Chapter 4 - Mason Reed)
They found Mason Reed in twenty-seven minutes.
Emily searched social media from the hospital bed while Ethan used an internal company database.
The name was common.
The age narrowed it.
Seventeen.
Then the address narrowed it further.
Mason Reed lived forty miles north of the city with a married couple named Gregory and Helen Reed.
Gregory Reed had worked for Carter Development for nineteen years.
Security.
Not accounting.
Not construction.
Executive security.
Ethan remembered him.
A large quiet man who often drove Robert to meetings.
Helen had never worked for the company.
There were no public photographs of Mason.
No sports profiles.
No school awards.
Almost no digital footprint at all.
The address belonged to a farmhouse surrounded by sixty acres.
Ethan reached for his coat.
Emily said, "No."
He turned.
"He's my brother."
"And your father may already know you've opened that envelope."
"I'm not leaving him there."
Laura stood.
"I'm coming."
"No."
Ethan surprised himself with the sharpness of his answer.
Laura went still.
He softened slightly.
"I don't know what I'm walking into."
"Neither do I."
"You've been hiding for seventeen years."
"Not because I wanted to."
"I know."
But he didn't know.
Not completely.
He was still trying to reconcile the mother who disappeared with the stranger standing in front of him.
Emily interrupted.
"Call Detective Ruiz."
Officer Elena Ruiz had been the first detective to question Robert at the house.
Emily had noticed something Ethan hadn't.
Ruiz did not believe the accident story.
Ethan called her.
Thirty-five minutes later, Ruiz entered the hospital room.
She was forty-three, compact, calm, and clearly irritated by the amount of information Ethan had not mentioned earlier.
"You have a supposedly dead mother, an undocumented brother, possible financial fraud, an alleged staged death, and you waited until now?"
"I found out an hour ago."
Ruiz looked at Laura.
"We'll need to verify your identity."
"I expected that."
"And the boy?"
"Mason doesn't know I'm his mother."
Ruiz sat.
"Then nobody goes rushing to a farmhouse."
Ethan stared at her.
"My brother may be imprisoned there."
"Or he may be asleep in his bedroom with people he believes are his parents. If we arrive without cause and your father has prepared his paperwork properly, we could destroy the only chance of getting him safely."
"What do you suggest?"
"Evidence."
Laura had evidence.
She had spent seventeen years collecting pieces whenever Robert or Diane became careless.
A handwritten ledger copied from Diane's bag.
A photograph of Robert holding newborn Daniel.
Recordings from old conversations.
Names of properties.
One storage unit number.
And an address in Vermont where Laura had been held for nearly two years.
Ruiz listened.
Then she asked the question Ethan had been avoiding.
"How did you finally get away?"
Laura looked at him.
"Someone helped me."
"Who?"
"Gregory Reed."
Ethan frowned.
"Mason's father?"
"The man raising him."
Laura nodded.
"Gregory was one of the guards Robert used. He wasn't there at first. He came later. When Daniel was almost two, Gregory discovered what was happening."
"Why didn't he go to police?"
"Robert owned enough people to terrify him."
"But he helped you escape."
"Yes."
"And then he raised your child for Robert?"
Laura's expression changed.
"No."
Ruiz leaned forward.
"Explain."
"Gregory helped me escape because he planned to help Daniel too. But before he could, Robert moved the baby."
"Where?"
"Nobody knew."
Laura paused.
"Years later, Gregory told me Robert had given Daniel to another family."
"The Reeds?"
"No."
Everyone became silent.
Laura continued.
"Gregory only found Daniel when he was six."
Ethan's skin prickled.
"Found him where?"
"In one of Robert's properties."
Ruiz frowned.
"What kind of property?"
"A residential treatment facility."
The phrase sounded harmless.
Laura's face said it was not.
"Robert invested in private institutions through shell companies," she explained. "Places for troubled teenagers, psychiatric patients, people without families. Some were legitimate. Some were not."
Ethan thought of the financial statements he had reviewed.
Real estate holdings.
Healthcare subsidiaries.
Companies he had never questioned.
"What happened to Daniel there?"
"I don't know."
Laura's voice shook.
"Gregory got him out. He and Helen created records claiming Mason was their biological son."
"Robert allowed that?"
"No."
"Then why is Gregory still working for him?"
"To make Robert believe he still controls him."
Ethan suddenly understood.
Gregory had been living inside Robert's organization for more than a decade.
Watching.
Waiting.
"Does my father know where Mason is?"
Laura hesitated.
"I don't think he did."
"Did?"
"Three weeks ago Gregory stopped contacting me."
Emily looked at Ethan.
Three weeks.
Exactly when strange things began happening at their house.
Ruiz noticed.
"What changed three weeks ago?"
Emily answered.
"Robert started coming to our house without warning."
Laura looked at her.
"And Diane started asking about your pregnancy."
Ethan felt cold.
Ruiz stood.
"Nobody leaves this hospital except with police."
She called her partner and began requesting records on Gregory Reed.
Ten minutes passed.
Then Ruiz received a phone call.
Her expression changed as she listened.
"When?"
Another pause.
"Are you sure?"
She disconnected.
"What?" Ethan asked.
Ruiz looked at Laura.
"Gregory Reed's vehicle was found abandoned this afternoon."
"Where?"
"Near Lake Mercer."
Laura went pale.
The same lake where she had supposedly died.
Ruiz continued.
"There was blood inside."
Ethan stood.
"And Gregory?"
"Missing."
Emily whispered, "Robert found out."
Laura closed her eyes.
Ruiz's phone rang again.
This time she put it on speaker.
A patrol officer spoke.
"We're at the Reed farmhouse. The front door is open."
Ruiz asked, "Any occupants?"
"Negative."
"What about the boy?"
"No sign of him."
A pause.
Then the officer said something that made Laura grip the chair.
"We found a bedroom upstairs. Looks like someone left in a hurry."
Ruiz said, "Anything identifying the teenager?"
"Yeah."
The officer hesitated.
"There's a photograph on the desk."
"Of who?"
"A pregnant woman."
Laura whispered, "Me."
The officer continued.
"And somebody wrote a message across the glass."
"What message?"
May you like
The answer came through the speaker.
TELL ETHAN HIS BROTHER IS NEXT.
