done protecting him.”
Cole told Alvarez.
Alvarez did not trust him.
Neither did I.
But Cole knew things investigators did not.
He knew where Jason stored emergency cash.
He knew which names Jason might use.
He knew which border crossings Jason had prepared.
Most importantly, he knew Jason’s backup escape plan.
The private airfield was a distraction.
Jason had expected police to find the map.
He planned to drive east instead.
From there, he would cross into another state and disappear under a new identity.
Cole gave investigators the address of a small house near Briar County.
Then he asked for protection.
Alvarez arranged a meeting.
Cole never arrived.
For twenty minutes, police waited.
Then they found his car abandoned near a shopping center.
The driver’s door was open.
His phone was inside.
There was no sign of Cole.
Jason had either discovered the betrayal or Cole had changed his mind.
But the phone contained one unsent message.
CHECK THE GREENHOUSE.
Nobody understood it.
Sarah did.
When Alvarez showed her the message, she immediately remembered Jason talking about a greenhouse behind an old rental property.
She had assumed he meant plants.
Investigators searched property records connected to Jason’s aliases.
One address appeared repeatedly.
An old nursery business outside Briar County.
The company had closed years earlier.
Several large greenhouses still stood on the property.
Police moved toward it.
Meanwhile, Sarah was released from the hospital.
The reunion with Emily happened privately.
I stayed near the doorway while Sarah dropped to her knees and opened her arms.
Emily ran to her.
Neither spoke for nearly a minute.
They simply held each other.
I turned away.
Some moments do not belong to anyone except the people living inside them.
Later Sarah came to me.
“I should have listened when Emily started asking to stay with you.”
“So should I.”
“I kept thinking it was normal adjustment.”
“I did too.”
She shook her head.
“We were so busy trying not to fight each other that we stopped comparing what we were seeing.”
That was painful because it was true.
Jason had benefited from the distance between us.
He had counted on it.
“We don’t make that mistake again.”
I said.
Sarah nodded.
“No.”
My phone rang.
Alvarez.
I answered.
His first words changed the situation again.
“We found the greenhouse.”
“And Jason?”
“No.”
“What did you find?”
“A room filled with documents.”
He paused.
“And a wall covered with photographs of families.”
May you like
Jason had not been planning one final fraud.
He had been preparing several.
