guidance. I believed him, but I couldn’t let this lead slip through my fingertips.” He shook his head in frustration. “I should have seen it all before, but I blindly requested and was granted permission to go to Liberia and investigate.”
“Let me guess. You got there and there was someone already at the embassy, shouting about a circle of trust.” I knew enough that I could fill in the blanks at this point.
“He burned those people alive. I did all I could to save one of them.” He looked at Mackenzie. “Charlie.”
“But why would Mills want to set you up like that?”
“At first, I thought he was purely motivated by greed. He could continue to make arms deals, but I had confronted him about it and spooked him. The Liberian deal was already in place, so what better way to silence me than to go over there and kill me in the fire, all the while making it look like I was the one responsible for all those deals. But that didn’t sit right with me. I needed to know more.
“By the time I had figured out this much, I had been presumed dead, my name dragged through the mud. Hell, Harrison had done such a thorough job, all the compelling physical evidence pointed to me as the man behind those arms deals…including bank accounts. I had nothing to go on, but I just knew it had to be him. It was my word against his, so I would need something more. Thankfully, Chaplain Slattery still had some contacts who could access information for me. For years, I had Harrison followed, had access to information in his accounts, his emails, monitored his phone calls… I hoped we’d find something, but we couldn’t. Nothing at all. And it was eating me up to see him simply living his life while I had to remain in hiding. So I thought maybe if I sent him a message that I was still alive and knew what he had done…”
“How? I thought he went missing?” I inquired.
Francis nodded. “He did. It was shortly after Magdalena’s death.” He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. “I stalled, always thinking I was missing something, that maybe he wasn’t the one behind it all. Hell, all I had to go on was my gut that he set me up. For years, I continued searching for a needle in a haystack when I should have trusted my gut from the beginning and confronted Harrison when I had the chance. If I had, I can’t help but wonder if things would have turned out differently. If my Magdalena wouldn’t…” His voice trailed off.
“Dad, you can’t blame yourself–”
“But I do, Serafina! Every day, I wake up wondering if I had opened my eyes sooner, had pressed the issue, had come out of hiding and followed my gut, maybe things wouldn’t have spiraled out of control. I know Charlie confronted Harrison about his investigation into the embassy attacks. This was just weeks before he was institutionalized. Then Charlie spoke with your mother. She told me about it, asking me whether she should tell him what she knew. I told her it was her decision but to be safe and meet in a neutral place. She never made it to that meeting. I know in my heart she didn’t have an accident. Someone didn’t want her to go to that meeting and give Charlie any information that could lead him on the right path. And now he’s on the chopping block, too.”
“So you think Charlie’s being set up?” I asked. From the beginning, Charlie had been a loose cannon to me, his intentions always confusing and open to several interpretations.
“I think this guy is ready to do anything, including killing, to silence anyone who could point a finger at him.”
“Like my mother?”
He nodded. “And Harrison.”
“Wait. What are you talking about?” Mackenzie asked loudly before lowering her voice. “So he’s not the one behind it all?”
“It would appear not. I think Harrison was just a puppet, doing what he had to in order to survive, including silencing anyone who could potentially incriminate him…until now.”
“So he is dead,” I stated.
“Possibly. He went missing back in March, so–”
“Wait a minute,” I interjected. “I thought you said he went missing shortly after your wife’s death.”
“That’s what I thought, as well,” Galloway said. “I was beside myself with remorse, thinking my only shot at some real answers was gone. I didn’t even consider the possibility that he