Chapter 14 - Mason Had Faked His Death Because Someone Had Already Tried to Kill HimMason called again at 5:20 that afternoon.
This time, Lauren kept him talking long enough for Ethan to hear the background.
A train.
A public announcement.
Traffic.
Mason was somewhere crowded.
"Meet us," Lauren said.
"No."
"Mason."
"Not until I know Nolan isn't following you."
"He tried to burn the river house."
Silence.
"What?"
"Ethan found Caleb's notebook."
Mason cursed softly.
"You went there?"
"Yes."
"Are you insane?"
Ethan leaned toward the phone.
"Runs in your family."
Mason ignored him.
"Did you find the last pages?"
"The part where you planned to help Caleb escape."
Another silence.
"Then you know I tried."
"Tell me the rest."
Mason breathed out.
"Nolan moved him before I got there."
"Where?"
"I don't know."
"You had three years."
"I spent most of those three years trying to find out."
"While letting me sit in prison."
Mason's voice hardened.
"You think I don't know that?"
"Apparently not enough to fix it."
"My father threatened everyone."
"You helped him."
"At first."
Lauren whispered, "Mason, why did you fake your death?"
"Because I found Wexler."
Ethan listened.
"Thomas Wexler?"
"His son. Thomas died six years ago. His son inherited the records."
"What records?"
"Original fire inspections. Photographs. Payments. Enough to destroy Dad."
"And Nolan?"
"Nolan had been paying Wexler's son to stay quiet."
"With Grant's money?"
"Mostly."
Lauren closed her eyes.
"Mason, why would Nolan protect Dad for twenty-six years?"
"Because Dad wasn't the only one involved in the fire."
Ethan looked at her.
Mason continued.
"Nolan was the responding officer. Evidence disappeared. Witness statements changed. Dad paid him afterward."
"So Nolan's been blackmailing Grant."
"Partly. But over time it became partnership."
"What happened to Wexler's son?"
"He agreed to meet me."
"When?"
"The night of my crash."
Lauren's eyes filled.
Mason continued.
"I never reached him. A truck hit my car on the bridge."
"Nolan?"
"I believe so."
"How did you survive?"
"I got out before the car caught fire."
Lauren whispered, "The body."
"Not mine."
"Whose?"
Mason sounded sick.
"I don't know."
Ethan stared.
Someone had been placed inside Mason's vehicle to make the death believable.
This was larger than coverup.
Nolan had become comfortable manufacturing reality.
"Why stay dead?" Ethan asked.
"Because it gave me an advantage."
"Against your sister too?"
"I couldn't tell anyone."
"You could've told Lauren."
"No."
"Why?"
Mason's answer came quietly.
"Because Nolan had access to her phone, her car and the mansion cameras."
Lauren went still.
"He was watching me."
"Constantly."
The storage photograph made sense.
"Nolan knew Lauren contacted me," Ethan said.
"Then you're both in danger."
"We're past that."
Mason sighed.
"Meet me in twenty minutes."
He gave them an address.
A crowded shopping center.
They found him inside a parking garage.
Lauren stepped from her car.
Mason appeared behind a concrete column.
She stared at him.
For one second, anger vanished.
She ran to him.
Mason held his sister while she cried.
Then she slapped him.
Hard.
He accepted it.
"Fair."
She hit his chest.
"I buried you."
"I know."
"I watched Mom collapse at your funeral."
"I know."
"You let me think you were dead."
"I know."
"Stop saying that!"
Mason hugged her again.
Eventually she let him.
Ethan watched without sympathy.
Not yet.
Mason finally faced him.
"You look terrible."
"You look surprisingly good for a corpse."
A faint smile.
Then gone.
"I'm sorry about Caleb."
"Don't say his name unless you're ready to tell me everything."
Mason nodded.
"Fair."
He handed Ethan a folder.
Inside were photographs of the hidden pool chamber taken years earlier.
One showed Caleb on the floor, injured but conscious.
Another showed Nolan beside him.
A third showed Grant arguing with Mason.
"Who took these?"
"My mother."
Ethan looked up.
"Helen?"
"She followed us."
Mason pointed toward the final image.
Nolan was holding Caleb's phone.
"That's when he found the recording."
"But Caleb's flash drive remained hidden."
"Yes."
"How did it end up back in the cabinet?"
"I put it there."
Ethan stared.
"When?"
"Six months ago."
"Why?"
"I found Caleb's backup in Wexler's records. I knew Nolan was searching my house. The chamber was the one place he thought he'd already cleaned."
"So the drive wasn't there for three years."
"No."
"The label said for Ethan."
"Caleb wrote that."
Ethan struggled to process it.
"Where did Wexler get it?"
"I don't know."
"What happened to Caleb after the river house?"
Mason looked away.
"That's the part I couldn't prove."
"But you know something."
"I know Nolan returned alone the morning Caleb disappeared."
"Returned from where?"
"An old industrial property owned by one of Dad's shell companies."
Ethan's voice dropped.
"Address."
Mason handed him another page.
"Don't assume you're finding a body."
Ethan stared.
"What does that mean?"
Mason met his eyes.
"Wexler's son told me Caleb contacted him two years after his supposed death."
Nobody spoke.
Lauren whispered, "That's impossible."
Mason shook his head.
"He received an email using a phrase Caleb used in his notebook."
Ethan felt the world tilt again.
"What phrase?"
Mason answered:
Don't believe the water.
Ethan's heart hammered.
If true, Caleb had survived.
Not hours.
Not days.
Years.
"Where was the email sent from?"
"California."
Ethan stared.
Mason continued.
"But three months later, another message came."
"What did it say?"
Mason reached into his pocket and handed Ethan a printed email.
One line.
HE FOUND ME AGAIN.
The sender was Caleb.
May you like
The date was eleven months ago.
No messages had come after.
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