Chapter 6 - what claire discovered
Ethan moved Maisie to his chest instinctively.
"Why would anyone want my daughter?"
Corinne looked at Daniel.
Daniel looked away.
Ethan's anger rose.
"You both know."
Daniel said, "I know pieces."
"Then start putting them together."
Corinne walked toward the window and checked the street.
"Claire discovered something in Boston."
"About Halcyon?"
"About the people funding them."
"What?"
"Money."
Ethan almost laughed.
"That's what this is about?"
"Not ordinary money," Daniel said.
He moved toward the dining table and spread several cabinet documents across it.
"Trusts. Shell companies. Political donations. Private medical foundations."
Ethan stared.
"What does that have to do with Claire?"
Daniel picked up a page.
"Claire worked as a forensic accountant before she changed careers."
Ethan knew that.
Before becoming a nonprofit financial director, Claire had spent years auditing medical charities.
Daniel continued.
"She found a network of donations moving through research foundations and disappearing into security contractors."
"Halcyon."
"Yes."
Corinne added, "Claire initially thought it was fraud."
"What was it?"
"Payment."
"For what?"
Neither answered immediately.
Ethan looked between them.
"For what?"
Daniel said, "Patient data."
Ethan frowned.
"Medical data?"
"Genetic records. Family histories. Blood samples. Fertility records."
Ethan looked at Maisie.
A sick feeling spread through him.
"Claire was pregnant."
Corinne nodded.
"That made her dangerous to them."
"Why?"
"Because she discovered her own file."
Ethan stared.
"Her own medical file?"
"Not exactly."
Corinne pulled one of the sealed documents from the stack.
She did not open it.
Instead, she placed it in front of Ethan.
"Claire learned that her mother had participated in an experimental fertility treatment in the late eighties."
Ethan shook his head.
"Claire never said anything about that."
"She didn't know."
Daniel continued.
"The trial was private. Records were buried."
"Why would Halcyon care?"
"Because the research wasn't just fertility treatment."
Ethan's patience broke.
"Stop speaking in riddles."
Daniel inhaled.
"They were tracking hereditary markers."
"What kind?"
"Neurological resilience. Immune response. Rare blood factors. Nobody knows the full list."
Ethan looked down at Maisie.
"Are you telling me my daughter is some kind of medical experiment?"
"No," Corinne said quickly. "Maisie is a child. Nothing more."
"Then why want her?"
"Because Claire stole evidence."
"What evidence?"
Corinne looked at the cabinet.
"A ledger."
Ethan remembered the black book inside.
He walked back to the cabinet and retrieved it.
The cover was plain.
No title.
Inside were rows of handwritten codes.
Dates.
Initials.
Dollar amounts.
Facility names.
One code appeared repeatedly.
MC 117.
Maisie Carter?
Ethan felt nauseous.
"Is this about Maisie?"
Corinne shook her head.
"I don't know."
Daniel studied the entries.
"Claire may have hidden this before her crash."
Ethan looked at Corinne.
"How did it end up in your cabinet?"
"I found it."
"Where?"
"In a storage box Claire left with me years ago."
"Years?"
Corinne closed her eyes.
"Before you ever met her."
Ethan stared.
"So you've had this the entire time?"
"I didn't know what it was until after she disappeared."
"Why didn't you give it to the police?"
"Because police officers were already compromised."
Daniel said, "She's right about that."
Ethan turned on him.
"You don't get to defend her."
"I'm not."
"You both decided I was too stupid to know my own life."
Daniel flinched.
"I made mistakes."
"You staged my wife's death."
"No. I believed she could still be found."
"You held a memorial."
"To convince whoever was looking for her that we had stopped searching."
Ethan stared.
"You used me."
"I protected you."
"You broke me."
Daniel's face softened.
"I know."
For one second, Ethan saw his brother again.
Not a conspirator.
Not a liar.
His brother.
Then a sound came from upstairs.
A floorboard.
Everyone froze.
Ethan looked toward the staircase.
Corinne whispered, "Did anyone go up there?"
Daniel shook his head.
Another sound.
A door closing.
Ethan handed Maisie to Daniel.
"Take her."
Daniel held the child.
Ethan moved toward the kitchen and grabbed the heavy flashlight from the utility drawer.
Corinne whispered, "Ethan, don't."
He ignored her.
He climbed the stairs slowly.
The hallway was empty.
Maisie's room stood open.
So did the guest room.
The master bedroom door was closed.
Ethan knew he had left it open that morning.
He approached.
His hand closed around the knob.
He pushed the door.
Empty.
Then he saw the photograph on the bed.
Claire and Ethan on their wedding day.
It had been removed from a framed family album downstairs.
Across Claire's face, someone had drawn a single red line.
May you like
On the back were six handwritten words.
YOU WERE NEVER SUPPOSED TO FIND HER.
