CHAPTER 14: NOAH’S PROMISE
Noah visited Theo after midnight.
Amelia sat beside the incubator with one hand resting against the glass.
“You should sleep,” Noah said.
“So should you.”
“I don’t think either of us remembers how.”
Amelia looked at the photograph from Whitmore Mill.
“Did your father know my mother?”
“I don’t know.”
“They were standing beside each other.”
“My father worked as an electrical contractor before joining the fire department. He may have inspected the building.”
“Why would someone erase Captain Morales?”
“Because he wasn’t supposed to be there.”
Noah sat beside her.
“My mother always believed my father’s death was covered up.”
“Did she investigate?”
“For years.”
“What happened?”
“She died two years ago.”
“I’m sorry.”
“She left me one thing.”
Noah removed a small brass key from beneath his shirt.
“She said it opened a locker containing the truth.”
“Where is the locker?”
“I never found it.”
Amelia studied him.
“Why did you become a firefighter?”
“To finish what my father started.”
“And Ethan?”
“I joined his station because he was the last person known to see my father alive.”
Amelia looked toward the NICU.
“Do you believe Ethan killed him?”
“No.”
“Do you trust Ethan?”
“No.”
The answer came without hesitation.
Noah looked at Theo.
“But I believe Ethan is afraid.”
“Of Morales?”
“Of his father.”
“William Carter is retired.”
“Retired people don’t disappear from public records.”
Noah showed her his phone.
William Carter’s address, driver’s license, bank accounts, and medical records had all stopped updating six months earlier.
There was no death certificate.
No travel record.
No sign he had entered Arizona, where Ethan believed he lived.
The last verified image of William Carter came from an airport camera.
He had not boarded a plane.
He had entered a black car.
The license plate belonged to Whitmore Security.
Claire’s family company.
Noah closed the file.
“William Carter never left the city.”
Amelia’s phone vibrated.
May you like
A new anonymous message appeared.
Neither did your mother.
