Chapter 8 - What Ethan Saw
Every adult in the kitchen stopped moving.
I turned to Ethan slowly.
“What man, honey?”
He looked confused by the sudden attention.
“The man who came before the other man.”
Daniel frowned.
“Before me?”
Ethan nodded.
My heart began pounding.
“There were two men at the house?”
“Yes.”
Mark stared at him.
“Buddy, why didn’t you tell us?”
“You said not to come downstairs.”
Ethan looked close to tears again.
I crouched in front of him.
“You’re not in trouble. I promise.”
He swallowed.
“The first man had a black shirt. He was in Daddy’s office. He wrote numbers on a yellow paper. Then he went out the back.”
Owens knelt beside me.
“What did he look like?”
Ethan thought hard.
“Gray hair. Big watch. Scratch on his cheek.”
Mark’s face changed.
“Calvin Ross.”
The former deputy.
Victor Dane’s security chief.
Owens stood immediately and began issuing orders.
If Ross had been inside our home before Daniel arrived, he could have planted Chloe’s phone.
He could also have attacked Mark after the argument began, turning a confrontation into chaos.
“Why?” I asked.
Owens answered without looking up from her phone.
“To make Shaw look responsible. To make your husband look connected to Chloe’s disappearance. Maybe both.”
Daniel stared at Mark.
“For fourteen months I thought you did something to her.”
Mark looked at him.
“I gave you reasons to think that.”
Daniel did not forgive him.
But he stopped looking like he wanted to hit him.
Police searched for Ross that night.
He was gone.
His apartment was empty.
His company vehicle was found at the airport.
No flight under his name.
But inside the vehicle they found a torn piece of yellow paper.
214.
A train-station locker in Franklin.
At 6:30 the next morning, Owens opened locker 214.
Inside was a backpack.
Women’s clothing.
A photograph of Daniel and Chloe at a lake.
A stack of cash.
And a sealed envelope addressed to one person.
Not Mark.
Not Daniel.
Me.
LAURA BENNETT.
I opened it with shaking hands.
May you like
The first line read:
Laura, if you’re reading this, Mark finally failed to keep his promise to me.
