Chapter 7 - WHAT CAROLINE DISCOVERED
Caleb was taken into custody.
But he refused to speak until Ethan was alone with him.
Sheriff Cole objected.
Ethan insisted.
The interrogation room was small.
Gray walls.
One table.
Two chairs.
Caleb sat with his hands cuffed.
For the first time in eleven years, he looked old.
Ethan sat across from him.
“Start talking.”
Caleb stared at the table.
“Your father was involved in something dangerous.”
“What?”
“Money.”
Ethan laughed bitterly.
“My father was a billionaire.”
“Not all money is legal.”
Ethan's expression hardened.
“Did he kill Thomas Bennett?”
“No.”
“Did you?”
Caleb looked up.
“No.”
“Then who did?”
Caleb hesitated.
“Your father had a partner.”
“Who?”
“Victor Hale.”
Ethan knew the name.
Victor Hale had been his father's business partner.
He had died eight years earlier.
“Victor is dead.”
“His company isn't.”
Ethan went still.
Caleb continued.
“Your father discovered that money was being stolen from the Whitmore estate. Millions.”
“By Victor?”
“By someone inside the ranch.”
Ethan's eyes narrowed.
“Who?”
Caleb looked at him.
“I don't know.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I was twenty-nine years old. I was just a ranch hand. Your father asked me to watch someone.”
“Who?”
“Thomas Bennett.”
Ethan froze.
“Why?”
“Because your father thought Thomas knew where the money was going.”
“What happened?”
Caleb looked away.
“Thomas disappeared.”
“And you said nothing?”
“I was told he ran.”
“By whom?”
Caleb didn't answer.
Ethan slammed his hand on the table.
“By whom?”
Caleb whispered:
“Caroline.”
Ethan went completely still.
“What?”
“Your wife.”
The room seemed to lose oxygen.
Caleb continued.
“Caroline knew Thomas wasn't a thief. She found the records.”
Ethan stared.
“Why didn't she tell me?”
“Because she was afraid.”
“Of whom?”
Caleb looked at him.
“Your father.”
Ethan's face hardened.
“My father was dead.”
“Caroline believed someone was still protecting his secrets.”
Ethan stood.
“You're lying.”
Caleb shook his head.
“Your wife was going to expose everything.”
“Then why did she die?”
Caleb looked down.
“I don't know.”
Ethan grabbed the back of the chair.
“Who poisoned my children?”
Caleb looked at him.
“I don't know.”
“Who was the man at the train station?”
“I don't know.”
“Then what do you know?”
Caleb finally looked up.
“Your children were never the target.”
Ethan stopped.
“What?”
“They were leverage.”
“For what?”
Caleb's eyes filled with fear.
“Caroline hid something before she died.”
Ethan remembered the photograph.
The envelope.
The notebook.
“What?”
“A list.”
“What list?”
“Names.”
“Whose names?”
Caleb leaned closer.
“The people who helped your father.”
Ethan stared at him.
“Helped him do what?”
Caleb whispered:
“Destroy people.”
The door opened.
Sheriff Cole entered.
“Mr. Whitmore.”
Ethan turned.
“What?”
“We found the scarred man.”
Ethan's heart jumped.
“Where?”
“Dead.”
Silence.
“He was found in a drainage ditch two miles from the station.”
Ethan stared.
“How?”
“Gunshot wound.”
Ethan looked at Caleb.
Caleb closed his eyes.
“They're cleaning up.”
“Who?”
Caleb didn't answer.
Sheriff Cole continued.
“We found something in his pocket.”
He handed Ethan a plastic evidence bag.
Inside was a photograph.
Ethan took it.
The picture showed Caroline.
Standing beside Mara's father.
Thomas Bennett.
On the back was a date.
Three days before Caroline's death.
And beneath it, four words:
THE GIRL KNOWS EVERYTHING.
Ethan slowly looked toward the hallway.
Mara stood there.
She had seen the photograph.
Her face had lost all color.
Ethan walked toward her.
“What do you know?”
Mara shook her head.
“I don't know.”
“Your father was with my wife.”
“I told you. I didn't know.”
“Then why is your photograph in the same file?”
Mara stared.
“What?”
Ethan turned the photograph around.
A second picture had been hidden behind the first.
It showed Mara.
At age twelve.
Standing beside her father.
On the back:
KEEP HER AWAY FROM WHITMORE.
Mara stepped backward.
“No.”
Ethan watched her.
Suddenly, a memory returned.
Caroline's final night.
She had been standing in the nursery doorway.
She had looked terrified.
She had said:
“Ethan, if anything happens to me, don't trust—”
Then she had collapsed.
At the time, Ethan had thought she was having a medical emergency.
Now he realized she had been trying to warn him.
“Don't trust who?” he whispered.
Caleb's voice came from the interrogation room.
“Me.”
Ethan turned.
May you like
Caleb stood behind the glass.
“That's what she was going to say.”
