Chapter 4 - The Photographer’s Camera
Police caught the photographer in the garden.
His name was Nolan Price.
He was not listed on the wedding company’s staff records.
Wade had hired him privately.
Inside his camera bag were photographs of every entrance to the house, every police vehicle outside, and every guest who had spoken to Dad.
There were also recent photographs of me walking home from school.
Dad’s jaw tightened.
“Why were you following my daughter?”
Nolan refused to answer.
Detective Mills found a hidden compartment inside the camera.
It contained a remote detonator.
The basement search stopped immediately.
A bomb squad entered the property.
Wade began shouting that he had never seen the device before.
Nolan looked toward him.
“You said the floor would be empty before the ceremony.”
Wade closed his eyes.
Another accidental confession.
Officers arrested both men.
My mother still defended Wade.
“He’s frightened. He doesn’t know what he’s saying.”
Dad stared at her.
“He admitted something was buried downstairs.”
“He meant construction materials.”
“And the detonator?”
She had no answer.
The bomb squad located small charges attached beneath the basement steps.
They were designed to collapse the room and destroy whatever lay below the concrete.
The charges had not been activated.
The silver key from Rachel’s letter opened a metal cabinet behind the furnace.
Inside sat a green military medical case.
Dad recognized the unit insignia.
It belonged to Thomas Hale.
The case contained blood-stained dog tags, a satellite phone, and documents sealed in plastic.
But there was no body inside the basement pit.
Only a mannequin wrapped in plastic.
Wade had staged the photographs I found.
Or so everyone thought.
Then Detective Mills examined the mannequin.
A real human finger had been attached to one hand.
Its fingerprint matched Thomas Hale.
Dad gripped the edge of the table.
His commanding officer had not died in an accident.
May you like
Someone had cut off his finger.
And according to the satellite phone’s last stored message, Thomas was still alive six months after his official funeral.
