CHAPTER 2 The Message That Had Already Been Sent Once
Ryan Brooks didn't respond immediately.
He simply looked at the mansion's front gate.
Fresh red paint slowly dripped down the elegant iron bars.
Twenty-six years earlier...
According to Katherine Lawson...
The exact same thing had happened.
Coincidence?
Ryan didn't believe in coincidences.
Especially not in his line of work.
He asked Jason to photograph every inch of the gate before the cleanup crew arrived.
Meanwhile, Katherine invited the investigators inside.
The mansion reflected decades of wealth.
Italian marble floors.
Museum-quality paintings.
Antique clocks that had probably witnessed more family secrets than celebrations.
Yet one wall caught Ryan's attention.
Dozens of framed newspaper articles.
Most celebrated the success of Lawson Financial Group.
One headline, however, stood apart.
It had yellowed with age.
LOCAL BUSINESSMAN MISSING — NO TRACE FOUND
Ryan stopped walking.
The photograph beneath the headline showed a smiling man in his forties.
"Your husband?"
Katherine nodded.
"Michael Lawson."
"He left home one evening."
"And never came back."
"No body?"
"No."
"No ransom."
"No witnesses."
Ryan looked at the article again.
The date matched Katherine's story exactly.
Twenty-six years.
Jason entered carrying the photographs recovered from the suspect.
"Ryan..."
"You should see this."
Among the surveillance photos was one image unlike the others.
It wasn't taken recently.
The edges had faded with age.
It showed the mansion's front gate...
Covered in red paint.
Ryan looked at Katherine.
Her face turned white.
"That's impossible."
"Why?"
"I burned every photograph from that night."
Silence.
Ryan slowly turned the picture over.
On the back...
The same handwriting appeared.
Only four words.
It begins again tonight.
The room fell silent.
Ryan immediately walked back toward the suspect, who was now sitting in the back of a patrol car.
He held the old photograph against the window.
"Where did this come from?"
The young man stared at it.
Confused.
"I've never seen that before."
Ryan believed him.
His confusion looked genuine.
"So who packed your envelope?"
"I don't know."
"The instructions were already inside."
Ryan's phone suddenly rang.
It was Jason.
His voice sounded unusually tense.
"Ryan..."
"The forensic team found fingerprints."
"On the paint bucket?"
"No."
"On the old photograph."
Ryan smiled slightly.
Finally.
"A match?"
Jason paused.
"Yes."
"Who?"
Another silence.
Then Jason quietly said,
"The fingerprints belong to Michael Lawson."
Ryan's smile disappeared.
He looked toward Katherine.
Then back at the photograph.
Impossible.
Michael Lawson had disappeared...
Twenty-six years ago.
Yet somehow...
His fingerprints had been left on a photograph delivered only days earlier.
Ryan realized this case was no longer about vandalism.
It was about a man the world believed had vanished forever.
👇 Chapter 3
