Chapter 9 - The Ghost in the FamilyFor eleven years, Ethan Caldwell had believed his father died in a boating accident off the coast of Maine.
There had been a search.
A memorial.
An empty casket.
And a death certificate issued after the legal process concluded.
Ethan had accepted it because there was nothing else to accept.
Now Nathan Cole was claiming that someone using his father's identity had attended a secret meeting days before Nora died.
Ethan sat across from Rebecca Shaw.
"Tell me exactly what Nathan said."
Rebecca opened her notes.
"He said Julian Cross introduced a man as Thomas Caldwell."
Ethan stared.
"My father's name."
"Yes."
"What did the man look like?"
"Nathan described him as elderly, thin, with gray hair. He said the man spoke very little."
Ethan leaned back.
"That could be anyone."
"Agreed."
"Did Nathan know my father?"
"Of course."
"Then why would he believe it?"
Rebecca hesitated.
"He said the man looked familiar."
Ethan stood.
"Get me Nathan."
The meeting took place at the prosecutor's office.
Nathan looked older than Ethan remembered.
His suit hung loosely from his shoulders.
His eyes were red.
Ethan sat opposite him.
"Tell me about my father."
Nathan swallowed.
"I don't know if it was him."
"Then why use his name?"
"Because Julian did."
"Did you recognize him?"
Nathan looked down.
"At first, no."
"And then?"
"He had a scar on his right hand."
Ethan went still.
His father had burned that hand in a warehouse fire when Ethan was sixteen.
A narrow white scar ran across his knuckles.
"Lots of people have scars," Ethan said.
Nathan nodded.
"I know."
"What did he say?"
"Almost nothing. Julian introduced him, and the man told us the foundation problem needed to be contained."
Ethan leaned forward.
"What else?"
Nathan's voice shook.
"He said, 'Don't let the boy destroy what we built.'"
Ethan felt the air leave his lungs.
His father had called him the boy long after Ethan became an adult.
It had always irritated him.
Nathan wiped his face.
"I thought Julian was trying to intimidate me. I didn't know what to believe."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because I'd already lied to you about the money. And because I was afraid."
Ethan stared at the man who had once been his closest friend.
"Did you know anything about Nora's medical emergency?"
Nathan shook his head.
"No."
"Did you arrange for anyone to frighten her?"
"No."
"Did you send someone into my house?"
Nathan looked genuinely startled.
"What?"
Ethan watched him carefully.
For the first time, he wasn't sure Nathan was lying.
Back at the house, Ethan found Clara in the garden.
She was pushing a stroller with two of the babies while Margaret walked beside her with the other two.
Ethan stopped near the rose bushes.
Nora had planted them the spring before her pregnancy.
Clara noticed him.
"You look like you've seen a ghost."
Ethan gave a bitter laugh.
"Maybe I have."
He told her what Nathan had said.
Clara listened without interrupting.
When he finished, she looked toward the house.
"Do you believe your father is alive?"
"I don't know."
"Then don't decide before you have evidence."
Ethan smiled faintly.
"You sound like Rebecca."
"She's usually right."
He looked at the stroller.
Ava was awake, staring at him.
Ethan bent down.
"Hey, sweetheart."
She moved her tiny hand.
He offered his finger.
She wrapped her fingers around it.
For a moment, the investigation disappeared.
There was only his daughter.
And the realization that whatever happened next, she needed him.
That evening, Ethan called the retired detective who had handled his father's disappearance.
The man, Robert Hayes, remembered the case immediately.
"Thomas Caldwell," he said. "Hard one to forget."
"Why?"
"Because we never found the body."
"I know."
"And because there were questions about the boat."
Ethan frowned.
"What questions?"
"The fuel system had been serviced the week before. We couldn't establish whether the failure was accidental."
"Why wasn't I told?"
"You were told the investigation found no evidence of a crime."
"That's different."
Hayes sighed.
"Yes."
Ethan gripped the phone.
"Could my father have survived?"
"Anything's possible. But there's no verified evidence he did."
"Would you look at the case again?"
A pause.
"Send me what you have."
Two days later, Hayes arrived at the Caldwell estate.
He brought copies of the original investigative records.
Photographs.
Witness statements.
Maintenance reports.
And one detail Ethan had never seen.
A marina employee reported seeing a second vessel near Thomas Caldwell's boat on the evening of his disappearance.
The witness couldn't identify the vessel.
No registration number had been recorded.
The lead had gone nowhere.
Ethan stared at the report.
"Why didn't anyone follow up?"
"They did. There wasn't enough information."
Hayes pointed to the bottom of the page.
"But this is what interests me."
A handwritten note identified the person who had arranged the boat's final maintenance appointment.
Ethan read the name.
Julian Cross.
That night, Ethan entered Nora's old bedroom closet.
He opened a box containing their wedding photographs.
There was Julian.
Standing beside his father.
Smiling.
Ethan stared at the picture for a long time.
Then his phone rang.
Rebecca.
"We found the person who accessed the administrative workstation before Nora's emergency alert was canceled."
Ethan's heart pounded.
"Who?"
"We don't have a name yet. But investigators recovered an archived security image."
"Send it."
A moment later, the photograph appeared.
Grainy.
Poorly lit.
A figure wearing a hospital coat stood near the administrative desk.
Ethan enlarged the image.
The person's face was partially turned away.
But something was visible.
A white scar across the knuckles of the right hand.
May you like
Ethan dropped the phone.
And somewhere downstairs, one of his children began to cry.
