Chapter 10 - Someone Had Been Framing Mark
The payment went into an account bearing Mark’s name.
His Social Security number.
His date of birth.
His old home address.
Everything looked real.
Mark insisted he had never seen the account.
Investigators verified it was opened online.
Funds entered.
Then moved out within forty-eight hours.
Recipient:
M. REAGAN CONSULTING.
Mark laughed in disbelief.
“I don’t have a company.”
Rebecca asked who did.
Corporate records showed M. Reagan Consulting belonged to Mary Reagan.
Mark’s mother.
His face went white.
“No.”
Mary was sixty-two.
A retired elementary-school secretary.
She lived in Ohio.
Rebecca asked Mark to call her.
Mary answered on the second ring.
When Mark mentioned the company, she went silent.
“Mom?”
“Who told you?”
Mark stood.
“You know?”
Mary began crying.
She admitted Daniel had arranged a small trust before his death.
A lawyer contacted her years later.
The money was described as compensation from a private security settlement.
She used part of it to help Mark through college.
The entity handling the payments was M. Reagan Consulting.
Mark stared at Rebecca.
“How much?”
Mary hesitated.
“About seventy-five thousand.”
The same amount.
But the timing differed.
Her payment came years earlier.
The new ledger entry reused the old company identity to make Mark look connected to Northstar.
Someone had copied Daniel’s secret support mechanism.
Who knew about it?
Anna Raines.
Owen Price.
The lawyer.
And whoever monitored Daniel.
Cross may have known.
Elaine almost certainly did.
The framing had a purpose.
If Mark discovered the truth, investigators could portray him as a paid participant.
His confrontation with Rebecca in the cafeteria would then look unstable and self-protective.
The anonymous package included complaints about Mark for the same reason.
Someone had mixed real evidence with manufactured suspicion.
Rebecca looked at him.
“You did grab me.”
Mark’s face tightened.
“I know.”
“You’ve also had complaints about your temper.”
“Yes.”
“That part wasn’t invented.”
“No.”
The distinction mattered.
Being framed did not erase his own conduct.
Mark nodded.
“I owe you an apology.”
“You owe several people one.”
He almost smiled.
“Probably.”
Then investigators found the lawyer who created Mary’s company.
Samuel Keene.
Retired.
He remembered Daniel.
Daniel wanted to leave money for Mark without exposing his identity.
Keene created the entity.
Only one other person attended their meetings.
William Cross.
Mark’s eyes hardened.
Cross had known everything.
Under renewed questioning, Cross stopped denying it.
He admitted meeting Daniel under the David Raines identity.
He admitted helping arrange money for Mark.
He admitted threatening Daniel once.
Then claimed he changed.
“Why?” Rebecca asked.
Cross looked exhausted.
“Because Daniel asked me what kind of man scares a child to protect a dead general’s reputation.”
Mark stared through the observation glass.
Cross said that question haunted him.
Years later, he quietly helped Daniel send money home.
He also helped conceal the payments from Elaine.
“Then why transfer Mark to Fort Briar?”
Cross looked toward the glass as if he knew Mark was there.
“Because Owen contacted me.”
Rebecca froze.
“Owen asked you?”
“Yes.”
“He wanted Mark near Ellis.”
“So you knew this investigation was happening.”
“Pieces.”
“Why not tell me?”
Cross laughed bitterly.
“Because Hale was the last name I trusted.”
Rebecca accepted the blow.
Her father’s choices had consequences beyond death.
Cross had lied repeatedly.
But some lies concealed assistance rather than guilt.
Again, nothing was clean.
Then Cross gave them something important.
Catherine Voss had contacted him three days earlier.
She offered him a Northstar advisory position after retirement.
In return, she wanted one favor.
“What?”
“Find out what Rebecca Hale received in the anonymous package.”
Rebecca’s eyes narrowed.
Catherine knew the package existed.
That meant someone close to Ellis, Owen, or Graham had leaked it.
Owen denied telling anyone.
Graham denied it.
Ellis lay in the hospital.
Rebecca asked Ellis who knew he mailed the package.
He thought.
Then his face changed.
“My assistant.”
“Name?”
“Lieutenant Sarah Cole.”
Sarah Cole had helped assemble the documents.
She also booked the courier.
Security located her quarters.
Empty.
Her phone was off.
Then cafeteria footage showed Sarah leaving through a side door minutes after Rebecca exposed Mark’s pendant.
She had watched the entire confrontation.
May you like
And she had immediately called someone.
The number belonged to Catherine Voss.
