Chapter 3 - The Key Thomas Left Behind
Isabella had never seen a powerful man look so helpless.
Ethan didn't move for several seconds after the video ended. His eyes remained fixed on the blank phone screen, and the fingers resting on his wheelchair's armrests had turned white.
"Mr. Vance?" she asked.
He looked up.
"Where do you live?"
She hesitated.
"Why?"
"Because we're going to retrieve that key."
Daniel immediately objected.
"This is exactly what the message wants. Someone is directing us toward Lake Mercer, and we don't know who has access to your family accounts. We should contact law enforcement."
"And tell them what? That my supposedly dead mother appeared in an online video and someone threatened her life?"
"Yes."
"How long do you think it would take to determine whether the video was real?"
Daniel didn't answer.
Ethan looked toward the event director, who had finally shut down the screen.
"Get everyone out of this room. Tell them there was a technical breach and the event has been postponed."
"And the press?" the director asked.
"Tell them whatever you need to tell them to keep them away from the building."
Chad was still near the overturned champagne tower when Ethan called his name.
"Mr. Mercer."
Chad turned slowly.
"Don't leave town tonight."
"Are you threatening me?"
"I'm giving you an opportunity to explain yourself before the authorities ask questions."
Chad laughed without humor.
"You really believe you're untouchable because you have money?"
"No. I believe you made a mistake because you thought I didn't."
Ethan nodded toward Daniel.
"Make sure our security team preserves all financial and access records related to Chad's acquisition proposal."
Chad's jaw tightened.
"That proposal had your board's approval."
"Some members' preliminary approval. Not mine."
"Your board is not going to let you destroy a billion-dollar transaction because of a personal grudge."
"This stopped being personal when your name appeared beside a compromised account."
Chad stared at him, then leaned closer.
"Ask yourself why your brother's account was opened tonight, Ethan. Maybe somebody wants you to find your mother. Maybe somebody wants you to die looking."
He walked away before Ethan could respond.
Brooke followed him, but she looked back once.
For the first time since their relationship had ended, Ethan couldn't read her expression.
***
An hour later, Isabella led Ethan and Daniel into a modest apartment building on the outskirts of Briarwood.
The hallway smelled of detergent and old carpet. Ethan glanced at the wheelchair-accessible entrance Isabella had requested from the building manager, then at the narrow apartment doorway.
"Sorry about the mess," Isabella said.
"Don't apologize for having a home."
She unlocked the door.
Inside, everything was carefully arranged. A secondhand sofa stood opposite a small television. Books filled two shelves, and framed photographs covered a narrow wall.
One photograph showed Isabella as a child beside a broad-shouldered man in a work jacket.
Thomas Reed.
Ethan stared at the picture.
"He was at Michael's funeral," he said quietly.
Isabella followed his gaze.
"My father never talked about that."
"He stood behind me at the cemetery. He told me Michael had been a good man."
"Was he?"
Ethan considered the question.
"He was the best man I knew. That is what made losing him so difficult to understand."
Isabella went to a bedroom and returned with a small wooden box.
Inside lay a brass key and an envelope sealed with yellowed tape.
"My father told me to open this only if someone named Ethan Vance came looking for the key."
Ethan felt a chill.
"How long have you had it?"
"Since I was seventeen."
"And you never opened it?"
"I thought it was a strange instruction from a dying man. But he made me promise."
Daniel examined the envelope without touching the seal.
"There's a date on it."
October 14, nine years earlier.
The day Thomas Reed had supposedly died.
Isabella handed the envelope to Ethan.
He opened it carefully.
Inside was a handwritten letter.
Ethan,
If this reaches you, then my attempt to protect Michael has failed, and the people who arranged his disappearance have discovered that I kept evidence.
Do not trust the board.
Do not trust the police officer who signed the accident report.
Above all, do not trust the man who tells you your mother died.
The key opens the lower cabinet in the west archive room at Lake Mercer. The cabinet contains proof that Michael never intended to take the company away from you.
He intended to save you from it.
Thomas Reed
Ethan read the letter twice.
"Your father didn't die in an accident," he said.
Isabella's face went pale.
"You're saying he was murdered?"
"I'm saying someone may have wanted us to believe he was."
Daniel turned the letter over.
There was another sentence written on the back.
The original evidence is no longer in the cabinet. Margaret took it when she escaped.
Beneath it was a telephone number.
Daniel recognized the area code.
"That's a private exchange belonging to the Vance Group's former legal department."
Ethan looked at the brass key.
"Whoever has my mother knows about this letter."
His phone vibrated.
A new message appeared from the same unknown number.
YOU FOUND THE KEY.
Then a photograph arrived.
It showed Isabella's apartment building from across the street.
The image had been taken less than five minutes earlier.
A second message followed.
THOMAS SHOULD HAVE KEPT HIS PROMISE.
Isabella backed away from the window.
Daniel immediately turned off the lights.
"Everyone away from the glass," he ordered.
Outside, a black sedan pulled away from the curb.
Ethan watched its taillights disappear.
May you like
They were no longer following someone else's clues.
Someone had begun following them.
