Chapter 2 - Lauren Was More Afraid of the House Than the IntruderEthan dropped from the wall back into the yard instead of climbing over it.
Lauren stared at him as though he'd lost his mind.
"What are you doing?"
Another shout came from somewhere inside.
Then a door slammed.
Ethan glanced toward the side garden.
The security layout he remembered offered two exit routes. The wall behind him and a narrow service path beside the pool equipment building.
Three years ago, the service gate had required a six-digit code.
Three years ago, Ethan had programmed it himself.
He ran.
Rex followed instantly.
The unfamiliar guard dog came after them, barking hard enough to wake every neighbor within half a mile.
"Rex!" Lauren called.
Rex ignored her.
That hurt Ethan more than he expected.
Not because Rex chose him.
Because it proved that some things remembered the truth even when people pretended not to.
Ethan reached the service path.
A camera above the pool house rotated.
New model.
He ducked beneath its angle and reached the gate keypad.
His old code would never work.
He entered it anyway.
The green light flashed.
Ethan stared.
The gate unlocked.
Someone had never changed his code.
Or someone had recently changed it back.
He didn't have time to decide which possibility was worse.
He shoved through.
Rex followed.
"Rex, no."
Ethan caught the dog's collar.
"You stay."
Rex resisted.
The second dog reached the gate.
Ethan slammed it closed.
Metal rattled beneath the animal's weight.
Rex growled at the dog through the bars.
Ethan pushed Rex gently backward.
"Go back to Lauren."
Rex looked at him.
"Go."
This time, the old command worked.
Rex remained at the gate as Ethan disappeared into the shadows beyond the estate.
He reached his truck six minutes later.
Only then did he remove his mask.
Sweat covered his face.
His hands were shaking.
He sat behind the wheel without starting the engine.
Lauren.
He had prepared himself to see Grant Whitmore.
He had prepared himself for Mason.
He'd even prepared himself for the possibility that police would surround the property before he reached the wall.
He hadn't prepared for Lauren.
Especially not for the way she'd looked at him.
Not hatred.
Not shock.
Fear.
And definitely not fear of Ethan.
He pulled a burner phone from the center console.
One message waited.
Unknown number.
YOU FOUND THE FIFTH LINE.
Ethan's blood went cold.
He looked around the dark residential road.
No cars.
No movement.
He typed:
Who are you?
The reply came almost immediately.
Someone who should have spoken three years ago.
Ethan clenched his jaw.
For seventeen days, this unknown person had been feeding him information.
A photograph of Caleb standing beside the pool less than an hour before his death.
A partial architectural plan.
A copy of an invoice showing renovations to the pool filtration system forty-eight hours after Caleb died.
And finally, the instructions involving the harmless tracing powder.
The powder hadn't been intended to harm anyone.
It was simply designed to move with the water and reveal which circulation route was pulling from the pool.
Ethan had been told to watch the deep end.
He had.
The tracer had moved directly toward a section of wall where no intake was supposed to exist.
A hidden fifth line.
He typed:
Where does it go?
Three dots appeared.
Disappeared.
Returned.
Under the old pool house.
Ethan stared at the message.
Then another arrived.
Caleb found it first.
Ethan's hand tightened around the phone.
His younger brother's face came back to him.
Messy brown hair.
Crooked smile.
Always joking when things got uncomfortable.
Caleb had worked at the Whitmore estate for eighteen months before his death. Officially, he handled grounds maintenance and repairs.
Unofficially, he had been Ethan's eyes and ears whenever Ethan was away.
A week before dying, Caleb had called him.
Something weird is happening here.
Ethan had been in Chicago on a security contract.
What kind of weird?
I'll tell you when you're home.
Ethan never heard the answer.
He had landed in New York the next morning to seventeen missed calls and a detective waiting at the airport.
Caleb was dead.
Ethan typed:
What did he find?
The unknown sender answered:
Proof.
Of what?
No response.
Ethan started the engine.
Then his phone vibrated again.
This time, it wasn't the burner.
His personal phone.
A number he had deleted three years earlier appeared on the screen.
He still knew it by heart.
Lauren.
Ethan stared at her name.
He almost let it ring out.
Instead, he answered.
For several seconds neither spoke.
Then Lauren whispered, "You shouldn't have come back."
Ethan's anger arrived instantly.
"Funny. That's what your father told the judge."
"Ethan—"
"Did you reset the service gate code?"
Silence.
That answered him.
He laughed once without humor.
"You did."
"I needed to know if you'd remember it."
"What do you want?"
Lauren lowered her voice.
In the background, Ethan heard footsteps.
A door.
Male voices.
"Where are you?"
"Why?"
"Because my father called the police."
"Good."
"Ethan, listen to me."
"No. I listened to you once. It cost me thirty months."
"I know."
"You stood in court and said I threatened your family."
"I know."
"You said Caleb was drunk."
Her breathing changed.
"Ethan—"
"You said you saw him drinking beside that pool."
"I know what I said."
"My brother didn't drink."
"I know."
That stopped him.
Ethan stared through the windshield.
"What?"
Lauren's voice became almost inaudible.
"I know Caleb wasn't drunk."
Ethan felt something inside him break open.
"Then why did you say he was?"
A man's voice sounded behind Lauren.
Closer now.
"Who are you talking to?"
Lauren immediately whispered, "I have to go."
"No."
"Ethan, whatever happens, don't let them drain the pool."
His grip tightened on the phone.
"Why?"
"Because tomorrow morning they're scheduled to renovate it."
Ethan's pulse stopped.
"What kind of renovation?"
Lauren inhaled shakily.
"They're removing the entire filtration system."
The call ended.
Ethan sat motionless.
Then the burner phone vibrated one final time.
A photograph loaded.
It showed an old maintenance chamber beneath the Whitmore pool house.
In the center sat a rusted metal pipe.
Beside it was something Ethan recognized instantly.
Caleb's red baseball cap.
The one he'd been wearing the night he died.
May you like
Under the photograph were six words.
YOUR BROTHER NEVER DIED IN THE POOL.
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