Chapter 12 - THREE KNOCKS IN THE DARK
Chief Collins dragged Ethan through a supply corridor and into a small examination room.
He locked the door.
"Sit down."
Ethan stayed standing.
Collins shoved a chair toward him.
"I said sit."
Ethan sat because he needed Collins to believe he was scared enough to obey.
He was scared.
That part required no acting.
Collins paced in front of the door.
His expensive suit was dirty from the bank basement and one cuff was torn.
He no longer looked like the polished police chief who visited school assemblies and shook hands at charity dinners.
He looked tired, angry, and desperate.
Ethan watched him carefully.
"Richard left you too, didn't he?"
Collins stopped.
"Be quiet."
"Victor is going to blame you."
"Be quiet."
"He said Richard was disposable."
Collins crossed the room in two steps.
He leaned close to Ethan.
"Where did you hear that?"
Ethan realized he had made a mistake.
Too much knowledge was dangerous.
He looked down.
"I do not know."
Collins grabbed his shoulder.
"Where did you hear it?"
Ethan let his voice shake.
"People were talking."
Collins studied him.
"Did you record anything?"
Ethan shook his head.
The recorder was on the stairs.
He hoped no one had seen it.
Collins searched his pockets.
He found nothing except Evelyn's letter.
He unfolded it.
Ethan hated him touching it.
Collins read the line about family loyalty.
His expression changed.
"Your grandmother was always dramatic."
Ethan looked up.
"You knew her."
"Everyone knew Evelyn."
"She knew you were taking money."
Collins folded the letter slowly.
"Your grandmother believed she understood everything."
"Did you kill her?"
The question came out before Ethan could stop it.
Collins stared at him.
For several seconds, the room was absolutely silent.
Then Collins laughed.
"No."
Ethan watched his face.
He believed the answer.
That frightened him in a different way.
If Collins had not killed Evelyn, someone else might have.
"Did Victor?"
Collins looked away.
That was not an answer.
Footsteps passed outside.
A voice called Collins's name.
Victor.
Collins shoved Ethan toward a storage closet.
"Inside."
Ethan resisted.
"No."
Collins pulled open the door.
"You want your mother alive?"
Ethan froze.
"Then get inside and stay quiet."
Ethan stepped into the closet.
Collins locked it from the outside.
Darkness swallowed him.
He heard Victor enter the examination room.
"Where have you been?"
Collins answered.
"Cleaning up your mistakes."
"My mistakes?"
"The bank, the chapel, the boy."
Victor lowered his voice.
"Do not forget who paid for your last election."
Collins laughed bitterly.
"Do not forget whose badges kept your dead clients from becoming homicide investigations."
Ethan pressed his ear to the door.
Victor said nothing for a moment.
Then he asked.
"Where is Ethan?"
Collins lied.
"Not here."
Ethan frowned in the dark.
Why was Collins hiding him from Victor?
Victor continued.
"Ross lost him at the marina."
"Then find Ross."
"Ross is not answering."
"That sounds like your problem."
Victor's voice became colder.
"Everything about this is our problem."
"Not anymore."
Collins's answer surprised Ethan.
"I am done after today."
Victor laughed.
"You were done the first time you took my money."
"You just did not know it."
Footsteps moved closer to the closet.
Ethan held his breath.
Victor stopped inches from the door.
"What is in here?"
Collins answered too quickly.
"Supplies."
The handle moved.
Locked.
Victor looked at Collins.
Ethan could imagine the suspicion.
Then an alarm beeped somewhere in the hallway.
Victor stepped away.
"Dana says the state police are moving."
"How close?"
"Unknown."
"Then stop wasting time."
The men left.
Ethan remained in darkness.
He counted slowly to thirty.
Then sixty.
Then he felt along the closet walls.
Shelves.
Boxes.
Cleaning supplies.
A metal pipe ran vertically in one corner.
He tapped it.
The sound traveled.
Ethan remembered the clinic's lower hallway.
If the pipe connected floors, Claire might hear him.
He tapped three times.
Pause.
Three times again.
Nothing.
He waited.
Then came a faint answer from somewhere below.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
Ethan almost cried.
Claire had heard him.
He tapped once.
Their old game had other signals.
Three meant I love you.
One meant yes.
Two meant no.
Four meant danger.
Claire had created the code years ago during hide-and-seek because Ethan always gave away his hiding place by laughing.
Now it became a language.
Ethan tapped four times.
Danger.
A pause.
Claire answered once.
Yes.
He tapped three.
She answered three.
That was enough.
Downstairs, Claire stood near a utility pipe in a treatment room while Victor argued with Voss in the hallway.
Mara had found Ethan's recorder on the stairs when the guard moved them.
She hid it beneath her shoe until Claire could retrieve it.
The device contained Victor's confession.
But they were still trapped.
Rebecca had been separated from them.
Brennan was behind the locked door across the corridor.
Dana hovered near Voss, looking increasingly frightened.
Claire needed an opening.
She created one.
"I will sign."
Victor turned.
