Chapter 7 - WHICH BROTHER FIRED
Rebecca contacted me through a prepaid phone.
She refused to reveal her location.
Her voice sounded older than I remembered, yet the rhythm was familiar.
She told me the informant’s name was Marcus Green.
He had delivered proof that Charles and Brotherhood officers stole narcotics and resold them through Blue Harbor clinics.
Marcus arranged to meet Mark.
Two men arrived wearing Mark’s face.
One held Marcus while the other shot him with Laura’s pistol.
Rebecca witnessed the murder from a parked vehicle.
She could not identify which brother fired because they switched coats afterward.
The twins designed the crime so each could blame the other.
Mark’s body-camera metadata placed him near the scene, but Matthew had used his equipment before.
Laura was framed.
Rebecca was taken.
Without determining the shooter, both brothers might create reasonable doubt.
My mother remembered one detail.
The shooter wore a college ring beneath his glove.
Mark attended college.
Matthew did not.
Mark fired the gun.
Matthew helped.
The evidence needed corroboration.
Anna, my younger sister, searched our old family storage unit and found Mark’s college ring inside a box of my belongings.
He had hidden it after the murder.
A microscopic blood trace matched Marcus.
The case tightened.
Mark learned about the ring during interrogation.
He requested a deal and offered Matthew’s current location.
Matthew had moved into a Brotherhood safe house beneath an old courthouse.
Rebecca might be there.
Agents entered through utility tunnels.
They found servers, forged police credentials, witness files, and rooms prepared for long-term confinement.
My mother was not there.
A live screen showed her inside a moving vehicle.
Matthew sat beside her.
He looked directly at the camera.
“Mark chose the family. I chose the truth.”
Rebecca answered, “You chose yourself.”
Matthew’s face tightened.
My mother continued.
“You are not saving me. You are using me to judge him.”
He ended the feed.
The vehicle’s background revealed a hospital sign.
Saint Catherine Behavioral Center.
Blue Harbor’s original facility.
Federal agents raced there.
The building appeared abandoned.
Inside the basement were dozens of witness files.
One belonged to Charles.
He had not founded the Brotherhood.
He inherited it from his father, William Carter, a former police commissioner.
The network was three generations old.
At the bottom of the archive was a file bearing my name.
I had been evaluated at age nine.
Subject demonstrates unusually strong recall under stress.
Recommended for future witness-control study.
My childhood had been monitored because my mother’s memory made her dangerous.
The family did not choose me for Mark accidentally.
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They wanted to know whether love could make a reliable witness doubt herself.
Our marriage was another experiment in control.
