Finally Doc said, “So Brad’s father may have been involved in Danny’s death.”
Henderson shook his head.
“I said his command was under investigation.”
“That’s a very general-shaped way of avoiding the question.”
Henderson looked at her.
Doc did not blink.
Clara would have smiled under different circumstances.
Henderson sighed.
“There were eleven officers and contractors under review. Thomas Miller was one of them.”
“Was he the main suspect?” Clara asked.
“He became one.”
“Why?”
“Because several questionable route changes required authorization from his headquarters.”
Jax frowned.
“And the m-money?”
“Millions disappeared.”
“Millions?”
“Eventually, more than forty.”
Doc whistled softly.
Henderson continued.
“We believed stolen military fuel and equipment were being resold through local intermediaries. Some money returned to American contracting entities through shell companies.”
Clara stared at him.
“And Danny found that?”
“He found part of it.”
“Where’s the rest?”
“Gone.”
“How?”
“After Daniel died, two additional sources disappeared. One records facility was destroyed in an attack. A contracting officer who agreed to testify recanted.”
Doc looked toward Henderson.
“And you?”
“I kept investigating.”
Clara understood before he said it.
“Kunar.”
Henderson nodded.
“The trip when your convoy was attacked was not a routine inspection.”
Every muscle in Clara’s body became rigid.
“What was it?”
“I was traveling to meet another source.”
Clara remembered the mountains.
The explosion.
The overturned vehicle.
The heat against her face.
The General trapped beneath steel.
“That ambush was meant for you?”
“We believed so.”
“And nobody told me?”
“You were security. You were not cleared for the purpose of the mission.”
Clara laughed bitterly.
“I carried you through machine-gun fire, but I wasn’t cleared to know why people were shooting at us.”
Henderson said quietly, “Yes.”
Jax looked toward Clara.
She looked away.
Doc pushed herself out of the chair.
“So what happened to the source?”
“Killed three days later.”
“Convenient.”
“Yes.”
Clara touched the lighter again.
“Why did you ask about this?”
Henderson watched it.
“When you pulled me toward the helicopter in Kunar, I saw your nametag.”
“Vance.”
“Yes.”
“So?”
“I knew Daniel had a younger sister.”
Clara’s throat tightened.
Henderson continued.
“Then I saw the lighter.”
“You recognized it?”
“I had seen him use it.”
Clara stared at the brass casing.
“But you still said nothing.”
“The investigation was already collapsing.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“I thought whoever had targeted Daniel might not know you had any connection to his work.”
“I didn’t.”
“Exactly.”
Henderson’s voice grew heavier.
“I believed ignorance was protecting you.”
Clara looked at him for a long time.
“And now?”
“Now Brad Miller attacked you in front of witnesses less than twenty-four hours after his father learned I would attend this parade.”
Jax turned sharply.
“How do you know Thomas Miller knew?”
Henderson reached into his jacket and removed his phone.
“Because he called me yesterday.”
Everyone went still.
“What did he want?” Clara asked.
“To ask whether I planned to attend.”
“And?”
“I told him yes.”
“What else?”
“He asked whether I had kept in contact with you.”
Clara felt a chill.
“What did you say?”
“That I had not.”
Jax began pacing.
“So Thomas talks to you. Then his son suddenly decides Clara absolutely cannot march in front of you.”
Doc’s eyes narrowed.
“That doesn’t sound random.”
“No,” Henderson said.
“It doesn’t.”
At 2:17 in the morning, Clara woke because something sharp was pressing against her palm.
She had fallen asleep holding Danny’s Zippo.
The lighter lay partly open.
One edge of the metal insert had shifted from the casing.
Clara stared at it.
The Zippo had been dented for years, but the fall at the wash rack had added a new impact mark near the bottom.
She pulled the insert free.
Cotton packing showed underneath.
Nothing unusual.
Then she noticed the base plate.
A narrow brass strip had lifted away from the casing.
Clara frowned.
She picked at it with one fingernail.
It moved.
Her pulse quickened.
The strip was not part of the original lighter.
Someone had fixed it inside the shell.
She slid it free.
There were characters scratched into the metal.
Eight numbers.
Then three words.
Clara stopped breathing.
HENDERSON KNOWS WHERE.
She pressed the nurse call button.
Then immediately reconsidered and reached for her phone.
Jax answered on the second ring.
“Clara?”
“Come back.”
“What happened?”
“Bring Henderson.”
She looked at the brass strip.
“And don’t tell anyone.”
Twenty-five minutes later, Henderson stood beside her bed.
Clara held the strip out.
He saw the message.
All color left his face.
Doc noticed.
“You recognize it.”
Henderson did not take the strip.
Clara’s voice turned cold.
“What does ‘Henderson knows where’ mean?”
Henderson sat down.
For the first time, Clara saw genuine fear in him.
Not concern.
Fear.
“Daniel told me he had made a duplicate.”
“A duplicate of what?”
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