Chapter 14 - the house of fire)
The note changed everything.
Ryan wanted to believe Daniel had written it.
Ruiz did not.
"The handwriting doesn't match the childhood samples."
"He was a child."
"Fair."
"So we can't know."
"No."
Claire stood nearby.
"I don't think Daniel attacked the house."
Ryan looked at her.
"You met him once."
"I know."
"That's enough to trust him?"
"No."
"Then why?"
"Because he could have hurt Ethan that day."
Ryan said nothing.
"He saved him."
"People change."
"Yes."
Claire looked toward the flames consuming the storage facility.
"But someone wants you to blame him."
Ryan knew she might be right.
They moved again.
This time not to another state property.
Ruiz placed them in a secured hotel under federal protection.
At 1:12 a.m., Ryan received a call on the hotel phone.
Nobody outside federal investigators knew the number.
Ryan answered.
Silence.
Then breathing.
"Hello?"
A man's voice spoke.
"Seven minutes."
Ryan froze.
The voice sounded almost exactly like his own.
"Daniel?"
"Don't say my name."
Ryan looked toward Claire.
She was asleep in the next room with the children.
"Where are you?"
"Not safe."
"Did you attack the safe house?"
"No."
"Did you kill Sarah?"
Silence.
"Answer me."
"No."
Ryan closed his eyes.
"Why should I believe you?"
"You shouldn't."
The answer surprised him.
Daniel continued.
"You shouldn't trust anyone yet."
"Claire?"
A pause.
"Claire tried to protect your family."
"Gavin?"
"Complicated."
"Ruiz?"
Longer pause.
"I don't know."
Ryan looked toward the hallway.
"What do you want?"
"For you to stop."
"You think I'm going to stop after discovering I have a twin brother?"
"If you keep digging, they'll use Lily."
"They already did."
"Then you understand."
"No. I understand almost nothing."
Ryan lowered his voice.
"Why did Dad hide you?"
Daniel laughed quietly.
"You still call him Dad."
"He was our father."
"He was yours."
"He searched for you."
"He hunted me."
Ryan gripped the phone.
"He watched you because Theo took you."
"Theo saved me."
"From what?"
Silence.
"Daniel."
"You want the truth?"
"Yes."
"Ask Claire what happened the night your mother died."
Ryan's blood turned cold.
"My mother died of cancer."
"No."
Ryan could barely speak.
"Don't do that."
"Ask Claire."
"She was twenty-two when my mother died. They never met."
Another silence.
Then Daniel whispered, "That's what Claire believes."
Ryan frowned.
"What does that mean?"
Before Daniel could answer, a loud crash sounded through the phone.
Then shouting.
Daniel breathed sharply.
"They found me."
"Daniel?"
"Listen to me."
Ryan stood.
"Where are you?"
"Don't trust the death certificate."
"What death certificate?"
"Your mother's."
A gunshot sounded.
Daniel gasped.
"Daniel!"
The line went dead.
Ryan woke Claire.
Within thirty minutes Ruiz traced the call to an abandoned service station outside Providence.
Agents found blood.
A broken phone.
No body.
No Daniel.
Ryan told Ruiz everything except Daniel's warning about her.
He hated himself for keeping another secret.
But trust had become a luxury.
The following afternoon Ryan requested his mother's death records.
Elizabeth Carter.
Age forty-six.
Cause of death: metastatic ovarian cancer.
Hospital: St. Matthew's Medical Center.
Everything appeared normal.
Until Ruiz discovered something.
St. Matthew's had never treated Elizabeth Carter.
The oncologist whose signature appeared on the certificate had died eight months before the document was signed.
Ryan stared at the record.
"My mother's death certificate is fake."
Claire sat beside him.
"Then how did she die?"
Ryan remembered the funeral.
Closed casket.
His father refusing to let Ryan see her body because cancer had changed her appearance.
At eighteen, Ryan had believed him.
"Did I bury my mother?"
Nobody answered.
Then Ethan appeared in the doorway.
"Lily is gone."
Ryan stood so quickly the chair fell.
"What?"
They ran to the adjoining room.
The window was open.
The federal officer stationed in the hallway was unconscious.
Lily's stuffed rabbit lay on the carpet.
Claire screamed her name.
Ryan saw a note on the bed.
He unfolded it.
