Chapter 8 - Ethan’s Second Door
Richard did not have Ethan.
That was the first good news.
The bad news was that someone had tried.
Two armed men had entered Nora’s house through the rear door.
One had worn a police jacket.
Ethan noticed the badge was wrong.
Detective Ortiz had shown him what county badges looked like only hours earlier.
He locked himself in Nora’s pantry, climbed through a service hatch, and escaped into the neighbor’s yard.
Nora was struck during the break-in but survived.
By the time police arrived, the men were gone.
Claire found Ethan sitting inside an ambulance.
She wrapped both arms around him.
“I’m okay.”
“You shouldn’t have had to be okay.”
Ethan didn’t answer.
He looked older.
That frightened Claire more than the gunfire had.
At the hospital, Nora regained consciousness.
Before the attackers fled, they had searched one thing repeatedly.
Her office.
“They weren’t looking for Ethan,” Nora said.
Claire frowned.
“The photograph was a bluff?”
“They wanted your father’s letter.”
“Why?”
Nora looked at Ethan.
“Because of the second door.”
Ethan remembered Richard’s message.
Three knocks opened the first door.
Now let’s open the second.
Nora asked for Michael’s recording.
They listened again.
At the end, beneath static, Michael whispered a sequence.
Three.
Seven.
Three.
Ethan frowned.
“337?”
Nora shook her head.
“Maybe not numbers.”
Claire suddenly remembered something.
“When Michael taught Ethan piano, he numbered the keys in groups.”
Ethan looked at her.
“Three-seven-three.”
He closed his eyes.
Then pressed invisible piano keys on the blanket.
E.
B.
E.
Claire whispered:
“E-B-E.”
Nora stood.
“My office.”
“What?”
“I have an old Parker estate map.”
They returned under police escort.
On the map, three historical properties remained in the Parker trust.
East Bay Estate.
E.B.E.
The second door.
East Bay Estate had been abandoned since Ethan’s grandfather died.
Inside the library, they found an antique wall panel with three carved circles.
Ethan tapped three times.
A mechanism clicked.
Behind it sat a narrow steel box.
Inside was a flash drive and a handwritten letter from Michael.
Ethan,
If you are old enough to understand this, then I am probably not there to explain it.
I hope I was wrong about Richard.
But if I was right, I need you to know that your mother was never weak for trusting someone.
Trust is not weakness.
Using trust as a weapon is.
Michael wrote that he had discovered two sets of financial records.
Richard knew about the Harbor Ledger.
He did not know about the second archive.
This one contained correspondence between Richard and a company called Blackthorn.
Claire opened the files.
Blackthorn was not buying Harbor Point for development.
It was laundering money.
Parker Meridian properties were being used to turn stolen funds into legitimate assets.
There were international accounts.
Politicians.
Contractors.
Business owners.
The conspiracy was larger than Richard.
Then Claire found a scanned email.
FROM: C.WYNN
TO: R.HALE
Michael is going to the marina tonight.
Take care of the problem before Henry finds out.
Claire stared.
Charles.
Not merely blackmailed.
Not merely weak.
Charles had ordered Michael’s death.
Nora sank into a chair.
“He lied.”
Claire whispered:
“He helped murder my husband.”
Ethan stood silently at the doorway.
He had heard everything.
Claire turned.
“Ethan—”
“Charles was at Dad’s memorial every year.”
“Yes.”
“He hugged me.”
Claire had no answer.
Ethan’s eyes were dry.
“That’s worse.”
He walked away.
Claire followed him outside.
He sat on the stone steps.
“I keep thinking about Dad.”
Claire sat beside him.
“I barely remember his voice.”
She leaned against him.
“You have his stubbornness.”
“That’s not a memory.”
“No.”
She looked toward the dark trees.
“But this is.”
She told him about Michael burning pancakes every Sunday.
About the ridiculous songs he sang in the car.
About the night Ethan was born and Michael cried before Claire did.
Ethan finally smiled.
Then his phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
A voicemail.
He played it.
Charles Wynn’s voice.
“Ethan, if you want to know who actually killed your father, come to St. Agnes Church tomorrow at noon.”
Claire grabbed the phone.
The message continued.
“And don’t tell Richard.”
Ethan stared at her.
May you like
Charles thought Richard was listening.
Or Charles knew something even Richard didn’t know.
