Chapter 3 - The Man in Oyster BayWe left the estate through the underground garage.
No headlights.
No phone calls.
No security team.
I trusted no one.
The rain had turned the roads into black mirrors.
Elena sat in the passenger seat.
Caleb was in the back.
For thirty minutes, nobody spoke.
Then Elena broke the silence.
“You think Daniel is alive?”
“Yes.”
“You sound certain.”
“I saw him.”
“That video could be old.”
“It wasn't.”
She looked at me.
“How do you know?”
“Because Daniel had a scar on his left wrist.”
“What does that prove?”
“The scar wasn't there when he disappeared.”
Elena said nothing.
I had seen Daniel's arm the last night we worked together.
Clean.
Unmarked.
In the video, the scar was there.
Fresh.
Someone had hurt him after his disappearance.
Which meant the recording was recent.
We reached Oyster Bay at 2:13 a.m.
The address led to an abandoned marina.
The buildings were dark.
The docks empty.
Water slapped against the pilings.
Caleb stared through the windshield.
“My dad brought me here once.”
Elena turned around.
“When?”
“When I was six.”
“What did he do?”
“He made me count the boats.”
“Why?”
Caleb shrugged.
“I don't know.”
I stepped out.
The marina smelled of salt and diesel.
We found the number painted on the note.
Dock 17.
Nothing.
Then Caleb pointed.
“Sir.”
At the end of the dock was a rusted boat.
Its name had been scratched away.
I searched the cabin.
Nothing.
Then I found a floorboard that looked newer than the others.
I pried it up.
A metal case sat beneath it.
Inside was a photograph.
Daniel.
Me.
Victor Kane.
All three of us standing in front of a warehouse.
The photograph was fifteen years old.
On the back was one sentence.
You have been protecting the wrong secret.
I stared at Victor's face.
He wasn't looking at the camera.
He was looking at me.
Elena found a key beneath the photograph.
A brass key marked B-17.
We followed it to a warehouse across the marina.
The lock opened.
Inside was a wall covered in photographs.
Daniel.
Me.
Elena.
Caleb.
Employees.
Drivers.
Bankers.
Judges.
Police officers.
Politicians.
Everyone connected to me.
Someone had been watching my entire world.
In the center was one photograph of Caleb.
Taken three days earlier.
Outside his school.
Underneath it was a handwritten note.
THE BOY SEES MORE THAN HIS FATHER EVER DID.
Elena pulled Caleb close.
I searched the room faster.
A desk held dozens of files.
One folder was marked:
PROJECT ORPHEUS
I opened it.
At first, I saw financial transfers.
Then names.
Then shell companies.
Then a list of assets that had been seized years ago.
But one line stopped me.
A transfer of $20,000.
Sent every Friday.
For eleven months.
To an account under the name:
CALEB MERCER EDUCATION TRUST
I looked at Elena.
“Did you know Daniel left money for Caleb?”
She shook her head.
“No.”
The bank records showed something stranger.
The transfers had not come from Daniel.
They had come from me.
My personal account.
Every Friday.
For eleven months.
I stared at the screen.
“I never authorized this.”
Elena stepped closer.
“Then who did?”
Before I could answer, the warehouse doors slammed shut.
A chain locked from outside.
Then gasoline poured beneath the door.
Caleb screamed.
I smelled the fuel.
Someone struck a match.
Fire raced across the floor.
I grabbed Elena.
“Back!”
We ran toward the rear wall.
The room was filling with smoke.
Caleb began coughing.
I smashed through a thin section of wood.
Behind it was a narrow tunnel.
Someone had built an escape route.
We crawled through as flames consumed the warehouse.
When we emerged on the other side, I looked back.
The building burned against the night sky.
My entire life had been mapped across those walls.
Then I noticed something in Caleb's hand.
He was holding a small black key.
“Where did you get that?”
He looked at me.
“My dad gave it to me.”
“When?”
“Before he disappeared.”
“What does it open?”
Caleb shook his head.
“He said you would know.”
I turned the key over.
Six tiny numbers had been engraved into the metal.
The vault code.
The exact code from Daniel's message.
I suddenly understood.
Daniel hadn't sent me to Oyster Bay to find him.
May you like
He had sent me there to find what he was hiding.
And someone else already knew where it was.
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