\u201cUncle Thomas.\u201d<\/p>\n
Michael said the name again more quietly, as though volume might make it less impossible.<\/p>\n
I knew Thomas Collins mostly from photographs.<\/p>\n
My father's younger brother had supposedly died when I was a teenager. A boating accident in Michigan. No body recovered. A memorial service instead of a funeral.<\/p>\n
I had been sixteen.<\/p>\n
Michael twelve.<\/p>\n
Dad never spoke much about him afterward.<\/p>\n
At the time I understood that as grief.<\/p>\n
Now I understood nothing automatically.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy were you afraid to mention him?\u201d Detective Marquez asked.<\/p>\n
Michael stared at the floor.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause Dad told me never to.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe night of the warehouse fire.\u201d<\/p>\n
My pulse changed.<\/p>\n
Dad had given Michael a warning about Thomas while his world was collapsing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat exactly did he say?\u201d<\/p>\n
Michael closed his eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2018If you see Thomas, don\u2019t believe his face.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Nobody spoke.<\/p>\n
Richard frowned.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat does that even mean?\u201d<\/p>\n
Michael looked toward the photograph Rebecca had referenced.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I finally know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Marquez pulled every image we had involving Dad, Andrew and the older Collins family.<\/p>\n
Most photographs were ordinary.<\/p>\n
Christmas.<\/p>\n
Graduations.<\/p>\n
Company events.<\/p>\n
One showed Dad and Thomas standing beside my grandfather at the old lake cabin.<\/p>\n
Dad looked broad and serious.<\/p>\n
Thomas stood half a head shorter, smiling, his hair combed back.<\/p>\n
Even in youth, the brothers resembled each other.<\/p>\n
Not enough to fool family at close range.<\/p>\n
But enough that age, posture, glasses, facial hair and distance could blur the difference.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did Thomas do for work?\u201d Marquez asked.<\/p>\n
I had to search memory.<\/p>\n
\u201cPrinting.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDocuments?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCommercial printing. Forms, certificates, business stationery.\u201d<\/p>\n
Peter Varden reacted on the video connection.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat matters.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course it did.<\/p>\n
Before digital systems, identity depended heavily on paper.<\/p>\n
Birth certificates.<\/p>\n
Licenses.<\/p>\n
Invoices.<\/p>\n
Corporate seals.<\/p>\n
Letters on proper stationery.<\/p>\n
A printer could manufacture credibility.<\/p>\n
James Varden asked, \u201cDid Thomas know Robert?\u201d<\/p>\n
I didn't.<\/p>\n
Michael did.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Every head turned toward him.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw them together once.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore Thomas supposedly died.\u201d<\/p>\n
Michael had been about eleven.<\/p>\n
Dad took him to the lake cabin.<\/p>\n
Thomas arrived after dark with two men.<\/p>\n
One was Robert Varden.<\/p>\n
Michael didn't know the other.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey argued in the boathouse.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAbout what?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI couldn't hear everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat do you remember?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cRobert said Thomas had become reckless.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd Thomas?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said Robert couldn't run anything without people like him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Peter whispered something under his breath.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe created the identity system.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThomas?\u201d<\/p>\n
Peter nodded.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe.\u201d<\/p>\n
The continuity ledger had shown identities passed between people.<\/p>\n
Frank Mercer.<\/p>\n
Robert Varden.<\/p>\n
Shell companies.<\/p>\n
Dead men remaining economically alive.<\/p>\n
We had assumed Robert designed it.<\/p>\n
But perhaps Thomas Collins had provided the practical mechanism.<\/p>\n
Marquez asked Peter whether his brother ever mentioned Thomas.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYears before the fire. Peter said Robert had a document man.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou're Peter.\u201d<\/p>\n
He rubbed his face.<\/p>\n
\u201cSorry. I meant Andrew. Andrew said Robert had a document man.\u201d<\/p>\n
The exhaustion was catching everyone.<\/p>\n
\u201cName?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe called him T.C.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thomas Collins.<\/p>\n
My uncle.<\/p>\n
Another family member inside the machine.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat happened in the boating accident?\u201d Marquez asked.<\/p>\n
I remembered newspaper clippings.<\/p>\n
A small boat found drifting.<\/p>\n
Blood on one seat.<\/p>\n
Thomas's jacket aboard.<\/p>\n
No body.<\/p>\n
It sounded painfully familiar now.<\/p>\n
Identity through objects.<\/p>\n
Death without remains.<\/p>\n
Dad had accepted it.<\/p>\n
Or pretended to.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho identified the boat?\u201d Marquez asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cDad.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWas he there when it was recovered?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don't know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Records were retrieved.<\/p>\n
The report was thirty-four years old.<\/p>\n
Boat registered to Thomas.<\/p>\n
Jacket.<\/p>\n
Wallet.<\/p>\n
Blood type consistent.<\/p>\n
No corpse.<\/p>\n
Death declared years later.<\/p>\n
Investigating deputy:<\/p>\n
Thomas Bell.<\/p>\n
The same county investigator later paid to support Michael's false identification.<\/p>\n
