Chapter 8 - THE BROTHER ADRIAN NEVER SUSPECTED
Adrian had one living brother.
Ethan Cole.
Three years younger.
Funny, reckless, charming, and chronically allergic to responsibility.
Adrian had spent half his life rescuing him.
College debts.
A failed restaurant.
A divorce.
An investment scheme that cost him nearly a million dollars.
But family was family.
At least that was what Adrian had always believed.
Now Claire's affidavit sat on the table between him and Officer Ruiz.
Caleb is not working for Miles. He is working for someone in Adrian's family.
"It doesn't say Ethan," Adrian said.
Ruiz remained careful.
"No."
"My parents are dead."
"Any cousins?"
"Dozens. None close enough to know Claire's schedule."
"Your brother was close?"
Adrian stared at him.
"He loved Claire."
"That wasn't my question."
Adrian looked away.
Ethan had adored Claire.
Or seemed to.
He called her the sister he should have been born with. She helped him through rehab after a gambling spiral. She loaned him money twice without telling Adrian.
And then, three months before Claire died, the two of them had stopped speaking.
Adrian had never asked why.
He had been too busy.
Always too busy.
"Where is Ethan now?" Ruiz asked.
Adrian checked his phone.
His brother had texted that morning from Boston.
Heard about the police at the house. You okay? Call me.
Adrian had forgotten to respond.
Ruiz asked for the number.
The phone pinged to a tower forty miles away.
Not Boston.
Ethan was nearby.
"Call him," Ruiz said.
Adrian did.
Ethan answered immediately.
"Finally. What the hell is happening?"
Adrian studied Ruiz.
"Where are you?"
"Boston."
The lie came easily.
Adrian's stomach dropped.
"Which hotel?"
A pause.
"Why?"
"Just curious."
"The Marston."
Ruiz typed quickly into his laptop and shook his head.
No reservation.
Adrian's voice changed.
"Come home."
"I can't."
"Lily was kidnapped."
Silence.
Then Ethan said, "What?"
Adrian listened closely.
The shock sounded real.
"Miles took her. Police have him."
"Jesus Christ. Is she okay?"
"She's safe."
"And Noah?"
"Safe."
Ethan exhaled.
"Thank God."
"Come home."
"Tomorrow."
"Tonight."
Another pause.
"Adrian, I said I can't."
"Why not?"
"I'm dealing with something."
"Caleb Shaw?"
The line went silent.
Ruiz looked up.
Adrian closed his eyes.
There it was.
"How do you know Caleb?"
Ethan's voice became quieter.
"Who told you that name?"
"Claire."
The silence became enormous.
Then Ethan whispered, "She left something."
"Yes."
"Adrian, listen to me. I didn't kill her."
Adrian felt cold.
"I didn't ask if you did."
Ethan swore.
"Where are you?"
"I need time."
"You had two years."
"You don't understand."
"Then explain."
The call ended.
Police traced Ethan's phone to an old marina warehouse owned by one of his former companies.
They arrived forty minutes later.
The warehouse was empty.
But Ethan had left in a hurry.
A coffee was still warm.
An open laptop sat on a desk.
And on the wall hung photographs of Miles, Vanessa, Caleb, Claire, and Adrian.
Not a conspiracy board built by an accomplice.
A board built by someone investigating them.
Ruiz stared.
"Your brother has been following all of this."
Adrian moved closer.
Red lines connected shell companies to Northstar Holdings.
Caleb's photograph connected to a private security firm.
That firm connected to Ethan's old restaurant company.
Adrian understood.
"Caleb worked for Ethan."
Ruiz nodded.
"Maybe that's what Claire meant."
A folder on the laptop contained emails between Ethan and Caleb.
Two years earlier:
ETHAN: I need you to watch Claire. Miles is pressuring her. Do not let him near her alone.
CALEB: Got it.
Then three days later:
CALEB: Grant offered me more.
Ethan replied:
ETHAN: Don't be stupid.
No further messages.
Adrian felt dizzy.
Caleb had started as Ethan's man.
Then Miles bought him.
Claire's affidavit had been technically correct when she wrote it.
But not complete.
Ruiz opened another file.
A recorded call.
Ethan's voice.
"Claire, I screwed up. Caleb switched sides. I think Miles paid him. Don't drive anywhere tonight."
Claire answered angrily.
"You brought a criminal into this."
"I was trying to protect you."
"By having someone follow me?"
"Because you wouldn't tell Adrian!"
"Adrian will confront Miles."
"Maybe he should."
"Not until I have the documents safe."
The call ended.
Adrian sat down.
Ethan had known Claire was in danger.
He had tried to help.
