Chapter 13 - The Second LeakThe search for the second leak became urgent.
Everyone connected to the pear facility knew something.
Natalie.
Cole.
Arrested crew.
Maybe Blaire.
Silas might target them.
Federal protection expanded.
Cole hated being guarded.
Evan enjoyed reminding him he had earned it.
Natalie spent her first hours with Blaire in a secured medical facility.
The sisters barely spoke at first.
They held each other.
Four years of survival too large for immediate explanation.
Elaine was brought later.
The reunion was private.
Evan only heard about it from Lena.
“She screamed when she saw both of them.”
“Good scream?”
“The kind where nobody knows whether to laugh or cry.”
Cole asked to see Natalie afterward.
Blaire noticed.
“You two?”
Natalie gave her a look.
“Not now.”
Blaire almost smiled.
Even inside trauma, life existed.
Investigators interviewed Natalie.
Her memory was extraordinary.
She remembered license plates.
Routes.
Rooms.
Names.
One law enforcement contact.
Never saw face.
Silas called him “Judge.”
Not actual judge.
Nickname.
Why?
“Because he decides what gets through.”
Natalie heard radio conversations occasionally.
Voice male.
Older.
Specific phrase:
“Traffic’s clean.”
Could be officer.
Dispatcher.
Task-force analyst.
County deputy.
Hundreds.
Cole remembered another detail.
Silas once said:
“Judge sits above Mercer.”
Evan frowned.
Above captain?
Command staff?
Or geographically?
Federal?
Then Natalie recalled a badge reflection during one clandestine meeting.
Star-shaped.
Not Sacramento PD shield.
Sheriff.
Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office used star-style badge.
Task force quietly narrowed.
Who had access to operations and historic Rourke cases?
Deputy Chief? Lieutenant?
One name surfaced.
Lieutenant James Mallory.
J.M.
Another J.M.
Evan stared.
Natalie’s initials had not referred to Joel Mercer.
At least maybe not.
James Mallory supervised county intelligence coordination.
He had access to regional stolen-vehicle data.
He had attended several multiagency briefings.
He also grew up with the Rourke family in Rio Linda.
Internal review began.
Mallory had unexplained contact with Silas’s former business.
Phone metadata.
No content.
Dozens of calls years earlier.
He claimed community source relationship.
Then bank records showed no bribes.
Again.
Protection not money.
What leverage?
Mallory’s younger brother was serving twenty-five years for armed robbery.
Silas had been in the same crew years before.
Maybe Silas possessed evidence Mallory helped brother hide evidence.
Investigators searched.
A sealed juvenile case revealed Mallory had once altered an evidence log when both were young deputies.
Nothing tied directly to Rourke publicly.
But Silas knew.
Mallory had spent twenty years protecting career.
Same pattern as Mercer.
Blackmail built on old misconduct.
Mallory was placed under surveillance.
Before arrest, he attempted to access witness relocation information for Natalie.
That ended ambiguity.
Federal agents detained him.
He confessed partially.
Silas contacted him seven years earlier.
Threatened to expose evidence tampering.
Mallory fed regional intelligence selectively.
He also warned Rourke about raids.
“Did you tell him about pear facility?” investigators asked.
“Yes.”
“When?”
Twelve hours before.
That explained escape.
“Where did he go?”
“I don’t know.”
“He didn’t tell you?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“He stopped trusting me.”
Then Mallory gave one clue.
Silas kept an emergency property no crew member used.
“Where?”
Mallory knew only nickname.
Darren’s House.
Evan frowned.
Darren had lived in multiple places.
Cole remembered Silas talking about his brother’s last ride.
Darren died near Auburn.
Maybe property there.
Property records showed a small cabin once owned by Darren’s girlfriend.
Paige Mercer.
Captain Mercer’s daughter.
After Paige died, cabin passed to her father.
Joel Mercer.
Evan stared.
“Mercer owns Darren’s House?”
Yes.
A neglected cabin outside Foresthill.
Mercer claimed he had not visited in years.
Silas knew property.
Could hide there precisely because no criminal ownership trail linked him.
Search warrant obtained.
Cabin empty.
But recently used.
Food warm.
Generator running.
Silas had been there hours earlier.
On table:
Photographs.
Cole.
Natalie.
Blaire.
Evan.
Mercer.
Mallory.
Silas was identifying everyone who could hurt him.
One photograph had a red X.
Mallory.
Another.
Mercer.
Another.
Travis.
Cleaning.
Cole had been right.
Then Evan found his own photograph.
No X.
Instead handwritten:
LAST.
Silas wanted Evan last.
Why?
Revenge required audience.
Darren.
The motor unit.
His brother.
Everything converged.
Then agents found a voice recorder.
Silas speaking.
“If you found this, Cross, you’re still behind.”
Evan listened.
Silas’s voice calm.
“You think badges change men.”
Pause.
“They don’t.”
Another.
“Mercer broke.”
“Mallory broke.”
“Your brother broke rules.”
Evan’s jaw tightened.
“Everybody breaks when the right person is on the other side.”
Then:
“Let’s see what you break for Cole.”
Recording ended.
Evan stared.
Silas still believed the final contest was corruption.
Could Evan be made to compromise law, career, ethics to protect his brother?
Cole was safe now.
So Silas needed a new pressure point.
Evan realized first.
He called Lena.
“Blaire.”
“What?”
“Silas doesn’t need Cole anymore.”
Silence.
“Blaire brought me into this.”
“Yes.”
“He’ll use her.”
“Why her?”
“Because I stopped for her once.”
May you like
Evan’s voice tightened.
“He thinks I’ll do it again.”
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