Chapter 16 - The Leak
Only forty-three people knew Emily’s protected location.
That number dropped to twelve after access logs were reviewed.
Then to five.
Dana Cole.
Marcus Reed.
Two federal security supervisors.
And Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Price.
Price had been part of the investigation from the beginning.
He was also the prosecutor Ethan approached nine months earlier.
When investigators reviewed his financial records, they found nothing.
No strange deposits.
No shell companies.
No unexplained property.
Then they checked his brother.
Michael Price owned a struggling construction business.
Three months earlier, a Prescott company paid him $180,000 for consulting.
He had never performed consulting work.
Daniel Price was immediately removed from the case.
He denied everything.
Then agents recovered deleted messages.
Charles Wynn had contacted him repeatedly.
The deal was simple.
Price provided information.
In return, his brother’s company survived.
Another person had told himself he was only making one compromise.
Then another.
And another.
By the time Emily entered protection, Price was passing locations to Wynn.
Dana looked furious.
“He could have gotten her killed.”
Emily sat across from her.
“Did he know what they planned?”
“We’re determining that.”
Price was arrested that evening for obstruction and unlawful disclosure.
He eventually admitted he knew Vale wanted pressure placed on Emily.
He claimed he did not know murder was possible.
I had heard versions of that sentence my entire career.
I didn’t know.
I didn’t think.
I was only following.
I was only helping.
Evil rarely introduced itself as evil.
Usually it arrived as a small excuse.
Emily’s protected location changed immediately.
This time, even I was told only hours before the move.
We spent two weeks in a quiet federal residence outside the city.
For the first time since Mercy General, there were no cameras.
No reporters.
No courtroom hearings.
No Prescotts.
Emily slept twelve hours the first night.
The next morning, I found her sitting outside with coffee.
“You okay?”
“No.”
I sat beside her.
She smiled slightly.
“But I think someday I will be.”
We watched the sunrise.
Then she asked me something unexpected.
“Why didn’t you ever tell me when you were afraid?”
I looked at her.
“When I was growing up.”
She continued.
“You always looked like nothing scared you.”
“That was intentional.”
“Why?”
“Because I thought that was what you needed.”
Emily shook her head.
“I think I needed to know strong people could be scared too.”
I thought about that for a long time.
“I’m sorry.”
She leaned her head against my shoulder.
“I’m not asking for an apology.”
“What are you asking for?”
“The truth.”
So I gave it to her.
I told her I was terrified when I saw her hospital bed.
Terrified when I saw Mile 47.
Terrified every time my phone rang after midnight.
She listened.
Then squeezed my hand.
“That helps.”
“How?”
“Because I’m terrified too.”
We sat together without trying to fix it.
Sometimes survival was not a dramatic victory.
Sometimes it was simply telling the truth in a quiet place.
Three weeks later, the first major hearing began.
The government needed the Blue Room records admitted as evidence.
Vale’s attorneys planned to argue the files had been manipulated.
If they succeeded, much of the case could collapse.
Then, on the morning of the hearing, the prosecution received an unexpected visitor.
Charles Wynn.
He walked into an American embassy in Switzerland.
He asked for protection.
And he offered to testify.
But only if prosecutors agreed to one condition.
May you like
He wanted to tell the entire story on the record.
Including things the government had not yet discovered.
