Chương 7
He almost turned around.
The thought came so quietly that he nearly missed it.
Go home.
Put the note in a drawer.
Forget Maya.
Pretend Ethan had always been difficult, always dramatic, always looking for a problem where there wasn’t one.
That version of Ethan had been convenient.
Daniel reached for the door before he could convince himself.
Inside, the lobby lights were dimmed. A security guard sat behind the desk watching a baseball game on a small television with the volume low.
"Late night?" the guard asked.
Daniel stopped.
The question was ordinary. That made it harder.
"Something like that."
The guard looked at the elevator button Daniel pressed.
"Everyone says that."
Daniel glanced back.
"What?"
"Everyone who comes in here after hours says something like that."
The guard shrugged and returned to the game.
Daniel stepped into the elevator without answering.
On the fourth floor, Maya was waiting outside her office.
She looked different.
Not dramatically. He would have noticed that because dramatic changes were easier.
Her hair was tied back carelessly. She wore an old gray sweater and jeans instead of the professional clothes he remembered from the funeral. There was a paper cup of coffee on the floor beside her, untouched.
"You came," she said.
Daniel looked at the locked office door.
"You sound surprised."
"I wasn't sure if you would choose anger or curiosity."
"Those were my only options?"
"No."
Maya looked away.
"There was guilt too."
The answer bothered him because it was accurate.
Daniel hated when people were accurate about him.
"Open the door."
She studied him for a moment.
"You didn't even ask how I got the folder."
"You said someone broke in."
"I did."
"You said Ethan gave it to you."
"I did."
"And now I'm here."
Maya nodded slowly.
"You always did skip three steps when you were scared."
Daniel almost responded, but stopped himself.
Six months ago, he would have argued.
Tonight, he was too tired to pretend he didn't know what she meant.
She unlocked the door.
The office looked mostly normal.
That bothered Daniel.
He expected destruction. Drawers ripped open. Papers everywhere. Some obvious sign that a stranger had entered this place and disturbed it.
Instead, everything looked organized.
Too organized.
Maya noticed his expression.
"That was my first mistake."
"What?"
"Thinking they wanted to steal something."
Daniel walked inside.
"Who are they?"
"I still don't know."
"That's not an answer."
"No. It isn't."
She closed the door behind him.
"The police asked me the same thing."
"And?"
"And I told them I didn't know."
"Do you?"
Maya hesitated.
A few seconds passed.
Then she opened a cabinet beside her desk.
"I know someone searched for something Ethan left."
Inside was a small collection of items.
Old notebooks.
A USB drive.
Two photographs.
A sealed envelope.
Daniel stared.
"Why are these here?"
"Because this was the hiding place."
"Hiding place?"
Maya gave a tired smile.
"That sounds more dramatic than it was. Ethan wasn't hiding treasure. He was hiding paperwork from people who had access to everything else."
Daniel picked up one of the notebooks.
The cover was scratched.
Ethan’s handwriting appeared on the first page.
Dates.
Names.
Numbers.
Daniel looked closer.
"What is this?"
"I don't know."
"You kept it?"
"Because Ethan asked me to."
"That doesn't explain anything."
Maya leaned against the desk.
"No. It doesn't."
She sounded frustrated now.
Not with him.
With the situation.
"He came to me three weeks before he died. He was exhausted. He looked terrible. Not sick terrible. Scared terrible."
Daniel looked up.
"You said he was sick."
"He was."
"So?"
"So sick people are usually afraid of dying."
Maya swallowed.
"Ethan was afraid of what would happen after."
The sentence stayed between them.
Daniel looked back at the notebook.
A date near the middle of the page caught his attention.
It was from four days before Ethan died.
Next to it was a name.
Daniel knew the name.
"Why is Laura Bennett here?"
Maya's expression changed.
"You know her?"
"She handled Ethan's business accounts."
"How well did you know her?"
Daniel frowned.
"What does that mean?"
"It means Ethan never trusted her."
"That's not what he told me."
Maya looked at him.
"Exactly."
Daniel closed the notebook.
A memory surfaced without warning.
Ethan sitting across from him at a diner two years earlier, tapping his fingers against a coffee cup.
You always believe people when they sound organized.
Daniel had laughed.
He remembered that clearly because he had thought Ethan was being unfair.
Now the memory felt different.
"Why didn't Ethan tell me?"
Maya looked at the floor.
"Maybe because you weren't listening."
The words hurt because they were not cruel.
They were tired.
Daniel put the notebook down.
"That's convenient."
"For who?"
"For you."
Maya stared.
"You think I wanted to be the person he trusted instead of you?"
Daniel didn't answer.
That was answer enough.
Maya turned away.
"Ethan talked about you all the time."
Daniel looked surprised.
"That doesn't sound like him."
"It wasn't the version you saw."
"What did he say?"
"That he was angry."
Daniel waited.
"And?"
"And that he missed you."
The office became quiet.
Outside, a truck moved through the street below, the sound fading slowly.
Daniel rubbed his thumb against the edge of the folder.
He wanted to ask more.
He wanted to know why Ethan never called.
Why Maya never called.
Why everyone seemed to know there was a problem except him.
Instead he asked the question that felt safest.
"What did they take?"
Maya reached into the drawer.
A small plastic evidence bag sat inside.
Daniel stared.
"You kept evidence?"
"No."
She handed it to him.
"I kept what they left."
Inside was a torn piece of paper.
A corner from a document.
At first it looked meaningless.
Then Daniel saw the handwriting.
Not Ethan's.
Someone else's.
A note written across the edge:
Stop looking for what he already gave away.
May you like
Daniel read it twice.
"What does that mean?"
