Chapter 4
Captain Lewis entered before Naomi could warn security.
He carried a sidearm.
His eyes moved from me to the evidence screen.
“You traced the phone.”
Naomi slowly reached toward her weapon.
Lewis aimed at her.
“Don’t.”
Two analysts froze beside their computers.
I stood.
“Where is the drive?”
Lewis looked at me.
“Tyler has it.”
“Tyler is in custody.”
“He gave it to someone before the funeral.”
“Who?”
Lewis’s jaw tightened.
“Your sister.”
Vanessa had not remained at the house.
She disappeared while investigators transported Tyler.
Her phone was found inside a bathroom.
Lewis admitted he had worked with Tyler for more than a year.
Northstar paid him to provide convoy routes and inspection schedules.
At first, Lewis believed they were stealing fuel and medical supplies.
Then guidance components disappeared.
Soldiers were attacked using weapons built from their own stolen equipment.
Marcus discovered the leak.
Lewis warned Tyler.
Tyler warned Northstar.
“Did you give them Marcus’s route?” I asked.
Lewis looked away.
“Yes.”
My husband had trusted him.
Lewis served beside Marcus for eight years.
He attended our wedding.
He carried the folded flag at the funeral.
“You watched me bury him.”
“I never thought they would kill him.”
“You handed them his location.”
“They said they would frighten him.”
“Then why steal the evidence afterward?”
“Because I knew what I had done.”
Naomi moved suddenly.
Lewis turned toward her.
I struck his wrist.
The gun fired into the ceiling.
Security officers rushed through the door and forced him to the floor.
As they handcuffed him, Lewis shouted that Vanessa was heading to Northstar’s private airfield.
She planned to trade the drive for Tyler’s release and enough money to disappear.
Federal agents reached the airfield while a cargo plane prepared for departure.
Vanessa stood on the runway holding the drive.
A Northstar executive named Calvin Drake waited beside the aircraft.
Diane was with them.
She had lied about the masked man at the lodge.
She willingly gave the drive to Vanessa, then followed her to the airfield.
I watched the operation through a secure video feed.
Agents surrounded the plane.
Calvin grabbed Vanessa and held a gun against her neck.
Diane screamed.
Vanessa dropped the drive onto the pavement.
An agent moved toward it.
Calvin fired.
The bullet struck the ground beside the drive.
The casing cracked.
Calvin dragged Vanessa backward toward the plane.
Then Diane rushed him.
He shoved her down.
Vanessa drove her heel into his foot and pulled free.
Federal agents tackled Calvin before he reached the aircraft.
The drive was recovered.
Vanessa and Diane were arrested.
Technicians feared the bullet had damaged the memory chip.
They transported it to a military laboratory.
Hours later, Naomi entered the interview room where I waited.
“We recovered the files.”
The drive contained shipping manifests, payment records, and messages between Northstar executives, Tyler, Lewis, and Raymond.
My father had done more than share the safe code.
He had accepted money to pressure Marcus into ending the investigation.
One audio file captured their final argument.
“You are destroying this family,” Raymond told him.
“No,” Marcus replied. “Tyler is.”
“If you keep digging, Evelyn could lose everything.”
“She would rather lose a house than live with a lie.”
The recording ended with Raymond saying five words.
May you like
Then you leave me no choice.
The next file showed a transfer from Raymond’s account to the group that attacked Marcus’s convoy.