Bring Sarah's card to your house.
Come alone.
Ryan's hands began shaking.
Claire whispered, "They took her."
Ethan started crying.
Ryan knelt and held his son.
Then noticed something in Ethan's fist.
"What is that?"
Ethan opened his hand.
Lily had given him her silver necklace.
The memory card was still inside.
Ryan stared at it.
"She knew."
Ethan nodded through tears.
"She told me if the bad man came, I should hide it."
Ryan stood.
Ruiz said, "You're not going alone."
"The note says alone."
"I don't care."
"They have my daughter."
"We'll build a perimeter."
Ryan looked at Claire.
She understood before he spoke.
"No."
"Claire."
"No, Ryan."
"I have to."
"Then I'm coming."
"You can't."
"She's my family too."
For a second Ryan saw the woman he had married.
Flawed.
Terrified.
Secretive.
But standing there anyway.
He nodded.
They drove back to the Carter home shortly after sunset.
The house was dark.
The kitchen vent stood open.
A trail of breadcrumbs led across the floor.
Ryan followed it.
Toward the hidden passage.
Then Lily screamed.
"Daddy!"
Ryan ran.
The explosion threw him backward.
The kitchen windows shattered.
Fire raced across the rear wall.
Claire shouted.
Ethan was safely outside with Ruiz, but Lily was somewhere inside.
Ryan crawled through smoke.
He found her beside the open passage.
A man stood behind her.
Gavin.
Ryan's heart stopped.
"Gavin?"
Gavin looked terrified.
"Ryan, listen to me."
"Get away from her."
"I didn't take her."
"Move."
"Ryan."
Another voice came from the darkness.
"He's telling the truth."
A man stepped into the kitchen.
Ryan stared.
For one impossible second, he believed he was looking into a mirror.
Same height.
Same dark brown hair.
Same eyes.
Same face.
Older only by exhaustion.
A thin scar crossed his left cheek.
Ryan whispered, "Daniel."
The man nodded.
"Hello, brother."
Then another figure emerged behind him.
A gun lifted.
Gavin turned.
The bullet struck him in the shoulder.
Claire screamed.
The shooter stepped into the light.
Ryan recognized him.
Northstar Development's chief executive.
Charles Vale.
A man Ryan had eaten dinner with twelve times.
Vale pointed the weapon toward Lily.
"The card."
Ryan stared.
"You killed Sarah."
Vale smiled.
"Sarah killed herself."
Lily cried, "No!"
Vale's smile vanished.
Daniel shifted subtly toward her.
Vale raised the weapon.
"Don't."
Daniel stopped.
Fire spread across the ceiling.
Ryan reached into his pocket.
"I have the card."
Vale looked at him.
"Give it to me."
Ryan removed a memory card.
He tossed it across the floor.
Vale bent.
Daniel moved.
Everything happened at once.
Gavin grabbed Vale's leg.
Claire pulled Lily backward.
Ryan lunged.
Vale fired.
The bullet shattered a cabinet.
Daniel struck Vale.
The gun slid across the floor.
Ryan kicked it away.
Vale punched Daniel.
The brothers fell against the kitchen island.
Claire grabbed Lily and ran toward the doors.
Gavin shouted, "Ryan!"
Vale had reached for a second weapon.
Ryan turned.
A gunshot exploded.
Vale collapsed.
Detective Ruiz stood in the doorway.
Weapon raised.
Federal agents rushed inside.
Ryan looked at Daniel.
Smoke moved between them.
For thirty-one years, each had existed only as an absence in the other's life.
Now they stood six feet apart.
Ryan stepped forward.
Daniel stepped back.
"We need to leave."
"Come with us."
Daniel shook his head.
"Why?"
"Because this isn't over."
"Vale ran Meridian."
"No."
"Then who?"
Daniel looked toward Lily.
"Someone who knew Sarah better than any of us."
The ceiling cracked.
Ruiz shouted for everyone to evacuate.
Ryan grabbed Daniel's arm.
"You're coming."
Daniel looked at Ryan's hand.
Then at his face.
For one moment, something softened.
"My brother."
Ryan tightened his grip.
"Yes."
Daniel pulled away.
Then disappeared through the smoke.
Ryan tried to follow.
May you like
A burning beam crashed between them.
By the time firefighters entered the rear section of the house, Daniel was gone.
