Chapter 17 - The Last Lie
Ethan did not sleep after Nora's call.
At 5:30 A.M., he stood in the guest residence kitchen drinking coffee that tasted too strong because he had forgotten how Claire made it.
Claire entered wearing the same sweater she had slept in.
"You put four scoops in."
Ethan looked at the coffee maker.
"It said four cups."
"That is water."
He stared at her.
"Prison coffee has destroyed my judgment."
Claire smiled despite herself.
The smile disappeared when her phone vibrated.
It was a message from Nora.
COURTHOUSE AT 8:00.
DO NOT SPEAK TO PRESS.
Ethan looked toward the hallway.
"Lily stays here."
"Yes."
"Tell her I went to meet the judge."
"She is going to ask if you are coming back."
Ethan closed his eyes.
"Tell her I am doing everything I can."
At 7:58 A.M., Ethan entered the courthouse through a side entrance.
The same building that had felt like a tunnel toward prison four years earlier now felt like a place capable of sending him back.
Nora met them outside a conference room.
Her face was unreadable.
"What did they find?"
Ethan asked.
"They say blood from the Crestview basement was recently matched to a relative of yours."
Ethan stared.
"What?"
Claire looked at Nora.
"Whose blood?"
"The original sample was unidentified at trial."
"And now?"
Nora looked directly at Ethan.
"The state says the new genealogy comparison indicates a first-degree family relationship to you."
Ethan's stomach dropped.
"Ryan."
"Maybe."
Claire shook her head.
"Ryan said he never entered the store."
Nora nodded.
"Which is why Sloan called the conference."
They entered.
Sloan sat beside two investigators and an assistant district attorney Ethan did not recognize.
Detective Kim was there too.
Her expression was tense.
Sloan began without pleasantries.
"The unidentified blood sample recovered near the basement stairwell was reprocessed overnight at our request."
Nora folded her arms.
"Overnight genealogy testing is remarkably fast."
Sloan looked irritated.
"It was compared against an existing law enforcement database after a new familial profile was uploaded."
"Whose profile?"
Sloan turned toward Ryan, who entered through another door with his lawyer.
Ryan looked terrified.
"Mine."
Ethan stood.
"Ryan?"
Ryan could barely look at him.
"They took a sample yesterday."
Nora looked at Sloan.
"And?"
"The basement blood is consistent with a close male relative of Ryan Walker."
Claire stared.
"Ethan is his only brother."
Sloan nodded.
"Exactly."
Ethan felt the room contract.
"You are saying the blood is mine."
"We are saying the profile is consistent with someone in your immediate paternal line."
Nora slammed a folder onto the table.
"That is not the same thing."
"It is enough to require investigation."
Ethan stared at Ryan.
"Did you bleed in that store?"
Ryan shook his head.
"I never went inside."
"Then who?"
Ryan looked toward his attorney.
The attorney whispered something.
Ryan swallowed.
"There is someone else."
Everyone went still.
Ethan stared at him.
"What does that mean?"
Ryan's eyes filled with shame.
"Dad had another son."
Ethan did not understand at first.
"What?"
"Before he married Mom."
Claire looked at Ethan.
He had gone pale.
"You knew?"
Ryan nodded.
"Since I was nineteen."
"And you never told me?"
"Dad made me promise."
Ethan laughed once from disbelief.
"Dad died seven years ago."
"I know."
"Who is he?"
Ryan looked at Nora.
"Wade Mercer."
Silence swallowed the room.
Claire turned slowly toward Ryan.
"The man in the hood."
Ryan nodded.
Ethan sat down hard.
"Wade is our brother?"
"Half brother."
"You knew that when you met him the night of the robbery."
"Yes."
Ethan's face twisted.
"That is why you helped him."
Ryan looked down.
"At first."
"You told Claire you were moving stolen electronics for some criminal you barely knew."
"I lied."
Ethan stood again.
"After everything, you lied again."
Ryan's lawyer placed a hand on his arm.
"Mr. Walker-"
Ethan pointed at Ryan.
"He let me go to prison for four years, then he gets one chance to tell the truth and edits the part that makes him look worse."
Ryan's eyes filled with tears.
"I thought if I told you who Wade was, you'd never forgive Dad."
"Dad is dead."
"I know."
"I was alive in prison."
Ryan covered his face.
Nora stepped between them.
"We can deal with family betrayal after we deal with the fact that Wade Mercer is genetically related to Ethan."
Sloan nodded.
"Which means the blood sample may belong to Wade."
"May?"
Nora looked at him.
"Yesterday you were prepared to use it to justify retrying Ethan."
Sloan looked uncomfortable.
"We did not know about Wade's relationship."
"Neither did we because Ryan apparently treats truth like a subscription service."
