Chapter 10 - the man with his father's face)
Memory returned in fragments.
A blue car.
A man smiling.
A hand on Ryan's shoulder.
The smell of peppermint gum.
Ryan had forgotten all of it.
Or buried it.
Aunt Margaret continued.
"Your mother became convinced Theo was alive."
"Did she go to police?"
"Thomas stopped her."
"Why?"
"He said she was imagining things."
"What did you believe?"
Margaret hesitated.
"I believed Thomas was afraid."
"Of his brother?"
"Of what his brother knew."
Ryan sat down.
"What did Theo know?"
"Your father and Theo started Meridian together."
The word landed differently now.
Ruiz leaned closer to the phone.
Ryan asked, "What was Meridian?"
"A private investment network at first."
"For what?"
"Property."
"That's not all."
"No."
Margaret sighed.
"They financed people who couldn't use normal banks."
"What kind of people?"
"The kind who paid very well for silence."
Ryan looked at Ruiz.
Money laundering.
Maybe worse.
"What happened between them?"
"Theo wanted out."
"And my father?"
"Thomas wouldn't allow it."
Ryan felt sick.
"The fire."
Margaret did not answer directly.
"Theo disappeared."
Ryan whispered, "And my father took over Meridian."
"Yes."
When the call ended, nobody spoke.
Claire finally broke the silence.
"If Theo survived, he'd be almost identical to Thomas."
Ryan nodded.
"But Lily said the man scared Sarah."
Ruiz looked at him.
"And?"
"She never saw his face."
Claire's expression changed.
"No. Lily said she heard him."
Ryan stood.
"What?"
"She said the man who came into Sarah's house had a voice like yours."
Ryan went upstairs.
Lily was coloring.
He sat beside her.
"Lily, remember the man who came to Mommy's house?"
She nodded.
"You said you hid in the closet."
Another nod.
"Did you see him?"
"Little bit."
Ryan's heart pounded.
"What did he look like?"
Lily studied his face.
Then touched his cheek.
"Like you."
Ryan could not speak.
"Older?"
She shook her head.
"Same."
Claire appeared in the doorway.
Ryan whispered, "Did he have gray hair?"
Lily shook her head again.
"Brown."
Ruiz had followed them upstairs.
"Could she mean Gavin?"
Ryan asked.
Lily looked at the photograph Ruiz showed her.
Gavin.
"No."
Ruiz showed a photograph of Thomas when he had been Ryan's age.
Lily's eyes widened.
"That one."
Ryan stopped breathing.
Thomas Carter at thirty-seven looked almost exactly like Ryan.
Same jaw.
Same eyes.
Same dark brown hair.
But Thomas had been dead four years.
Unless Lily was confusing someone else.
Or unless another Carter existed.
Theo.
An identical twin.
Ruiz asked gently, "Is that the man who came to your house?"
Lily stared.
Then shook her head.
"Not him."
"But he looked like that?"
"Yes."
"Did he say anything?"
Lily nodded.
"What?"
"He told Mommy, 'You should have left the dead alone.'"
Ryan's stomach tightened.
"What else?"
"He said, 'Ryan will never know what his father did.'"
Claire whispered, "Theo."
Ryan shook his head.
"If he's alive, he'd be seventy."
Lily frowned.
"He wasn't old."
Everyone froze.
Ruiz crouched.
"How old was he?"
Lily looked at Ryan.
"Like Daddy."
Ryan's mind went blank.
Another man.
His age.
His face.
Connected to Meridian.
Ruiz asked the obvious question.
"Do you have a brother?"
"No."
"Are you certain?"
Ryan remembered his father's secrets.
Theo.
The fire.
Three missing hours from childhood.
Suddenly certainty felt foolish.
That evening Ruiz received a call.
Investigators had broken one of the encrypted files.
It contained a list of names.
Thomas Carter.
Theodore Carter.
Gavin Price.
Sarah Mitchell.
And one more.
Daniel Carter.
Ryan stared at the final name.
Date of birth: March 14.
Ryan's birthday.
Same year.
Same hospital.
Same mother.
Ryan whispered, "That's impossible."
Claire looked at him.
"Ryan..."
He stepped back.
"I'm an only child."
May you like
Ruiz's expression remained calm.
"According to this file, you were born with a brother."
