The headline read: « Key Witness Testifies in Ashgrove Trucking Fraud Case. »
I scanned the article quickly, hands still trembling.
The byline belonged to a reporter I’d never heard of, the paper itself long since folded into a larger regional publication, according to a small note scribbled in the margin in Marcus’s own handwriting.
A logistics company, laundering money through falsified shipping manifests.
A young accountant, uncredited by name in the article, whose testimony had reportedly « proven instrumental » in securing convictions against three senior executives.
I flipped the clipping over.
On the back, in handwriting I now recognized as unmistakably his, a single line: « This is the day I stopped being Nathaniel. »
Beneath the documents sat a small laminated card, official-looking, a phone number printed beneath a government seal I didn’t recognize.
U.S. Marshals Service. Witness Security Division.
I stared at that card for a long time before finally picking up my phone.