Ryan flinched.
His lawyer looked offended.
"Counsel."
"I withdraw the metaphor, not the frustration."
Kim opened a file.
"We have Wade's old arrest photograph and partial DNA from a misdemeanor case eight years ago."
Sloan turned.
"Why wasn't that match found originally?"
"The sample was never uploaded to the same database because the case was expunged."
Nora stared at Ryan.
"Where is Wade?"
"I don't know."
"When did you last speak to him?"
"The night of the robbery."
"That is another lie."
Everyone turned.
Special Agent Cole stood in the doorway.
She carried a folder and looked furious.
Ryan's face drained of color.
"What?"
Cole placed a phone record on the table.
"Your number called a prepaid phone linked to Wade six months after Ethan's conviction."
Ethan stared at Ryan.
Ryan looked trapped.
"He called me first."
"The record shows you called him."
Ryan shut his eyes.
Ethan's voice became dangerously calm.
"Why?"
"I wanted him to come forward."
"And?"
"He laughed at me."
"Where was he?"
"Mexico."
Cole nodded.
"That is consistent with travel records under one of his known aliases."
Nora looked at her.
"Can you find him?"
"We have been trying since Friday."
"And?"
Cole opened the folder.
"We found a property lease under his mother's maiden name in Arizona."
Ethan leaned forward.
"Is he there?"
"Federal agents entered the property forty minutes ago."
Claire held her breath.
"Was he there?"
Cole shook her head.
"No."
Ethan slammed his palm on the table.
Sloan spoke quietly.
"Until Wade is located and the blood is definitively compared, I cannot recommend dismissal."
Ethan turned on him.
"You were going to retry me this morning because blood from my brother looked like mine."
"Half brother."
"Do you hear yourself?"
Sloan's face tightened.
"I am trying to correct a case my office mishandled."
"By making sure I stay a suspect until you run out of ways to be wrong?"
Nora placed a hand on Ethan's shoulder.
"Let me."
He sat down.
Nora faced Sloan.
"The state has no truthful eyewitness against Ethan, no reliable accomplice testimony, no vehicle evidence placing him at the scene, no undisclosed camera footage supporting guilt, and now its newly discovered blood evidence may belong to the actual robber."
Sloan looked at his notes.
"The state has not made a final decision."
"Then make one."
"I need the lab comparison."
"How long?"
"If we obtain Wade's reference DNA, hours."
"And if you do not find him?"
Sloan said nothing.
That silence enraged Claire more than an answer would have.
"You cannot keep Ethan under this forever because the man who did it is missing."
Sloan looked at her.
"He is released."
"He woke up this morning wondering whether he would be taken away from his daughter again."
"I understand."
Claire leaned forward.
"Stop saying that."
The room went quiet.
"You do not understand what it does to a five-year-old to ask whether her father is home for minutes or forever."
Sloan lowered his eyes.
Claire continued.
"You understand paperwork, burdens, procedure, and how many hours your office needs before admitting the obvious."
Nora did not stop her.
"My daughter understands that every adult who promises her father is coming home might be wrong."
Sloan finally nodded.
"You're right."
Claire had not expected that.
He looked at Ethan.
"I do not understand your four years."
Ethan said nothing.
"But I also cannot dismiss a violent felony without completing the last available forensic step."
Ethan's voice was flat.
"Then find Wade."
Cole's phone vibrated.
She looked at the screen.
Her expression changed.
"We may have him."
Everyone turned.
"Where?"
"Border camera outside Nogales flagged one of his aliases thirty minutes ago."
"Entering Mexico?"
"No."
Cole looked directly at Ethan.
"Entering the United States."
Nora stared.
"Why would he come back now?"
Cole answered slowly.
"Because someone sent him eight hundred thousand dollars yesterday."
Claire felt cold.
"Who?"
Cole turned the financial record around.
The transfer came from an offshore account tied to Victor Dane.
Ethan looked at Nora.
"Dane is paying him to come back."
"Or paying him to do something after he comes back."
Cole was already issuing instructions to agents.
"Wade crossed in a rental truck and turned north."
Kim looked at the route map.
"If he stays on the interstate, he can reach the city tonight."
Ethan's stomach tightened.
"Why would he drive straight toward the people who are looking for him?"
No one answered.
Then Ryan spoke from the end of the table.
"Because he is not coming for the city."
Ethan turned toward him.
Ryan's face had gone white.
"What do you mean?"
Ryan looked at Claire.
"Six months after the trial, when I begged him to confess, Wade told me one thing."
"What?"
Ryan swallowed.
"He said if Ethan ever got out, there was only one person he would have to visit before disappearing forever."
Claire felt dread crawl through her.
"Who?"
Ryan looked at Ethan.
May you like
"Your mother."
