CHAPTER 4 — The Secret Her Father Took to the Grave
The classified file slipped from Juliet's trembling hands.
She picked it up again, certain she had read it wrong.
She hadn't.
Her father, Captain Thomas Mason, had saved twelve-year-old Maxwell Buchanan during a warehouse fire twenty-eight years earlier.
There was more.
Much more.
The next page carried photographs.
A burning dock.
Police tape.
Three terrified children.
One of them was Maxwell.
Another photograph showed Thomas Mason carrying the unconscious boy through flames while gunfire erupted behind them.
Juliet's heartbeat accelerated.
Her father had never spoken about this.
Not once.
She turned another page.
Every word made less sense than the last.
Operation terminated.
Witnesses eliminated.
Child survivor relocated.
Someone had crossed out several names with thick black ink.
Only one remained visible.
Richard Hale.
Juliet frowned.
The name sounded familiar.
Before she could think further—
Someone knocked again.
Three soft knocks.
Then two more.
Exactly the way her father had always knocked before coming home.
Impossible.
Thomas Mason had been dead for five years.
Juliet slowly approached the door.
"Who is it?"
Silence.
She opened it.
Nobody stood there.
Only a sealed envelope rested on the floor.
Inside was a single photograph.
A recent photograph.
Someone had secretly taken a picture of Juliet standing beside Ivy in the rain.
Across the back, written in black ink...
YOUR FATHER DIDN'T DIE IN AN ACCIDENT.
Her blood turned cold.
At that exact moment her phone rang.
Unknown number.
She answered.
A distorted voice whispered,
"They're watching you now."
Click.
The line went dead.
Across Chicago...
Maxwell Buchanan stood inside the underground security room beneath his estate.
Twenty-four monitors displayed every camera around the mansion.
His security chief entered hurriedly.
"Sir..."
"What?"
"We found another body."
Maxwell didn't react.
"Whose?"
"The sniper."
Maxwell finally looked up.
"He was murdered."
"By who?"
The answer unsettled every man in the room.
"We don't know."
The killer had removed every fingerprint.
Every tooth.
Every identifying mark.
Professional.
Military professional.
Maxwell stared at the screen showing Juliet's apartment.
Someone else had entered the game.
Someone far more dangerous than ordinary criminals.
That night...
Juliet woke to the sound of her bedroom window opening.
She reached for the lamp.
A shadow stood inside her apartment.
Not moving.
Watching.
Then a calm voice filled the darkness.
"If you want to know why your father died..."
"...come alone."
The figure disappeared before Juliet could scream.
On the windowsill remained only one object.
May you like
Her father's old military dog tag.
The one buried with him.
