Chapter 5 - The Brother Who Was Supposed to Be Dead
Michael Mercer walked with a cane.
That was the first thing Ethan noticed.
The second was the scar running from his left temple to his jaw.
The third was that Anna’s supposedly long-lost brother looked terrified to see him.
Marcus opened the door only after checking the driveway.
Michael entered without greeting.
Howard locked it behind him.
Ethan stared.
“You’re Michael.”
“Unfortunately.”
“Anna thinks you disappeared.”
“I did.”
“She thinks you might be dead.”
“That was safer.”
“For whom?”
Michael’s eyes hardened.
“For Lily.”
Ethan stepped closer.
“You’d better explain.”
Michael removed his wet coat.
“I've spent eleven years waiting for Victor Hale to forget I existed.”
“He didn’t.”
“No.”
“What does Lily have to do with Hale?”
Michael looked at Howard.
Howard nodded.
Michael sighed.
“Daniel wasn’t just Anna’s boyfriend.”
“Husband?”
“No.”
“Then?”
“Daniel was working undercover.”
Ethan stared.
“For whom?”
“Federal investigators.”
The room went silent.
Marcus spoke first.
“FBI?”
“Financial crimes task force.”
Michael sat.
“He was tracking shell companies tied to Hale Development, port contracts, bribery, illegal kickbacks.”
“And my father?”
“Robert was involved.”
Ethan’s jaw tightened.
“How involved?”
“Early on? Deep.”
Howard looked away.
Michael continued.
“Your father used Hale’s inspectors. Paid people to approve unsafe equipment. Shifted liabilities into subcontractors.”
Ethan felt sick.
“Then why help Daniel?”
“Because my accident changed him.”
Michael tapped his cane.
“That loading platform collapsed because an inspection had been falsified.”
“I know.”
“No. You know the polite version.”
Michael leaned forward.
“I spent eight months learning to walk again.”
Ethan swallowed.
“My father paid your care.”
“He did.”
“Why?”
“Guilt.”
“Anna said the same.”
“He also started gathering evidence against Hale.”
Ethan looked at the photograph.
“Then Daniel’s death—”
“Wasn’t an accident.”
“You can prove that?”
“I saw what happened.”
Ethan stopped breathing for a second.
“You were there?”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
Michael stared toward the water.
“Daniel called Robert to the waterfront warehouse. He had copied financial ledgers and recorded Hale admitting to bribing an inspector.”
“Victor was there?”
“Yes.”
“And Robert?”
“Yes.”
“What did my father do?”
“Pulled Daniel out of the building when Hale’s men showed up.”
Ethan frowned.
“Then Daniel survived?”
“For about thirty minutes.”
Michael’s voice weakened.
“He’d already been hurt.”
“How?”
“One of Hale’s men hit him with a vehicle in the loading yard.”
“Jesus.”
“Robert got him into his car.”
“The crash?”
“Staged later.”
Ethan sat.
“What actually killed Daniel?”
“Internal bleeding.”
“Why didn’t Robert take him to a hospital?”
Michael’s eyes filled with anger.
“Because Daniel begged him not to.”
“That makes no sense.”
“It does if you know Hale had people watching every emergency room.”
Marcus frowned.
“That's extreme.”
“So was Hale.”
Michael looked at Ethan.
“Daniel used his last half hour to tell Robert where the copies were.”
“Box 317.”
“Yes.”
“Robert accessed it.”
“Yes.”
“Then where are the records?”
Michael shook his head.
“Not in the bank.”
“Where?”
“I never knew.”
“Then what was the key Anna kept?”
“Insurance.”
“To what?”
Michael stared at him.
“The real evidence.”
Ethan stood.
“We lost the key.”
“I know.”
“How?”
Michael's expression darkened.
“Because somebody has been watching Anna for months.”
Ethan immediately thought of Lily.
“Why now?”
“Victor is dying.”
“What?”
“Cancer.”
Howard nodded.
“Not public.”
Michael continued.
“Hale has spent decades erasing evidence. If those records surface after his death, his children could lose everything.”
“So he wants them destroyed.”
“Yes.”
“And Anna?”
“She doesn’t know where they are.”
