Chapter 3 - The Basement With the Red DoorWe went to my parents' house the next morning.
Agent Morris arranged for law enforcement to accompany us.
The house looked exactly as I remembered.
Perfect.
Clean.
Expensive.
Cold.
Mia refused to enter.
She stood in the driveway shaking.
I crouched beside her.
"You don't have to go inside."
She pointed toward the basement.
Agent Morris noticed.
"She wants us to check something."
We entered.
The basement door was at the end of the hallway.
Red.
Exactly like her drawing.
My father had always told me never to go down there.
I assumed it was because of old equipment.
Now I knew better.
Agent Morris opened the door.
The basement smelled of dust and chemicals.
Mia stayed behind me.
Then she pointed.
A metal cabinet.
We opened it.
Inside were folders.
Shipping records.
Bank statements.
Photographs.
And a ledger.
Agent Morris picked it up.
"This is significant."
I looked at the pages.
Names.
Dates.
Payments.
Every transaction was coded.
Then I saw my father's signature.
My stomach turned.
"This proves it."
Agent Morris nodded.
"Maybe."
She flipped several pages.
Then stopped.
"This is worse than I thought."
"What?"
She showed me a list of warehouse shipments.
Several were marked as destroyed.
But the dates matched deposits into offshore accounts.
My father wasn't stealing from one company.
He was moving millions.
I looked at Mia.
She pointed toward the far wall.
There was a small metal panel.
Agent Morris opened it.
Inside was a safe.
Mia began trembling.
She wrote:
DAD PUT IT THERE.
I whispered:
"Caleb?"
She nodded.
Agent Morris examined the safe.
"Do you know the combination?"
Mia shook her head.
Then she drew a number sequence.
Three.
Seven.
One.
Nine.
Agent Morris tried it.
The safe opened.
Inside was a USB drive.
A key.
And a photograph.
I picked up the photograph.
It showed Caleb and me as children.
On the back, he had written:
If anything happens to me, protect Mia.
I couldn't breathe.
My brother had known.
He had expected something to happen.
Then I noticed the USB drive had a label.
FINAL
Agent Morris inserted it into a secure laptop.
A video opened.
Caleb appeared.
His face looked exhausted.
"If this is playing, I'm probably dead."
My eyes filled with tears.
He continued.
"Dad found out I knew."
He looked behind him.
"I tried to move the evidence."
He swallowed.
"But someone inside the family is helping him."
My heart stopped.
"Mom?"
Caleb shook his head.
"Not Mom."
He looked directly into the camera.
"It's Evelyn."
I frowned.
"Who?"
Agent Morris stared at the screen.
Caleb continued.
"Evelyn works with Dad's accountant."
My mother was named Susan.
My father had remarried years after my brother was born.
Evelyn was my father's business partner.
I barely knew her.
Caleb continued.
"If something happens, the originals are in Storage Unit 17."
The video ended.
Agent Morris immediately called another agent.
"We need Unit 17."
Then my phone rang.
Unknown number.
I answered.
A man's voice said:
"You shouldn't have opened that safe."
I froze.
"Who is this?"
"You know exactly who."
"Where is my mother?"
Silence.
Then:
"She's with us."
My blood went cold.
"Who?"
The caller laughed.
"Your father was right."
"What did he say?"
"That you'd eventually become a problem."
The line went dead.
Mia had been watching me.
She grabbed my arm.
Then she pointed toward the basement window.
A black car was parked outside.
Someone was sitting inside.
Watching us.
Agent Morris noticed.
"Everyone out."
We moved quickly.
The car started.
It sped away.
Mia grabbed my hand.
She opened her notebook.
She drew the man from the warehouse.
The scar.
Then she wrote:
THAT MAN.
Agent Morris stared at the road.
"Now we know who we're looking for."
I looked at her.
"Who?"
She answered:
"Your father's business partner."
"Evelyn?"
"No."
She looked at Mia's drawing.
"Her husband."
I felt the room tilt.
Because Evelyn's husband was a federal contractor.
May you like
And according to the records we had just found—
he had access to the same warehouse the night Caleb died.
Related Stories