Mara stared at her.
"Claire."
Claire ignored her.
"I will sign your statement."
Victor smiled slowly.
"Good."
"But I want Ethan brought to me first."
Victor's smile faded.
"We do not have him."
Claire pretended to break.
She lowered her head.
"Then find him."
Victor watched her carefully.
"Why the sudden change?"
"Because I spent three days believing my son was dead."
Her voice shook with real emotion.
"I woke inside a coffin thinking I had nothing left."
"I am not losing him now because of company shares."
Victor seemed to believe her.
That was the advantage of using a true feeling inside a lie.
Claire continued.
"Give me a phone."
"No."
"Then let me speak to Richard."
Victor laughed.
"Richard is not in a cooperative mood."
"Where is he?"
"Trying to bargain with the only people who still believe he matters."
Claire looked at him.
"You mean the police?"
Victor smiled.
"I mean you."
Claire frowned.
Victor took out his phone.
A video message had arrived.
Richard appeared on screen in a dim room.
He looked exhausted.
There was blood on his collar.
"Claire, if you are seeing this, Sloane has already lied to you."
Victor's expression hardened.
The recording continued.
"He will say I planned everything."
"I did not."
Claire whispered.
"Coward."
Richard looked directly into the camera.
"I helped him drug you."
"I helped move you."
"I let everyone believe you were dead."
"But the coffin was not supposed to be sealed."
Victor stopped the video.
Claire stared at him.
"Play the rest."
"There is no rest."
"You are lying."
Victor slipped the phone into his pocket.
"Richard is trying to save himself."
Mara spoke.
"That is true."
Victor looked at her.
"It does not mean he is lying."
Voss suddenly stepped forward.
"He is not."
Victor turned.
The doctor looked terrified but determined.
"The original plan was sedation and removal after the service."
Claire stared at him.
"Removal to where?"
Voss swallowed.
"A facility in Mexico."
"Why?"
"You were supposed to remain legally dead while physically alive."
Mara's face changed.
"A disappeared witness."
Voss nodded.
"Richard was told Claire would be kept somewhere comfortable until after the acquisition."
Claire's eyes burned.
"And then?"
Voss looked at Victor.
Victor said nothing.
That silence answered everything.
Claire turned back to Voss.
"Who ordered the coffin sealed?"
Voss whispered.
"Victor did."
Victor moved toward him.
"Careful."
Voss stepped back.
"You changed the plan Friday night."
"You said Claire had become too dangerous to keep alive."
Mara lifted the hidden recorder inside her sleeve.
Victor saw the movement.
His eyes narrowed.
"What is that?"
Claire stepped between them.
"Run, Mara."
Mara bolted.
The guard lunged after her.
Voss shoved a metal cart into his path.
The hallway erupted.
Claire grabbed Dana and pulled her toward Brennan's locked room.
Mara ran for the stairs with the recorder.
Victor shouted for security.
Above them, Ethan heard the commotion through the pipe.
He kicked the closet door.
Once.
Twice.
The latch moved.
Collins had not fully engaged the deadbolt.
Ethan hit it again.
The door opened.
He stepped into the hall.
Mara came running around the corner.
"Ethan!"
She grabbed his hand.
"We need to go."
"My mom is downstairs."
"She told me to get the recording out."
"Then you go."
"Absolutely not."
Ethan pulled toward the stairwell.
A security guard appeared behind them.
Mara shoved Ethan into an open office.
They slammed the door.
The guard hit it from the other side.
Ethan looked around.
A window.
Second floor.
Below it, a flat awning covered the service entrance.
Mara opened the window.
"I hate every choice available to us."
She climbed out first.
Ethan followed.
The awning shook beneath their weight.
They dropped to the ground.
Nora was waiting near the loading dock.
She ran toward Ethan and hugged him so hard he could not breathe.
"Your mother is still inside."
Ethan looked at the clinic.
Sirens sounded in the distance.
State police vehicles appeared beyond the gate.
For the first time all day, Ethan felt hope.
Then every exterior light on the clinic went dark.
A generator started.
Steel shutters began descending over the windows.
Mara stared.
"They are locking the building down."
Ethan looked at the recorder in her hand.
"We have Victor's confession."
Mara pressed play.
Static.
She frowned.
She tried again.
The file existed.
But there was no sound.
The recorder's microphone had been damaged when it fell on the stairs.
Inside the closet, Ethan counted the seconds between footsteps.
He learned that Victor walked quickly.
Collins dragged one shoe slightly.
The security guard outside the hall carried keys that clicked with every step.
Small details gave the darkness edges.
They made the room less powerful.
Ethan understood why his grandmother loved puzzles.
A puzzle turned fear into pieces.
Pieces could be studied.
Studied things could sometimes be solved.
He tapped the pipe again and waited for Claire's answer.
When it came, the sound was barely audible.
But it changed the entire room.
Ethan was no longer a boy locked in darkness.
He was one half of a conversation Victor did not know existed.
May you like
Their best evidence was silent.
And Claire was still inside.