Richard exhaled sharply.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was already helping them back then.\u201d<\/p>\n
The corruption predated the warehouse fire by more than a decade.<\/p>\n
Thomas\u2019s death may have been an earlier rehearsal.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did Thomas become after he died?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
Nobody answered.<\/p>\n
Then Michael said, \u201cAndrew.\u201d<\/p>\n
I turned.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNot permanently.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cExplain.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI remembered something Rebecca said years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
He pressed fingers to his forehead.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe told me Andrew didn\u2019t learn impersonation from Robert. He learned it from a man who had already erased himself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thomas.<\/p>\n
Andrew learned how to become other people from my uncle.<\/p>\n
Maybe first through documents.<\/p>\n
Then voice.<\/p>\n
Behavior.<\/p>\n
Records.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow long did they work together?\u201d<\/p>\n
Michael shook his head.<\/p>\n
\u201cYears.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDid Leonard know Thomas?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFrank?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDad?\u201d<\/p>\n
Michael looked at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
That hurt differently.<\/p>\n
Dad had warned Michael.<\/p>\n
So he knew Thomas was alive at least by the warehouse fire.<\/p>\n
Maybe long before.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd Mom?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don't know.\u201d<\/p>\n
I thought of the layers she had carried.<\/p>\n
Possibly.<\/p>\n
Likely.<\/p>\n
Maybe everyone knew except me.<\/p>\n
Anger rose.<\/p>\n
Then I stopped it before it became the only emotion available.<\/p>\n
Not knowing had harmed me.<\/p>\n
But knowing had harmed them too.<\/p>\n
Secrets had not protected anyone cleanly.<\/p>\n
\u201cRebecca said Thomas was behind the camera at Dad\u2019s funeral,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n
Michael nodded.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember now.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe photographer.\u201d<\/p>\n
It had been a private cemetery service.<\/p>\n
Someone stood beyond the family cluster with a telephoto camera.<\/p>\n
Michael saw him while hiding near Rebecca.<\/p>\n
The man resembled Dad from a distance.<\/p>\n
Michael assumed grief was distorting his vision.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe looked at me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLike he recognized me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDid he approach?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDid Rebecca react?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
That was the missing piece.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe pulled me behind the tree.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rebecca had been protecting Michael from Thomas.<\/p>\n
Or hiding Michael from him.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did she say?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2018Not him.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Marquez frowned.<\/p>\n
\u201cMeaning?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought she meant don't let him see you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd now?\u201d<\/p>\n
Michael stared at the photograph.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe she meant, \u2018That's not Daniel.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Rebecca had known Thomas was alive.<\/p>\n
Another secret.<\/p>\n
Then Tyler spoke.<\/p>\n
\u201cWait.\u201d<\/p>\n
He had been scrolling through old messages under supervision.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a photo Michael sent me.\u201d<\/p>\n
He turned the screen.<\/p>\n
A group photograph outside the Blue Lantern Motel.<\/p>\n
Michael.<\/p>\n
Leonard.<\/p>\n
A man in the background near a vending machine.<\/p>\n
Older.<\/p>\n
Thin.<\/p>\n
White beard.<\/p>\n
I enlarged it.<\/p>\n
Something in his posture made my stomach twist.<\/p>\n
Richard saw it too.<\/p>\n
\u201cDaniel.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
It wasn't Dad.<\/p>\n
Dad had been dead for twelve years when the photograph was taken.<\/p>\n
But the resemblance was uncanny.<\/p>\n
Michael looked ill.<\/p>\n
\u201cThomas.\u201d<\/p>\n
My supposedly dead uncle had been at the motel when Michael met Tyler.<\/p>\n
Watching again.<\/p>\n
\u201cDid you know?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou didn't see him?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tyler shook his head too.<\/p>\n
The background figure had been invisible because nobody was looking for him.<\/p>\n
Marquez began facial comparison across old photographs.<\/p>\n
Not definitive.<\/p>\n
Age changed too much.<\/p>\n
But ear shape, brow, nose angle and jaw were consistent.<\/p>\n
\u201cThomas may still be alive,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
May.<\/p>\n
I was beginning to hate that word.<\/p>\n
Then Peter said something strange.<\/p>\n
\u201cAsk Crowe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr. Alan Crowe remained under federal guard.<\/p>\n
Alive after his own false cremation.<\/p>\n
When questioned about Thomas Collins, the old physician became visibly frightened.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe's alive.\u201d<\/p>\n
No hesitation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don't know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen did you see him last?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSix months ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
The same period Tyler entered the network.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did he want?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMedical supplies.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat kind?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cInsulin. Sedatives. Blood-pressure medication.\u201d<\/p>\n