He had also made everything worse.
"Why hide for two years?" Ruiz asked.
Adrian knew before they found the answer.
Shame.
Fear.
And probably blackmail.
A new email arrived on Ethan's open laptop.
From Caleb Shaw.
YOU SHOULD HAVE LEFT TOWN.
Ruiz immediately began tracing it.
Adrian stared at the screen.
"He's alive."
"And active."
Then the warehouse lights went out.
A car engine roared outside.
Gunfire shattered the front windows.
Everyone dropped.
Ruiz pulled Adrian behind a steel cabinet.
Bullets tore through the wall.
Police returned fire.
The attack lasted less than thirty seconds.
Then the vehicle disappeared.
One officer was wounded in the arm.
No one else was hit.
Adrian crawled toward the shattered window.
On the pavement outside lay a phone.
Probably thrown from the attacker's car.
It was ringing.
Ruiz put it on speaker.
Caleb's voice.
"Adrian?"
"Where's Ethan?"
Caleb laughed.
"He finally told you?"
"Where is my brother?"
"Still trying to be the hero."
"What do you want?"
"The same thing everybody wants."
"Money?"
"A way out."
Caleb's voice hardened.
"Miles is arrested. Vanessa is useless. That leaves me holding evidence that can bury people who still have money."
"Who?"
"Ask Ethan."
"I can't. You have him?"
A pause.
Then Ethan's voice came through.
"Adrian, don't give him anything."
A blow.
Ethan grunted.
Adrian's fists clenched.
"Caleb."
"Tomorrow. Noon. I'll send instructions."
"If you hurt himβ"
"You don't get to make threats. Not anymore."
The line ended.
Ruiz looked at Adrian.
"He wants money."
Adrian stared at the dark phone.
"No."
"What?"
"He wants us to think he wants money."
Adrian looked back at the wall of photographs.
One picture had been pinned beneath Claire's.
A photograph of the mansion.
A small circle drawn around the old doghouse.
Beneath it Ethan had written:
WHY DID VANESSA KEEP GOING BACK THERE?
Adrian's skin turned cold.
The phone under the doghouse had been found.
The B-14 key had been found.
But Ethan believed there was something else there.
Something Vanessa had been searching for long before Adrian caught her dragging the children inside.
In Ethan's warehouse, Adrian found more than surveillance files. He found a life his brother had hidden from him.
There were receipts from private investigators, copies of Caleb's old employment records, and a notebook filled with dates from the months before Claire died. Ethan had written one sentence repeatedly in different margins:
TELL ADRIAN.
Then crossed it out every time.
Adrian sat at the desk and turned the pages.
One entry was dated the morning after the crash.
Caleb won't answer. Miles says it was an accident. Victor called me before Adrian did. How did Victor know?
Another, three days later:
Miles showed me emails that make Caleb look like my employee on the night Claire died. He says if I speak, Adrian loses me too. I don't know if I can survive watching him bury Claire and then bury me.
Ruiz read over his shoulder.
"Blackmail."
"Cowardice too."
"Both can be true."
Adrian closed the notebook.
He was angry enough to shake.
But under the anger was something else.
Recognition.
After Claire died, Ethan had disappeared for weeks at a time. Adrian assumed grief had triggered another relapse. He had lectured him, paid his bills, threatened to cut him off, then eventually stopped asking questions.
Ethan had let Adrian believe the worst because the truth was more dangerous.
It was still a betrayal.
Just not the betrayal Adrian had imagined.
Marcus called from the mansion.
"Lily keeps asking if Uncle Ethan is bad."
Adrian closed his eyes.
"What did you tell her?"
"That adults can do bad things and still love people."
Adrian looked at Ethan's crossed-out words.
"That's probably the most accurate thing anyone has said all week."
Then he noticed a small photograph tucked beneath the notebook.
Claire and Ethan sat on the greenhouse steps. Lily, only two, stood between them holding a red plastic shovel.
On the back Ethan had written:
She buried something and made Lily help. V thought it was the key. It wasn't.
Adrian stared.
Ethan knew there was another hiding place.
Maybe that was why Caleb had taken him.
Ruiz found one more page tucked inside Ethan's notebook. It was not written by Ethan.
Claire's handwriting crossed the top.
Ethan, if you are reading this after something happens to me, stop trying to fix everything alone. Tell Adrian. He will be angry. Let him be angry and alive.
Adrian read it twice.
Claire had seen the same weakness in both brothers: each mistook secrecy for protection.
The difference was that Ethan had kept doing it after she died.
May you like
Adrian folded the note carefully and put it in his pocket.
If Ethan survived, Adrian intended to make him read it out loud.
