Chapter 4: What Ethan Had Been Carrying Alone
I crouched down so I was level with him.
"Tell me now," I said.
"All of it."
Ethan looked at Garrett first.
Like he was checking for permission.
That small look — my son checking with a stranger before talking to me — hit me somewhere I didn't have words for.
"Ethan.
Look at me."
He did.
"You can tell me anything.
Nothing you say is going to be your fault.
Do you understand?"
He nodded.
Then he sat down on the edge of the bed, and he started talking.
"The man first came to school about a month ago.
He waited outside the gate.
He didn't come in." Ethan's hands were folded in his lap.
"He just waved at me.
Like he knew me."
"Did he say anything that first time?"
"No.
He just smiled and left."
"And the second time?"
"He was at the park.
When I went with Tyler's mom after school." Ethan glanced at the floor.
"He said he was a friend of Dad's.
He said Dad had asked him to check on us.
To make sure we were okay."
I felt the room tilt slightly.
"He used Dad's name."
"He knew things about Dad.
He knew about the camping trip we took before Dad got sick.
He knew about the blue mug Dad always used." Ethan's voice stayed flat, careful.
"I thought he was telling the truth."
Garrett spoke from the doorway.
"He was telling the truth.
About knowing Daniel.
The rest — the part about Daniel asking him to watch you — that was a lie."
I stood up.
"Who is he?"
"His name is Paul Renner.
He worked in the same department as Daniel, three levels above him.
When Daniel started asking questions about certain financial transfers — transfers that should not have existed — Renner is the one who found out."
"Found out that Daniel knew."
"Yes."
"And then Daniel d*ed."
Garrett didn't answer that directly.
He looked at Ethan.
"Can I ask you something?"
Ethan nodded.
"The man at the park.
Did he ever ask you to bring him anything?
From the house?"
Ethan's hands tightened in his lap.
That was the answer.
"Ethan," I said softly.
"What did he ask you to bring?"
"A USB drive." His voice was very small now.
"He said it belonged to Dad.
He said Dad would have wanted him to have it back."
The storage unit.
Three weeks ago.
The box I'd finally opened.
There had been a USB drive in that box.
Small, black, unremarkable.
I hadn't thought anything of it.
I'd set it on the kitchen counter and forgotten about it.
"Did you take it to him?" I asked.
"I was going to." Ethan looked up at me.
"But then Garrett came to school and told me not to.
He said the man was lying.
He said I should give the drive to you and nobody else."
I turned to Garrett.
"Where is it now?"
"Still on your kitchen counter," Garrett said.
"I've been watching the house.
He hasn't been able to get inside."
"Yet," the officer said from behind him.
Nobody disagreed with that word.
I walked past both of them, down the hallway, into the kitchen.
The USB drive was exactly where I'd left it.
Sitting next to the fruit bowl like it was nothing.
I picked it up.
It was lighter than I remembered.
Garrett appeared in the kitchen doorway.
"Don't plug it in to anything in this house."
"What's on it?"
He looked at me for a long moment.
"Daniel spent fourteen months documenting everything Renner's group was doing.
Wire transfers.
Shell companies.
Names." He paused.
"He was building a case.
He was almost finished when he d*ed."
I set the drive down on the counter.
Then I picked it up again.
"He was going to turn them in."
"Yes."
"And they found out."
"We believe so."
I looked at the drive in my palm.
"This is why he d*ed."
Garrett didn't say yes.
He didn't say no.
He just held my gaze, and that was its own kind of answer.
My phone buzzed on the counter.
Unknown number.
I looked at Garrett.
"Don't answer it," he said immediately.
It buzzed again.
Then it stopped.
A text appeared.
*Put the drive back in the box.
May you like
Walk away.
Or the next thing we place on your son won't be a tracker.*