My stomach tightened.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe didn't say.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDid you give them?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat else?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBlank death certificates.\u201d<\/p>\n
Marquez stared.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou supplied blank death certificates to Thomas Collins?\u201d<\/p>\n
Crowe looked away.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor years.\u201d<\/p>\n
The architecture of false death became clearer.<\/p>\n
Thomas created paper.<\/p>\n
Crowe provided medical legitimacy.<\/p>\n
Bell provided investigative legitimacy.<\/p>\n
Robert supplied legal power.<\/p>\n
Frank violence.<\/p>\n
Leonard money and coordination.<\/p>\n
Andrew became identities.<\/p>\n
Rebecca inherited influence.<\/p>\n
A whole machine.<\/p>\n
My uncle had helped build it.<\/p>\n
\u201cDid Thomas create Michael\u2019s false death?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
Crowe nodded.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe designed the paperwork.\u201d<\/p>\n
Michael stared.<\/p>\n
My own uncle had helped erase my brother.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAsk him.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI'm asking you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Crowe looked frightened.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause Daniel wouldn't.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat wouldn't Dad do?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTurn Margaret over.\u201d<\/p>\n
The room went silent.<\/p>\n
My mouth went dry.<\/p>\n
\u201cTurn me over for what?\u201d<\/p>\n
Crowe closed his eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThomas wanted you inside the company.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore the fire.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFor what purpose?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou were clean.\u201d<\/p>\n
I understood before he finished.<\/p>\n
No criminal history.<\/p>\n
No known connection to the hidden network.<\/p>\n
Legitimate bookkeeping experience.<\/p>\n
Stable marriage.<\/p>\n
A respectable identity.<\/p>\n
They wanted to use me as another clean face.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did Dad say?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
Michael looked at me.<\/p>\n
Crowe continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cThomas said family made the best cover.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dad refused.<\/p>\n
That may have been the first real split between brothers.<\/p>\n
\u201cDid Thomas threaten me?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mom's fear of photographs began to make even more sense.<\/p>\n
Maybe Frank hadn't invented the tactic.<\/p>\n
Maybe Thomas had.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat happened after Dad refused?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThomas started using your name anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n
My stomach dropped.<\/p>\n
The fraudulent accounts from seventeen years ago.<\/p>\n
Maybe not Rebecca.<\/p>\n
Maybe older.<\/p>\n
Maybe Thomas had been testing my identity for decades.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe used Margaret before Tyler ever existed,\u201d Marquez said.<\/p>\n
Crowe nodded.<\/p>\n
\u201cCompany filings. Temporary accounts. Prescription pickups. Nothing that stayed open long.\u201d<\/p>\n
I felt physically contaminated.<\/p>\n
My name had been treated like a spare key.<\/p>\n
Something relatives and criminals borrowed because they assumed I would never know.<\/p>\n
\u201cDid Dad find out?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did he do?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe attacked Thomas.\u201d<\/p>\n
That shocked me.<\/p>\n
\u201cPhysically?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe summer before the warehouse fire.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dad had never been a violent man.<\/p>\n
At least not around me.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat happened?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThomas disappeared again.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMeaning?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cChanged identities.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTo whom?\u201d<\/p>\n
Crowe looked toward investigators.<\/p>\n
\u201cI only knew one.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhich?\u201d<\/p>\n
He swallowed.<\/p>\n
\u201cDaniel Collins.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nobody spoke.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe used Dad\u2019s identity?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile Dad was alive?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
A second Daniel.<\/p>\n
That explained sightings.<\/p>\n
Signatures.<\/p>\n
Maybe the man behind the camera.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did he use it for?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBank access. Company approvals. Medical records.\u201d<\/p>\n
Richard stared.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat could destroy every assumption we've made about Daniel's participation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Exactly.<\/p>\n
Some transactions bearing Dad's signature may not have been Dad at all.<\/p>\n
Dad had admitted wrongdoing in his federal statement.<\/p>\n
But perhaps not everything attributed to him belonged to him.<\/p>\n
Peter looked shaken.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen some records Robert showed me\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCould be Thomas.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
History shifted again.<\/p>\n
Not toward Dad's innocence.<\/p>\n
He had confessed his own role.<\/p>\n
But his crimes and Thomas\u2019s had been merged deliberately.<\/p>\n
Then Marquez received the first major identification from Rebecca's missing transport.<\/p>\n
One officer had been found.<\/p>\n
Alive.<\/p>\n
Handcuffed inside the abandoned vehicle.<\/p>\n
