Chapter 9 - Erin Had Met Nathan BeforeErin denied it for eleven minutes.
Then Lena placed Wesley Grant’s recorded statement on the table.
Erin stopped.
“You helped Nathan Caldwell escape.”
Her eyes filled.
“No.”
“Wesley says Nathan named you.”
“He was confused.”
“He described you.”
Silence.
“Erin.”
She broke.
“I wasn’t part of the crew then.”
“Explain.”
“I worked at a diner off I-84.”
“When?”
“Two years ago.”
“Nathan came in?”
“Yes.”
“After escaping?”
“He looked terrible.”
“Why did you help?”
“I didn’t know who he was.”
“What happened?”
“He came in near closing. Mud everywhere. Bleeding.”
“What did he say?”
“That men were looking for him.”
“Police?”
“He said one of them was police.”
“What did you do?”
“Let him stay in the storage room until morning.”
Miles watched behind glass.
Erin continued.
“I gave him food.”
“Phone?”
“He wouldn’t use mine.”
“Why?”
“He thought they could trace it.”
“Then?”
“I drove him west.”
“To?”
“Truck stop.”
“Wesley says he reached Oregon.”
“He found a ride.”
“Why never tell investigators?”
Erin laughed bitterly.
“Because two months later I started dating Boone.”
There it was.
“You knew Boone was involved?”
“Not at first.”
“When did you learn?”
“He told me stories when drunk.”
“And you realized Nathan was the same man.”
“Yes.”
“What did you do?”
“Nothing.”
“You joined them.”
Erin cried.
“Yes.”
Miles felt anger rise.
She had once saved Nathan.
Then became part of the machine that hunted people like him.
Lena asked:
“Why?”
“Money.”
Again.
“And Boone.”
“Fear?”
“Yes.”
“Convenience?”
Erin looked ashamed.
“Yes.”
“Did Nathan ever contact you again?”
“One time.”
“When?”
“A month later.”
“What did he say?”
“That he was leaving Idaho.”
“Where?”
“He didn’t say.”
“Did you tell Boone?”
“No.”
That surprised Miles.
“Why keep that secret?”
“Because Nathan looked at me like I was a good person.”
Erin began crying.
“And I wanted one person to still be right about me.”
Lena remained silent.
“What did Nathan mean when he said he had to get ‘the woman who helped him escape’?”
Wesley had apparently misunderstood.
Nathan said:
I have to get her out before Halley finds her.
Erin.
He was coming back for her.
But Erin never saw him.
“What happened?”
“I don’t know.”
“Was he supposed to meet you?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Three weeks after.”
“Where?”
“Same diner.”
“Did he show?”
“No.”
Miles’s stomach tightened.
Nathan survived at least weeks after the original disappearance.
Then vanished again while trying to protect Erin.
“Did Halley know about you?”
“Later.”
“How?”
“Boone told him.”
“What did Halley do?”
Erin looked toward the door.
“He asked if Caldwell had contacted me.”
“And?”
“I lied.”
“He believe you?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did he threaten you?”
“Yes.”
“What?”
“He said women disappear too.”
Miles felt disgust.
“Why stay?”
Erin looked at her hands.
“Because after a while leaving feels more dangerous than staying.”
Lena asked:
“Where was Nathan supposed to take you?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did he mention evidence?”
“Yes.”
Miles leaned forward.
“What?”
“He said he had enough to put a cop away.”
“The SD card?”
“Maybe.”
“He sent that to Miles before disappearing.”
Erin looked toward the glass.
“Then maybe he had more.”
“What?”
“A ledger.”
Miles frowned.
“Whose?”
“Halley’s.”
“How would Nathan get it?”
“I don’t know.”
Erin remembered something.
“When he came to the diner, he had a small black notebook.”
“What was inside?”
“Names.”
“Did you read them?”
“No.”
“He showed one page.”
“What?”
“Payments.”
From whom?
“To Halley.”
Dane’s cash payments?
Maybe others.
The corruption might extend beyond Canyon Crest.
“Where is the notebook?”
“Nathan had it.”
When he reached Wesley in Oregon, Wesley remembered the notebook too.
Nathan stored it inside a metal lunchbox.
Six days later he left with it.
He planned to return to Boise for Erin.
Then disappeared.
Phone records from that period were difficult because Nathan used prepaid phones.
But Wesley remembered one call.
“Nate said somebody named ‘M’ could help.”
“Miles?” Lena asked.
“No. He said ‘Mara’ or ‘Marla.’”
Search Nathan’s contacts.
A Marla Caldwell?
No.
Then Nolan remembered.
Nathan knew a journalist.
Local investigative reporter named Marla Chen.
She had written about towing corruption.
They contacted her.
Marla went silent when Nathan’s name came up.
“I promised him.”
Miles’s heart jumped.
“He came to you.”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Three weeks after he disappeared.”
“Did he have a ledger?”
Silence.
“Marla.”
“Yes.”
“Where is it?”
“I don’t have it.”
“What did he do with it?”
“He let me photograph pages.”
“Do you still have them?”
“Yes.”
Miles closed his eyes.
Finally.
The photographs showed payments.
Dates.
Initials.
Halley.
Calvin.
Several unidentified officials.
Then one entry:
M.V. — 50K — SON FILE
Malcolm Voss.
Blackmail payment.
He had paid Dane fifty thousand dollars connected to his son’s hidden DUI case.
Another:
H — RED / NC — 15
Halley paid fifteen thousand.
Nathan Caldwell.
A red job.
Halley personally paid to have Nathan abducted.
Then later:
H — SECOND CLEANUP — 20
Second cleanup.
Three weeks after the disappearance.
Exactly when Nathan was supposed to meet Erin.
Miles stared.
Halley had paid someone again.
Maybe that was when Nathan vanished for good.
The final page contained a name Miles did not know:
R. VALE — 30 — ARCHER WATCH
Dated six weeks ago.
Someone had paid thirty thousand dollars to monitor Miles.
Not Dane.
Not Halley.
A new person.
And the last name, Vale, belonged to a company executive Miles had arrested five years earlier.
A man currently out of prison.
Ronan Vale.
May you like
The case was not only about protecting Canyon Crest anymore.
Someone from Miles’s past had paid to put him on Dane’s target list.
Related Stories
