Chapter 7 - Price Was Guilty, but Not of TonightCalder stared at the photograph.
“Dane.”
Ronan nodded.
Evan stepped closer.
“Where is that?”
“I don't know.”
Calder took the phone.
Ronan almost objected.
Then let him.
Calder zoomed the background.
Brick wall.
Metal shelving.
A green industrial door.
Nothing obvious.
Tessa said:
“Maybe one of the garages.”
Evan looked at her.
“What garages?”
She shrugged.
“Nash has us drop bikes at different places.”
Ronan turned.
“How many?”
“Four that I've seen.”
“Any green doors?”
“One.”
Everyone looked at her.
“Where?”
“Near the river.”
Calder shook his head.
“Too obvious.”
Tessa crossed her arms.
“You asked.”
Ronan looked at the message again.
BRING THE BELL STREET FILE.
The file in his private safe.
The copy he had refused to destroy eight years ago.
Vega called.
Ronan told her Price appeared abducted.
“Do you have proof?”
He sent the image through a secure channel.
She went silent.
Then:
“I’m activating a limited response.”
“Keep it tight.”
“I know.”
Ronan asked:
“Who elevated Price’s access to my file?”
Vega hesitated.
“Deputy Chief Howard.”
Ronan frowned.
“Leon Howard?”
“Yes.”
Calder laughed softly.
Ronan looked at him.
“You know him.”
“Bell Street.”
Ronan’s stomach tightened.
Howard had been lieutenant then.
He approved undercover expense reports.
Signed Calder’s operational requests.
Ronan had never suspected him.
“Was Howard in Dane’s network?”
Calder nodded.
“Early.”
Ronan cursed.
Vega heard.
“What?”
“Howard is compromised.”
“Evidence?”
“Calder.”
“I am not basing a deputy chief investigation on a dead detective’s word.”
“Good.”
Ronan almost smiled.
“Check financials.”
“I already started.”
Ronan ended the call.
Tessa watched him.
“So what now?”
“We find Price.”
Calder said:
“No.”
Ronan glared.
Calder continued.
“Dane wants the file.”
“Yes.”
“So he will keep Price alive while he believes you might bring it.”
“Exactly.”
“That gives us time.”
Ronan didn’t like the phrase.
Price’s history mattered.
He had lied to Ronan.
Blackmailed Calder.
Exposed Evan.
Taken Dane’s money.
But he had also saved Ronan and Evan from the warehouse.
Guilt and rescue lived in the same man.
Ronan asked Evan:
“If Price gave you to Dane, why keep you alive?”
Evan looked toward the floor.
“Because I became useful.”
“How?”
“I knew Bell Street routes.”
“Years old.”
“Dane rebuilt.”
Ronan understood.
Evan became a living operational archive.
Calder said:
“And a reminder.”
“To who?”
“Me.”
Calder’s voice hardened.
“Dane knew I cared whether Evan survived.”
Evan laughed bitterly.
“You have a strange way of showing it.”
Calder ignored him.
Ronan asked Tessa:
“Tell me about Nash.”
She frowned.
“Mid-thirties. Shaved head. Drives different cars.”
“Voice?”
“Normal.”
“Anything distinctive?”
“Missing part of his right ear.”
Calder froze.
Ronan saw it.
“Who?”
Calder said:
“Nathan Grove.”
Evan looked stunned.
“You said Nash was just a collector.”
“He used to be Dane’s security.”
Ronan’s pulse changed.
“Warehouse?”
Calder nodded slowly.
“He was there.”
Evan’s face drained.
“He pulled me?”
“No.”
Calder looked at him.
“He was the one sent back to make sure no one came out.”
Evan went silent.
Ronan felt the danger of memory rising inside him.
“Price stopped him?”
“I don't know.”
Evan’s hands curled.
Tessa touched his arm.
He pulled away.
Ronan said:
“We find Nash, we find the current network.”
Calder nodded.
“And maybe Price.”
Tessa said:
“Nash contacts me at nine tomorrow.”
Ronan looked at the clock.
2:16 a.m.
Seven hours.
Calder frowned.
“Dane won’t wait that long.”
Ronan looked at the ransom message.
“What does he actually need from the file?”
Calder answered:
“Names connecting him to law enforcement.”
“Those names are eight years old.”
“Some still hold power.”
“Howard.”
“Yes.”
“Who else?”
Calder looked away.
Ronan noticed.
“Who else?”
No answer.
“Calder.”
The old detective finally said:
“Your father.”
Ronan stopped breathing.
Tessa whispered:
“What?”
Ronan stared.
“My father died twelve years ago.”
“I know.”
“Before Bell Street.”
“Yes.”
“Then why would he be in the file?”
Calder’s face changed.
“Because Thomas Hale helped build the network Dane inherited.”
Ronan felt the room tilt.
“No.”
Calder said nothing.
Ronan stepped forward.
“My father was a county prosecutor.”
“Yes.”
“He put people like Dane in prison.”
“Some.”
Ronan’s voice dropped.
“Explain.”
Calder pulled another file from the cabinet.
Old.
Brown edges.
THOMAS HALE.
Ronan stared at his father’s name.
Calder said:
“Victor Dane wasn't the beginning.”
Ronan didn't move.
“Your father used criminals as unofficial intelligence.”
“That's not illegal by itself.”
“No.”
Calder opened the file.
“But burying cases in exchange for information is.”
Ronan felt sick.
“Was he corrupt?”
Calder hesitated.
That hesitation mattered.
“He told himself he was protecting bigger investigations.”
Same language.
Different generation.
Ronan opened the folder.
Photographs.
Payments.
Meetings.
His father with men Ronan didn't know.
One with Victor Dane’s father.
Calder said:
“Thomas Hale created the relationships that later became Bell Street.”
Ronan stared.
“Dane wants the file because it doesn't only expose cops.”
“No.”
“It exposes how this started.”
“Yes.”
Ronan looked at the photograph of Price tied to a chair.
Then at his father’s file.
For eight years he believed Bell Street destroyed his trust in colleagues.
May you like
Now it was reaching backward into his family.
And someone was holding Daniel Price hostage because Ronan possessed proof that his own father may have helped create the machine that nearly killed him.
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