Chapter 6 - Someone Had Been Watching Lauren Long Before Ethan ReturnedThey left separately.
Ethan waited six minutes after Lauren drove away before exiting the storage facility.
He circled his truck first.
Nothing beneath it.
Nothing attached to the wheel wells.
No obvious tracker.
That didn't reassure him.
Professional surveillance wasn't supposed to be obvious.
He drove north, deliberately taking three unnecessary turns.
A black SUV remained two cars behind him.
Ethan changed lanes.
The SUV changed lanes.
He exited.
The SUV continued straight.
Maybe coincidence.
Maybe not.
He spent the next hour moving through crowded roads before finally reaching the small house he'd rented after prison.
Calling it a house was generous.
Two bedrooms.
Old siding.
A refrigerator that made noises like an injured animal.
But it was his.
Grant Whitmore had no legal claim over it.
That mattered.
Ethan locked the door behind him and spread Lauren's copies across the kitchen table.
The bypass work order.
Pool renovation records.
A diagram of the old filtration system.
Caleb's photograph.
He studied the diagram.
Four documented water lines.
One filtration chamber.
No hidden fifth intake.
Yet the tracer had been pulled toward one.
If Caleb had discovered a physical space beneath the pool house that wasn't shown on the blueprints, someone had gone to enormous trouble to hide it.
Ethan's phone rang.
His attorney.
Former attorney, technically.
Daniel Reeves had been a public defender when Ethan's case first appeared, then continued representing him privately at almost no cost.
Ethan answered.
"You've seen the news."
Daniel didn't bother with hello.
"Morning to you too."
"Tell me you didn't break into Grant Whitmore's house."
Ethan said nothing.
Daniel groaned.
"For the love of God."
"I didn't go inside the house."
"Wonderful. I'm sure the district attorney will appreciate the distinction."
"The powder was harmless."
"What powder?"
"Tracer material."
"Why were you putting tracer material in a billionaire's swimming pool while wearing a mask?"
"It sounds worse when you say it like that."
"It sounds exactly as bad as it is."
Ethan looked at the diagram.
"Can Grant press charges?"
"For trespassing? Absolutely. Possibly burglary depending on how aggressively they interpret your intent. Given your record, you need to stay very far away from that property."
"My record exists because Grant lied."
"That doesn't make it disappear."
Ethan hesitated.
"Daniel, if someone found evidence proving Caleb was murdered, could we reopen what happened?"
The other end went quiet.
"Why are you asking?"
"Answer."
"Potentially."
"What if evidence also showed testimony in my case was false?"
Another pause.
"Then we'd have options."
"How many?"
"Enough that I suddenly dislike this conversation."
Ethan nearly smiled.
Daniel continued.
"Do you have something?"
"Maybe."
"Do not tell me maybe while also admitting you climbed Grant Whitmore's wall last night."
"I didn't admit anything."
"You just described the powder."
"Could have been anyone."
"Does anyone else have a Pit Bull named Rex who apparently kisses burglars?"
Ethan frowned.
"How did you know about Rex?"
"It's online."
"What?"
Daniel sent him a link.
Ethan opened it.
A second security clip had leaked.
Short.
Silent.
It showed Rex charging the masked intruder and then becoming visibly affectionate.
The video ended before Lauren appeared.
Comments were already multiplying.
Dog knows him.
That isn't a stranger.
Inside job?
Former employee?
Someone had slowed the footage.
Another user compared Ethan's height and build to old photographs from his criminal case.
His identity wouldn't remain secret long.
Daniel said, "You need to come to my office."
"Not yet."
"Ethan."
"Someone's watching Lauren."
"Lauren Whitmore?"
"Yes."
"I thought she hated you."
"Complicated."
"That's usually your word for dangerous."
Ethan looked toward the window.
A gray sedan sat across the street.
He hadn't noticed it before.
Engine running.
"Daniel, I'll call you back."
He ended the call.
The sedan remained.
Ethan moved away from the window.
His burner phone vibrated.
Unknown sender.
SHE DIDN'T TELL YOU EVERYTHING.
Ethan typed:
Then you tell me.
A response came immediately.
ASK HER WHY REX WAS LOCKED IN THE GARAGE THE NIGHT CALEB DIED.
Ethan stared.
He remembered that detail.
Police reports said Rex had been secured because guests were present earlier that evening.
Ethan had never questioned it.
Until now.
Rex normally roamed the backyard at night.
If Caleb had been attacked beside the pool, Rex would have heard.
Would have reacted.
Someone had deliberately prevented that.
Ethan typed:
Who locked him up?
No answer.
He called Lauren.
She picked up immediately.
"Are you safe?"
"Why was Rex in the garage?"
Silence.
Ethan's suspicion hardened.
"Lauren."
"I don't know."
"Wrong answer."
"I don't."
"Someone locked him in there."
"My father said a contractor complained about him."
"At midnight?"
"I wasn't there."
"You were there."
"Earlier."
"You met Caleb."
"Yes."
"Did you see Rex?"
Lauren hesitated.
"Yes."
"Where?"
"By the pool house."
Ethan closed his eyes.
"So Rex wasn't locked up when you left."
"No."
"What time did you leave?"
"12:14."
The official security log said Rex was secured at 10:30 p.m.
Another false record.
"Who could command him besides me?"
Lauren answered instantly.
"Caleb."
"Anyone else?"
"My father sometimes."
"Rex tolerated Grant. He didn't obey him."
"Mason?"
"No."
Lauren became quiet.
Then she said, "Nolan."
Ethan's hand tightened around the phone.
Nolan Price.
Grant Whitmore's longtime private security consultant.
The man who replaced Ethan after his arrest.
The man who testified that Ethan had become unstable before Caleb died.
The man who helped police retrieve the supposedly corrupted security recordings.
"Nolan was there that night?"
"I think so."
"You told police he wasn't."
"I told police what my father told me."
Ethan looked through the blinds again.
The gray sedan was gone.
His front gate stood open.
He was certain he'd closed it.
"Ethan?" Lauren asked.
A floorboard creaked in the hallway behind him.
Ethan stopped breathing.
He had entered alone.
May you like
He was still holding the phone when a man's voice came softly from the dark doorway.
"You should've stayed in prison."
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