Chapter 10 - The Man Elena Hid
Nathan Holloway looked nothing like Elena.
He was thin.
Nervous.
Almost painfully ordinary.
When I entered the motel room, he immediately locked the door.
“You came alone?”
“Yes.”
I had not.
Mateo waited two floors below.
But Holloway did not need to know that.
He stared at me.
“You really are him.”
“I was.”
“Elena said you’d say that.”
Hearing my wife’s name in his voice made something ache inside me.
“Why did she tell me you were dead?”
“Because our father worked for Sebastian Varela.”
I stopped.
“What?”
“Our father was a bookkeeper.”
Nathan sat on the edge of the bed.
“He discovered money moving through companies connected to your organization.”
“Did he work for me?”
“No.”
“He worked for Varela.”
Nathan looked down.
“When our father tried to leave, Sebastian threatened both of us.”
“Elena disappeared.”
“And told everyone I was dead.”
I slowly sat across from him.
“Why give Renata the key?”
“Because Sebastian’s people found me.”
“How?”
“I published a research paper about political donations connected to shell corporations.”
“That was enough?”
“It included a company name Sebastian recognized.”
“Meridian Holdings.”
Nathan nodded.
I felt anger rising.
“You involved my daughter.”
“I was trying to protect her.”
“You handed a nineteen-year-old girl a key powerful people were willing to kill for.”
His face collapsed.
“I know.”
I stood.
“You should pray she recovers.”
“I have.”
I turned toward the door.
“Wait.”
He pulled a small recorder from his bag.
“Elena gave me this the week before she died.”
I froze.
“Why didn’t you give it to police?”
“Because one of the voices on it belonged to a police official.”
He pressed play.
Static filled the room.
Then Sebastian Varela’s younger voice emerged.
“You should have left this alone, Elena.”
My wife answered.
“You’re using Daniel’s name.”
“Daniel is gone.”
“He’s alive.”
“For now.”
My hands clenched.
Then another voice spoke.
A woman.
“You promised there would be no violence.”
Senator Evelyn Beltran.
I recognized her from television.
Sebastian laughed.
“You wanted a career.”
“You said The Ghost would take the blame.”
“He will.”
Then Elena spoke again.
“If anything happens to me, Daniel will find out.”
Sebastian answered with four words.
“Not if Mateo cooperates.”
The recording ended.
I could hear my own breathing.
Holloway looked terrified.
“Now you understand why Elena suspected him.”
I stood motionless.
Mateo.
The man who helped me disappear.
The man watching my daughter’s hospital.
The man standing beside me through every discovery.
I left the motel.
Mateo was waiting beside the car.
“Well?”
I stopped twenty feet away.
He immediately knew something had changed.
“What did Holloway say?”
I played the recording.
Mateo listened without moving.
When it ended, he closed his eyes.
“Daniel.”
“What did you do?”
“It isn’t what you think.”
“That sentence has never made an innocent man sound innocent.”
He looked at me.
“I did cooperate with Sebastian.”
My hand curled into a fist.
May you like
Then Mateo added the words that stopped me.
“Because Elena asked me to.”
