“So you said no.”
He nodded.
“I said no because I thought no meant keeping you alive.”
His voice cracked.
“And the people handling me treated that answer like a security decision, not a family tragedy. To them, my parents were not a mother and father losing their son. They were possible exposure points. Possible leaks. Possible victims if I slipped. No one had to sit across from Mom and watch what that silence did to her. No one had to see Dad driving those roads. So the silence became paperwork.”
I looked away because I hated how much sense it made and how little comfort it gave.
Jesse was moved from Ohio to Oregon first.
Then to Washington.
He became Sam Reed.
For years, he remained tied to a case he could not discuss. Some men went to prison. Others disappeared. A few died before trial. Vale himself was not found until years later, and even then, appeals and related investigations dragged on.
