Chapter 6 - THE ESCAPE PLAN
Rachel had planned to leave the country with my daughter.
Two days after I was supposed to remain dead forever.
The tickets had been purchased ten days earlier.
Brad's name was on the same reservation.
A return flight existed.
But it was six months later.
Katherine immediately contacted the relevant authorities and requested restrictions preventing Lily from being taken out of the country.
My anger became something colder.
More controlled.
Every new fact made one thing clearer.
Rachel had expected my deployment to solve a problem for her.
When I didn't die, she created a version of the world where I had.
My phone rang while we were still inside the house.
Rachel.
Katherine told me to answer.
I put it on speaker.
"Ethan."
Rachel was crying.
"Please let me explain."
"Where are you?"
"At my mother's."
"Is Brad there?"
Silence.
"Rachel."
"No."
I looked at Katherine.
She wrote one word.
LIE.
I continued.
"Why did you buy airline tickets for Lily?"
Rachel stopped crying.
Only for half a second.
Then the tears returned.
"It was supposed to be a vacation."
"For six months?"
"I was grieving."
"You knew I wasn't dead."
She inhaled sharply.
"I thought you were."
"No."
I said.
"You spoke to me twelve days before you posted my obituary."
Silence.
Katherine watched me carefully.
Then Rachel whispered.
"I was confused."
"Did confusion forge my commander's signature?"
She said nothing.
"Did confusion create a fundraiser?"
Nothing.
"Did confusion put our daughter outside in the mud?"
Her voice suddenly hardened.
"That was Brad."
There it was.
The first crack.
Not denial.
Blame.
"You locked the door."
"Melissa's video doesn't show everything."
"It shows enough."
Rachel began speaking quickly.
"Lily had been screaming for hours."
"Because you told her her father was dead."
"You don't understand what it was like."
I almost laughed.
"What what was like?"
"Being alone."
My grip tightened around the phone.
"You weren't alone."
She didn't answer.
I stared at Brad's clothes hanging in my bedroom.
"No."
I said.
"You definitely weren't alone."
Rachel began crying again.
Then she whispered something I wasn't expecting.
"I never wanted Lily hurt."
I looked toward the packed suitcase.
"Then tell me where Brad is."
Silence.
"Rachel."
Her voice dropped.
"I don't know."
The call disconnected.
Katherine immediately looked at the officer.
"Find Collins."
The officer nodded.
But before anyone moved, another phone started ringing.
It was the landline in my house.
I hadn't heard that sound in months.
I answered.
A man's voice spoke.
"Captain Walker?"
"Yes."
"This is Mark Alvarez from next door."
I knew him.
Retired firefighter.
Quiet man.
Always trimming his lawn before sunrise.
May you like
His next sentence changed the entire case.
"I think you need to see what my security camera recorded while you were gone."
