Chapter 4 - The First Door Ethan Closed
Ethan did not meet Claire.
He forwarded her email to himself, printed it at Megan's home office, and saved a second digital copy.
Then he called Colonel Sloan.
Rebecca answered on the second ring.
“Mercer.”
Her voice sounded almost exactly as he remembered.
“I received your envelope.”
A pause.
“Opened by you?”
“No.”
The silence changed.
Ethan explained.
Rebecca did not dramatize it.
That made the situation feel worse.
“The documents aren't classified,” she said. “But the witness list isn't public, and your involvement wasn't supposed to circulate before counsel contacted everyone.”
“Claire Whitmore has seen it.”
“How?”
“My wife sent her photographs.”
Another pause.
“Your wife is Claire Whitmore's sister?”
“Yes.”
Rebecca exhaled slowly.
“Ethan, I didn't know.”
“Neither did I when I married her.”
She told him not to destroy anything, not to contact Claire about the procurement review, and not to discuss the substance of the documents with Sarah.
Then she said something Ethan hadn't expected.
“Someone contacted me about you two months ago.”
“Who?”
“They didn't identify themselves. They asked whether you'd kept copies of the 2014 inspection files.”
Ethan's grip tightened around the phone.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because I assumed it was a reporter.”
He looked toward the guest room where Sophie was coloring beside Megan.
“What exactly did they ask?”
Rebecca hesitated.
“Where you stored your old field records.”
That afternoon Ethan returned to the Vienna house with Megan and a police civil standby arranged through the non-emergency line—not to accuse Sarah of a crime, but to avoid a confrontation while he collected Sophie's belongings.
Sarah waited in the living room.
“You brought an audience?”
“I brought my sister.”
Sarah's gaze flicked toward the officer outside.
“Cute.”
Ethan ignored the insult.
He packed Sophie's clothes, medical supplies, school folder, and stuffed animals.
Then he removed the burgundy field case from the house permanently.
When Sarah realized he was taking it, she stepped into the hallway.
“You don't understand what you're doing.”
Ethan stopped.
“Then explain it.”
Her jaw tightened.
“My family employs eighty-three people.”
There it was.
Not confusion.
Not surprise.
Knowledge.
Ethan stared at her.
“How long have you known?”
May you like
Sarah didn't answer.
She only said, “Claire told me not to let that case leave this house.”
