Chapter 14 - Echoes in the Dark
Two years passed. The name Vance had become a footnote in criminal law textbooks, cited as the quintessential case of corporate greed and familial betrayal.
Inside the high-security psychiatric ward of the state prison, Daniel sat by a barred window, staring at the concrete yard below. His mind, broken by isolation and the endless replay of the surveillance tape shown during his trial, had deteriorated into a loop of waking nightmares.
Every time the wind howled through the window seams, he heard the rip of the velvet fabric.
Every time a shadow crossed his cell floor, he saw a babyâs crib swinging over an endless void.
A guard tapped on his iron cell door with a wooden baton. "Vance. Mail."
A single white envelope slid under the door.
Daniel scrambled across the cold floor like a spider, his dirty fingernails ripping the envelope open.
Inside was a single glossy photograph.
It was a picture of a little boy with bright hazel eyes and a radiant smile, standing on the deck of a sailboat in the middle of Lake Michigan, steering the wheel with Claraâs guiding hands over his. On the back of the photo, written in elegant black ink, were three simple words:
May you like
âHe is free.â
Daniel stared at the photograph for a long, silent minute. A single, ragged sob tore from his throat as he pressed his forehead against the cold concrete floor, weeping into the dark where no one would ever hear him.