“But he may not believe that.”
Michael shook his head.
“No.”
Ethan thought of the text.
ASK HER WHAT ROBERT CALLAHAN DID THE NIGHT DANIEL DIED.
“Why threaten me?”
“Because Robert hid the final copy for you.”
Ethan laughed once.
“Everyone keeps saying my father left things for me except my father.”
Michael reached into his coat.
He pulled out a small wooden toy.
A carved sailboat.
Ethan recognized it.
His father had made identical boats when Ethan was a child.
“I found this in Robert’s storage unit after he died.”
Michael handed it over.
Ethan turned it in his hands.
Initials were carved underneath.
E.C.
“That’s mine.”
“Open it.”
“It doesn’t open.”
“Look again.”
Ethan pressed along the base.
A hidden compartment released.
Inside was a tiny paper roll.
Three numbers.
Ethan stared.
“Eleven. Three. Seven.”
Michael nodded.
“The same numbers?”
Ethan’s mind raced.
Lily’s money.
$11.37.
His chest tightened.
“That can’t be coincidence.”
“No.”
“How would Lily know?”
“She wouldn’t.”
“Then why did she save exactly that amount?”
Nobody answered.
Ethan suddenly remembered the clear plastic bag.
LILY'S MONEY.
Anna’s handwriting.
Anna had written the total.
He stood.
“Anna knew.”
Michael nodded slowly.
“She may not have known consciously.”
“What does that mean?”
“Daniel used numbers as memory anchors. Dates. Amounts. Ordinary things nobody would question.”
“11.37 was a code?”
“Possibly.”
“For what?”
Michael looked at the sailboat.
“Warehouse eleven. Locker thirty-seven.”
Howard stood abruptly.
“There hasn’t been a Warehouse Eleven in twenty years.”
“Yes,” Michael said.
“There has.”
“Where?”
Michael looked at Ethan.
“Under your flagship store.”
Ethan froze.
His Seattle property had once been part of the old Callahan Supply distribution complex.
Most buildings were demolished.
One foundation remained.
His architects had built over it.
“There’s a sub-basement,” Ethan said.
Marcus frowned.
“I’ve never seen one.”
“You wouldn’t. It was sealed during renovation.”
Michael nodded.
“Robert helped design that renovation.”
Ethan felt a chill.
“He hid the evidence beneath my store.”
“That’s my guess.”
“And locker thirty-seven?”
Michael stood.
“There’s one way to find out.”
Ethan’s phone rang.
Anna.
He answered immediately.
“Are you okay?”
Her voice shook.
“Ethan, where is Lily?”
“At my place with Marlene.”
“No, she isn’t.”
Ethan went cold.
“What?”
“Marlene called me. Lily disappeared.”
Marcus was already moving.
“What do you mean disappeared?”
“They were in your toy department. Marlene turned to check on the twins. Lily was gone.”
Ethan closed his eyes.
“Security cameras?”
“They’re looking.”
Anna began crying.
“Ethan, she knows the store.”
“What?”
“I told her about the old basement once.”
His eyes snapped toward Michael.
“Why?”
“Because she asked where people put things they never wanted found.”
Ethan gripped the phone.
“What did you tell her?”
“That old buildings keep secrets underneath them.”
A second call flashed.
Store security.
Ethan switched lines.
“This is Callahan.”
A guard spoke quickly.
“We found Lily on camera.”
“Where?”
“She went into the employee elevator.”
“Which floor?”
“The panel shows B2.”
Ethan stared at Marcus.
“There is no B2.”
The guard hesitated.
“Sir, apparently there is.”
Ethan was already running toward the door.
Then the guard said something that stopped him.
“She wasn’t alone.”
Ethan’s blood went cold.
“Who was with her?”
“We can’t see his face.”
The video feed arrived.
Lily stood inside the elevator clutching her clear bag.
A tall man in a dark coat stepped in behind her.
The doors began closing.
At the last second, he looked toward the camera.
Michael stared at the screen.
His cane slipped from his hand.
“No.”
Ethan turned.
“You know him.”
Michael’s face went white.
May you like
“That man worked for Victor Hale the night Daniel died.”
And the elevator doors closed around Lily.
