Chapter 16 - THE PURPLE STAR
Detective Monroe refused to let Mom go to the warehouse.
Mom argued.
Monroe won.
Police searched it first.
Walter was inside.
Alive.
Angry.
And extremely embarrassed.
Nobody had kidnapped him.
He had gone there alone.
“Why didn’t you answer your phone?” Mom demanded.
Walter held up a dead battery.
“I’m seventy-one.”
“I forget chargers.”
Mom nearly strangled him herself.
Walter led detectives to an old employee locker.
Daniel had given him the key years earlier.
Walter never opened it.
“He said if something happened, I would know when.”
Inside was a spiral notebook.
Daniel’s handwriting filled every page.
Dates.
Plate numbers.
Payments.
Meetings.
Then Mom saw the purple ink.
Stars.
The same stars Daniel had once drawn on my preschool calendar.
Before I started drawing them on Mom’s work logs.
Mom smiled through tears.
“He taught me that.”
I pointed at one page.
Three stars surrounded a date.
Mom read the entry.
MASON - 11:20 PM - BLUE ROOM.
“What’s the Blue Room?” Angela asked.
Vincent answered.
“A private dining room that used to exist upstairs.”
“It was renovated years ago.”
Walter shook his head.
“The walls changed.”
“The room didn’t.”
We returned to the restaurant with detectives.
Behind a newer wall panel was an older door.
Inside, beneath layers of renovation dust, investigators found a tiny ceiling camera.
The device was ancient.
The storage unit was still attached.
Most footage had been overwritten.
But one corrupted file remained.
Date.
Three days before Daniel died.
Mason entered the room.
David followed.
Their conversation had no clear audio.
Then a third person appeared.
Daniel.
He was wearing his brown jacket.
He placed papers on the table.
David became angry.
Mason blocked the door.
Daniel pushed past him and left.
After he was gone, David leaned toward Mason.
The old microphone caught six words.
“Make sure he doesn’t reach Kane.”
Nobody spoke.
The video continued.
Mason replied.
“And if he won’t stop?”
David looked directly toward the door Daniel had used.
This time, the microphone captured every word.
“Then make the problem permanent.”
Mom sat down.
Her hands went numb.
Detective Monroe immediately called the prosecutor.
The criminal case had changed.
Mason’s attorney called less than an hour later.
Mason wanted a deal.
He would testify.
He would explain the crash.
He would identify the officer David paid.
And he would admit forging Vincent’s signature.
But he demanded protection.
Vincent laughed when he heard.
Mom didn’t.
“Give it to him.”
Vincent looked at her.
“He helped kill Daniel.”
“I know.”
“You want him protected?”
“I want him talking.”
Her voice was steady.
“I’m done confusing revenge with justice.”
Vincent stared at her for a long time.
Then he nodded.
May you like
That afternoon, Mason Reed finally told the truth.
And the truth was worse than any of us expected.
