Chapter 19 - Rex Knew the Traitor Before Ethan DidNolan Price was arrested at 11:43 p.m.
By midnight, federal investigators had secured the Whitmore estate.
By 12:20, Grant Whitmore was also in custody.
Financial conspiracy.
Obstruction.
Evidence tampering.
False statements.
Possibly more once the hard drive was reviewed.
Grant didn't fight.
Before agents placed him in the vehicle, he looked at Lauren.
"I'm sorry."
Lauren stared.
"That stopped meaning anything years ago."
Grant lowered his head.
Mason remained legally complicated.
A dead man returning usually created paperwork.
A dead man involved in financial crimes created considerably more.
But he cooperated.
Helen gave a full statement.
Ethan waited for Caleb.
At 1:08 a.m., a text arrived.
An address.
A private airfield thirty-seven miles away.
Ethan stared.
Lauren saw his face.
"Caleb?"
"Yeah."
"I'm coming."
"No."
She folded her arms.
He sighed.
"Fine."
Rex came too.
The airfield was nearly empty.
A small hangar stood beside a single-engine plane.
A man waited beneath an overhead light.
Ethan stopped walking.
Older.
Thinner.
A scar near his right temple.
Beard.
But the same crooked posture.
Same way of standing with one shoulder slightly lower than the other.
Caleb.
Alive.
For several seconds, neither brother moved.
Then Ethan crossed the distance.
He hit Caleb.
One punch to the shoulder.
Caleb staggered.
"Okay. Fair."
Ethan pulled him into a hug.
Neither spoke.
Three years of anger, grief and relief collided.
Caleb held him tightly.
"I'm sorry."
Ethan's voice broke.
"Shut up."
"I should've called."
"Shut up."
"I thought—"
"Stop thinking."
Caleb laughed through tears.
Rex suddenly whined.
Caleb looked down.
"Oh my God."
Rex recognized him.
The Pit Bull lunged forward.
Caleb dropped to his knees.
"Rex!"
The dog nearly flattened him.
Lauren laughed while crying.
For the first time in three years, something felt whole.
Only briefly.
Because Ethan remembered the final warning.
He pulled back.
"Who helped Nolan?"
Caleb's expression changed.
"Inside."
They entered the hangar.
Caleb had documents spread across a folding table.
"I spent three years tracing Nolan's network."
"Why not go federal sooner?"
"I tried."
He placed a photograph down.
A federal agent.
"Special Agent Richard Hale."
Ethan frowned.
"I don't know him."
"You shouldn't."
Caleb showed bank transfers.
"Hale was feeding Nolan information."
Lauren stared.
"So Nolan knew when investigations started."
"Yes."
"Is Hale still active?"
"Suspended three months ago."
"Then who do you mean by someone Ethan trusted?"
Caleb looked at his brother.
"Daniel Reeves."
Ethan laughed.
"No."
Caleb didn't.
"Daniel represented me."
"I know."
"He practically worked for free."
"I know."
"He saved me from a longer sentence."
Caleb looked pained.
"Did he?"
Ethan went still.
"What are you saying?"
"Grant's original prosecutors wanted to drop the theft charges."
"That's not what Daniel told me."
"No."
"He said they wanted seven years."
"They didn't."
Ethan felt sick.
Caleb pushed forward a copy of an internal email.
The prosecution had lacked evidence.
Daniel had pressured Ethan to accept thirty months.
Why?
Another document answered.
A payment.
Not directly to Daniel.
To a consulting company belonging to his brother-in-law.
From one of Nolan's shell corporations.
Lauren whispered, "Oh my God."
Ethan shook his head.
"No."
Caleb continued.
"Daniel was supposed to keep you from demanding discovery."
The corrupted security footage.
Witness inconsistencies.
Caleb's missing phone records.
If Ethan's case had gone to trial, those problems might have surfaced.
Nolan needed a plea.
Daniel delivered one.
Ethan couldn't breathe.
"He came to see me in prison."
"Guilt makes people strange."
"He helped me after release."
"Maybe he regretted it."
"Then why didn't he tell me?"
Caleb looked toward Rex.
The dog's head suddenly lifted.
Growl.
Low.
Ethan turned.
A car approached the hangar.
Headlights swept across the doors.
Lauren whispered, "Who's that?"
Ethan already knew.
Daniel's sedan.
The car stopped.
Daniel stepped out.
Alone.
He entered slowly.
Rex moved in front of Ethan.
Daniel saw Caleb.
His face collapsed.
"You're alive."
Caleb smiled without humor.
"Disappointed?"
Daniel stopped.
"Ethan, listen."
Ethan stared at the man he'd trusted through his worst years.
"How much?"
Daniel closed his eyes.
"Twenty-five thousand."
Lauren inhaled sharply.
Ethan's voice remained calm.
"Twenty-five thousand dollars bought thirty months of my life?"
"It wasn't like that."
"Then explain what it was like."
"Nolan told me Grant wanted you destroyed. He said if you went to trial, they'd add homicide suspicion. I thought the plea protected you."
"And the money?"
Daniel had no answer.
Caleb said, "Ask him about tonight."
Ethan looked at his brother.
"What?"
Caleb pointed toward Daniel's jacket.
A phone.
"Nolan called Daniel before going to the mansion."
Daniel's face changed.
Ethan saw it.
"Why?"
Daniel backed up.
"Ethan—"
"Why?"
"I didn't know what he was planning."
"What did you tell him?"
Daniel looked toward the exit.
Rex growled.
Daniel stopped.
"I told him federal agents had the collar recordings."
Ethan felt the final betrayal settle into place.
That was why Nolan tried to destroy evidence.
Why he accelerated everything.
Daniel had warned him.
"You almost got us killed."
"I didn't know he'd shoot at you."
"But you knew who he was."
Daniel's eyes filled.
"I was trying to get out."
Ethan said nothing.
Sirens sounded in the distance.
Caleb had already contacted authorities.
Daniel looked toward them.
Then strangely, he seemed relieved.
"Good."
He sat on a folding chair.
No escape attempt.
No excuses.
Just a man finally exhausted by his own cowardice.
Rex stopped growling.
Ethan looked at his brother.
"Anyone else?"
Caleb smiled faintly.
"Plenty."
"Anyone I love?"
Caleb looked toward Lauren.
Then back.
"No."
Ethan exhaled.
For now, that was enough.
But Caleb's expression remained troubled.
"What?"
Caleb looked toward the plane.
"I need to show you something."
He opened a locked case.
Inside was an old photograph.
Ethan recognized the Whitmore pool.
Caleb stood beside it.
So did Mason.
Nolan.
Grant.
And a fifth person.
A woman Ethan had never seen.
On the back Caleb had written:
THE WOMAN WHO STARTED ALL OF THIS.
Ethan looked at him.
"Who is she?"
May you like
Caleb's answer made Lauren go completely still.
"Your mother."
