Chapter 7 - The Dead Man in the VideoThe video lasted only thirty seconds.
But it destroyed everything Ethan believed about his family.
Thomas Parker stood beside Richard and Morrow.
He was younger.
Healthy.
Laughing.
The date on the recording was fourteen years earlier.
Three years before Ethan was born.
Daniel stared at the screen.
“I thought Thomas was dead.”
Claire shook her head.
“So did I.”
Ruiz rewound the footage.
Thomas spoke.
“This family will become useful.”
Morrow answered:
“The boy?”
Thomas smiled.
“When the time comes.”
The video ended.
Ethan felt sick.
“What time?”
Nobody answered.
The archive doors slammed shut behind them.
Security lights flashed.
A voice came through the speakers.
Richard.
“Detective Ruiz.”
She froze.
“You've been very difficult to locate.”
Ethan stared at the ceiling.
Richard continued.
“You should have left Claire in the coffin.”
Ruiz shouted, “Come out and face us.”
A laugh echoed through the corridor.
“Why?”
A door opened somewhere in the archive.
Then another.
Then another.
Footsteps began approaching from multiple directions.
Daniel whispered:
“Too many.”
Ruiz checked her ammunition.
“There's another exit.”
Daniel pointed toward the cabinets.
“The original ventilation shaft.”
They moved quickly.
Ethan grabbed the hard drive from the projector.
They climbed through the shaft.
Behind them, bullets tore through the archive.
They emerged inside an underground drainage tunnel.
Claire was breathing heavily.
Ethan looked at the hard drive.
“What is on it?”
Daniel answered.
“Proof.”
“Proof of what?”
“Everything.”
They reached the other end of the tunnel.
A black car waited.
Ruiz stopped.
“I didn't call this.”
The driver rolled down the window.
Ethan recognized him.
The funeral director.
The man who had been at his mother's funeral.
“Get in,” he said.
Claire stepped back.
“No.”
The man looked at her.
“You don't understand.”
He lifted both hands.
“I've been trying to help.”
Ruiz aimed her gun.
“How do we know?”
“You don't.”
The man swallowed.
“But I can take you to the only person who can explain why Richard staged Claire's funeral.”
Claire stared at him.
“Who?”
The funeral director answered.
“Thomas Parker.”
Ethan's heart pounded.
“No.”
“He's alive.”
“Where?”
The man looked toward the dark tunnel.
“He's waiting.”
Suddenly a gunshot rang out.
The funeral director collapsed.
Blood spread across his shirt.
The car window shattered.
Ruiz dragged Ethan behind a concrete pillar.
Claire screamed.
A voice echoed through the tunnel.
“Thomas sends his regards.”
Then silence.
The killers were gone.
Ethan looked at the dead man.
There was a folded note in his hand.
Ethan picked it up.
Three words were written across it.
HE KNOWS EVERYTHING.
May you like
Underneath was an address.
The address of Ethan's childhood home.
