Chapter 3 - THE LOCKER WITH NO NAME
The storage facility sat beside an abandoned garden center on the outskirts of town.
I went there after calling Martin, who insisted that a licensed investigator meet me in public before I opened anything.
Her name was Nora Ellis.
She had spent twenty years investigating financial crimes and spoke as though she knew how easily curiosity could become danger.
"We photograph the seal and document what we find," she told me.
"We don't touch anything that looks like medication or a weapon."
Locker 214 smelled of cold metal and damp cardboard.
There were three boxes, a cheap backpack, and a framed family photograph turned toward the wall.
The first box contained restaurant invoices and collection notices addressed to Daniel.
The second held copies of checks drawn on accounts that did not belong to him.
Inside the third was a spiral notebook filled with dates, amounts, and initials.
I recognized Ethan's meticulous handwriting.
Nora took photographs as I read the first page.
There were columns labeled G, E, M, and D.
George, Ethan, Marjorie, Daniel.
The figures in George's column were almost all negative.
Under one date, a note read, "Phase Two once signatures are safe."
I felt the floor shift beneath me.
"What does phase two mean?" I asked.
"We don't know yet," Nora said.
"And we won't improve the answer by guessing."
At the bottom of the backpack, I found a pharmacy printout bearing Dad's name.
The medication list had been changed, then changed back three days later.
The prescriber's initials did not match his cardiologist's name.
Nora stepped closer.
"Don't handle that page any more than necessary."
A car slowed outside the open facility gate.
Its windows were dark.
Nora watched it pass twice.
"We're done for today," she said.
As we locked the unit, my phone vibrated.
Ethan had sent seventeen messages.
The latest was only a photograph.
It showed the blue pickup in the storage facility parking lot, taken from across the street.
Underneath were the words, "You shouldn't be there."
Nora looked up at the access road.
The dark car was returning.
She guided me into her vehicle and drove toward the main highway, leaving the pickup where it stood.
May you like
For the first time since Dad's funeral, I understood that uncovering the truth might be less dangerous than the moment Ethan learned I had uncovered it.
