Chapter 9: The Federal Contact
The agent's name was Carver.
She arrived that evening in a dark blue sedan, alone, which Dex took as either a good sign or a very deliberate one.
She was younger than he expected — mid-thirties, sharp eyes, a calm that felt professional rather than cold.
She sat across from him at the chapter house table and looked at the photographs Petra had sent.
All sixty-one of them.
She didn't rush.
She went through each one carefully, and her expression didn't change, but her stillness got heavier as she moved through the stack.
When she finished, she set the phone face-down on the table.
"Where did these come from?" she said.
"A property registered to a man named Marshall Greer.
Operating under a placement organization called Clearview Family Services."
"And how did you obtain them?"
Dex looked at her.
She looked back.
Then she said: "I'm going to ask you that question once more in a formal setting and I'll need a different kind of answer.
Right now I'm asking because I need to understand what I'm working with."
"They were obtained without entering the property," he said.
She accepted that.
"The ledger codes in the photographs — those aren't random.
That's a formatting style I've seen before.
It connects to a network we've been trying to document for three years." She paused.
"Marshall Greer has never appeared in our work.
He's been invisible."
"He has county coverage.
A retired sheriff's deputy.
Possibly a judge."
She nodded slowly.
"That would explain the invisibility." She looked at the phone again, still face-down.
"You said there's a woman connected to this.
A staff member who disappeared from the records."
"Nora Callahan.
She went into that property as a support worker six years ago.
She stopped appearing in filings four months later." He paused.
"I have reason to believe she's still alive.
Marsh implied it.
Used it as leverage."
Carver looked at him carefully.
"What's your relationship to her?"
"Personal."
She didn't push it.
"If she's alive and being held, that changes the operational timeline.
We can't move on Greer and the property without knowing where she is.
If he gets any warning, she's the first thing he uses."
"I know."
"Which means I need to find her before we execute anything." She folded her hands on the table.
"That's going to require resources I can't deploy without authorization.
Which means I need to take this up the chain tonight."
"How long?"
"If the ledger codes are what I think they are, authorization will come fast.
This is a case my office has wanted to crack for three years." She paused.
"Twenty-four hours.
Maybe less."
"And Marsh?"
"Does he know you've been to the property?"
"He knows I walked the perimeter.
He doesn't know about the photographs."
"Then he's nervous but not panicked.
He'll be watching you, not the outbuilding." She stood up.
"Don't go back to that property.
Don't contact Greer.
Don't do anything that tells him the situation has changed."
"Understood."
She picked up her keys.
Then she stopped.
"The girl.
Lila.
She's here?"
"Yes."
"She'll need to give a formal statement at some point.
But not tonight." She paused.
"Is she okay?"
Dex thought about Lila at the table with the blanket around her shoulders.
The way she'd looked at Diane when Diane tucked the edge of it in.
Like she wasn't sure the gesture was real.
"She's getting there," he said.
Carver nodded.
She left without another word.
Colt came in from the back room where he'd been listening.
"Twenty-four hours," he said.
"Yeah."
"And if Marsh moves before that?"
Dex looked at the table where the photographs had been.
"Then we move first," he said.
Colt sat down.
He was quiet for a moment.
Then: "The photo.
The one of the woman.
Was it her?"
Dex didn't answer right away.
"It was taken in a room with no windows," he said finally.
"She was sitting at a table.
She looked—" He stopped.
Started again.
"She looked like someone who had been somewhere a long time."
Colt said nothing.
He reached over and poured two mugs of coffee.
May you like
He pushed one across the table.
They sat there in the quiet of the chapter house while the night came in through the windows, and neither of them said anything else, because there was nothing else to say yet.
