Chapter 5 - THE EMPTY HOUSE
The next morning, Ethan asked to return home.
Claire refused.
“That house doesn’t feel like ours anymore.”
Ethan understood.
But there was something in his bedroom he wanted.
A wooden box his mother had given him when he turned ten.
Inside were photographs, baseball cards, and a silver key that had belonged to his grandfather.
Detective Bennett agreed to retrieve it.
Ethan described exactly where it was hidden.
Under the third floorboard beneath his bed.
Bennett returned two hours later.
She did not have the wooden box.
Instead, she carried a photograph.
“Someone searched your room.”
Ethan stared at the picture.
His mattress had been flipped.
Drawers were open.
Books covered the floor.
The loose floorboard had been removed.
The box was gone.
Claire looked worried.
“What could have been inside that mattered?”
Ethan shook his head.
“Nothing.”
Then he remembered the key.
Grandpa Samuel had given it to him shortly before he died.
“Keep this somewhere safe,” Samuel had said.
“One day your mother may need it.”
Ethan had forgotten those words.
Until now.
He told Bennett.
The detective immediately contacted investigators handling Samuel Parker’s estate.
An hour later, they discovered the answer.
The silver key belonged to a private safe-deposit box.
Samuel had rented it under Ethan’s name.
Richard could not access it.
Rebecca could not access it.
Only Ethan could.
The bank was placed under police surveillance.
Bennett drove Ethan and Claire there the following morning.
Inside the vault, Ethan inserted the silver key.
A bank employee opened the second lock.
The metal drawer slid outward.
Inside were three things.
A sealed envelope.
A flash drive.
And a handwritten letter.
Ethan recognized his grandfather’s writing.
Claire unfolded it.
Her hands began to tremble.
Claire,
If you are reading this, then something has happened that I feared might happen.
Rebecca learned about the trust.
She also learned that I changed the inheritance.
I did it because I discovered something much worse than the theft from my company.
Your sister has been working with people who make identities disappear.
I believe she may eventually come for you.
Do not trust anyone who suddenly becomes interested in my estate.
Especially someone close enough to know your routines.
Claire stopped reading.
Ethan looked at her.
Richard.
Samuel had warned Claire before she ever married him.
But Claire had never received the letter.
Because Samuel had hidden it for Ethan.
Bennett picked up the flash drive.
“What’s on this?”
Claire turned it over.
May you like
Written on one side were four words.
FOR CLAIRE IF I’M RIGHT.