The second officer was missing.<\/p>\n
Rebecca gone.<\/p>\n
Elaine gone.<\/p>\n
Andrew gone.<\/p>\n
But the surviving officer remembered another vehicle arriving.<\/p>\n
Driver:<\/p>\n
Older white male.<\/p>\n
White beard.<\/p>\n
Walked with a slight limp.<\/p>\n
He called Rebecca by a childhood nickname.<\/p>\n
Becca-Bee.<\/p>\n
Claire recognized it immediately.<\/p>\n
Only close family had used it.<\/p>\n
Robert.<\/p>\n
James.<\/p>\n
Peter.<\/p>\n
And perhaps Thomas, who had known the Vardens for decades.<\/p>\n
\u201cDid Rebecca go willingly?\u201d Marquez asked.<\/p>\n
The officer nodded.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not kidnapped.<\/p>\n
Collected.<\/p>\n
Rebecca had escaped into Thomas's vehicle.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere?\u201d<\/p>\n
Unknown.<\/p>\n
Then my phone rang.<\/p>\n
No hidden number this time.<\/p>\n
Caller ID displayed a name.<\/p>\n
DANIEL COLLINS.<\/p>\n
I stared.<\/p>\n
Dad's name.<\/p>\n
Dad's old number.<\/p>\n
Disconnected for twelve years.<\/p>\n
Michael whispered, \u201cDon't answer.\u201d<\/p>\n
I did.<\/p>\n
An old man's voice said:<\/p>\n
\u201cHello, Margaret.\u201d<\/p>\n
My body knew before my mind did.<\/p>\n
Not Dad.<\/p>\n
Close enough to wound.<\/p>\n
\u201cThomas.\u201d<\/p>\n
A soft laugh.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo Daniel did tell you something useful after all.\u201d<\/p>\n
I gripped the phone.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere is Rebecca?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWith family.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cElaine?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAlso.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAndrew?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cStill thinks he's winning.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy call?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause everyone has spent twenty-one years telling you that you were outside this story.\u201d<\/p>\n
A pause.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou were never outside it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat do you want?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMy name back.\u201d<\/p>\n
I almost laughed.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou threw it away.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen live with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
He was silent.<\/p>\n
Perhaps nobody had spoken to him that way in years.<\/p>\n
Then he said:<\/p>\n
\u201cYou sound like your mother.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI've heard.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEvelyn was inconvenient.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMy mother beat all of you.\u201d<\/p>\n
His breath changed.<\/p>\n
Anger.<\/p>\n
Good.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd she left you the one thing she shouldn't have.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe translation?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cProof Daniel knew I was alive.\u201d<\/p>\n
I frowned.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy does that matter?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause if Daniel knew, then one more person knew.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWho?\u201d<\/p>\n
Thomas answered:<\/p>\n
\u201cYou.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou were sixteen when I died.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou saw me afterward.\u201d<\/p>\n
My mind resisted.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the train station.\u201d<\/p>\n
A memory flickered.<\/p>\n
Cincinnati.<\/p>\n
A family trip.<\/p>\n
A man on a platform.<\/p>\n
Dad pulling me suddenly toward another entrance.<\/p>\n
I had forgotten.<\/p>\n
Or been told I was mistaken.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou saw me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw someone who looked like you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd Daniel told you what?\u201d<\/p>\n
I remembered.<\/p>\n
Not Uncle Thomas.<\/p>\n
A sentence.<\/p>\n
You\u2019re tired, Margaret. You didn't see anyone.<\/p>\n
My pulse accelerated.<\/p>\n
Dad had trained me into doubt too.<\/p>\n
Long before Tyler.<\/p>\n
Thomas said, \u201cYour father spent his life teaching you not to trust what you saw.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maybe.<\/p>\n
Or protecting me badly.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is it you actually want from me?\u201d<\/p>\n
His voice turned cold.<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore this ends, I want you to remember who started the lying.\u201d<\/p>\n
The line disconnected.<\/p>\n
On Marquez's screen, another message arrived.<\/p>\n
A traffic camera had located Thomas's vehicle.<\/p>\n
Heading south.<\/p>\n
Toward Columbus.<\/p>\n
Toward my house.<\/p>\n
\u201cUncle Thomas.\u201d Michael said the name again more quietly, as though volume might make it less impossible. I knew Thomas Collins mostly from photographs. My father's younger brother had supposedly … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15913,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feel-one-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/feelonestory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/feelonestory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/feelonestory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/feelonestory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/feelonestory.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15942"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/feelonestory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15942\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15990,"href":"https:\/\/feelonestory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15942\/revisions\/15990"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/feelonestory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/feelonestory.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/feelonestory.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/feelonestory.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}