Chapter 3 - THE ENVELOPE Daniel got Ethan into his truck.
The old Ford smelled faintly of leather, coffee, and rain.
Ethan sat in the passenger seat, holding his ribs.
Daniel turned the key.
“You need a hospital.”
“No.”
“You might have internal bleeding.”
“I can't go to a hospital.”
Daniel stared at him.
“Why?”
“Because they'll find me.”
“Who?”
Ethan looked through the windshield.
“I don't know all their names.”
“That isn't an answer.”
Ethan laughed bitterly.
“You think I'm crazy.”
“I think you're injured.”
“Same thing to you?”
Daniel started the truck.
“No. But I'm beginning to think you're in trouble.”
They drove through the rain.
For five minutes, neither spoke.
Then Ethan reached inside his jacket.
Daniel glanced at him.
“Slowly.”
Ethan pulled out a small brown envelope.
It was soaked.
The edges were stained red.
Daniel looked at it.
“What is that?”
“The reason you're involved.”
“I don't want to be involved.”
“You already are.”
Ethan placed the envelope on the dashboard.
Daniel didn't touch it.
“Open it.”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because I don't open things belonging to strangers.”
Ethan looked at him.
“You should.”
Daniel finally picked it up.
The envelope was heavier than it should have been.
He opened it.
Inside was a photograph.
A woman.
Late thirties.
Brown hair.
Green eyes.
She stood beside a little boy.
The boy was Ethan.
Daniel stared at the picture.
“Your mother?”
Ethan nodded.
“Her name was Claire.”
Daniel looked at the date printed on the back.
December 14, 2014.
“What's special about this?”
Ethan's voice dropped.
“She didn't die in 2014.”
Daniel slowly looked at him.
“What?”
“She disappeared.”
The truck seemed suddenly very quiet.
Ethan continued.
“For twelve years, everyone thought she was dead.”
Daniel looked at the photograph again.
“Everyone?”
“My father. The police. Her friends.”
“And you?”
“I never believed it.”
“Why?”
Ethan stared through the windshield.
“Because every Christmas, someone sent me a card.”
Daniel's hands tightened around the steering wheel.
“From your mother?”
“No signature.”
“What did they say?”
“Only one sentence.”
Ethan looked at him.
Keep looking.
Daniel felt something cold move through his stomach.
“And the money?”
“The money came three days ago.”
“From her?”
“I don't know.”
“How much?”
“Two hundred thousand dollars.”
Daniel glanced at the back seat.
“Where is it?”
Ethan looked away.
“Most of it is gone.”
“Gone where?”
“To the people who were supposed to help me.”
Daniel's eyes hardened.
“You trusted the wrong people.”
“I know.”
“No. You don't.”
Daniel pulled over beneath a bridge.
He turned off the engine.
“Start from the beginning.”
Ethan hesitated.
Then he said the words that changed everything.
“My mother wasn't running from someone.”
Daniel waited.
“She was hiding from something she had discovered.”
“What?”
Ethan looked down at the envelope.
“A list.”
“What kind of list?”
“Names.”
“Whose names?”
Ethan looked at Daniel.
“People who were supposed to be untouchable.”
Daniel stared at him.
And for the first time that night, Ethan noticed something strange.
May you like
Daniel wasn't shocked.
He looked afraid.
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