Chapter 3: The Men at the Door
“Give us Baxter, and we'll forget what happened tonight.””
Ethan stared at the back door.
Baxter stood three feet away, body rigid, teeth visible beneath his raised lip.
Nora grabbed Ethan's wrist.
“Don't answer them.””
Ethan looked at her.
“You know these people.””
“Yes.””
“Who are they?””
Another knock.
Three slow taps.
“Nora,” the man outside called.
“We're running out of patience.””
Ethan lowered his voice.
“You have ten seconds to tell me what's happening.””
Nora shook her head.
“They weren't supposed to come here.””
“Nine.””
“Ethan, please.””
“Eight.””
She squeezed her eyes shut.
“They hired me.””
Ethan stopped counting.
“For what?””
Nora looked at the vial in his hand.
“To make you sick.””
The words seemed to remove all the air from the room.
Ethan stared at his wife.
“Say that again.””
“Not kill you,” Nora whispered quickly.
“They said it wouldn't kill you. You were supposed to become confused, weak, unable to work.””
“Why?””
“I don't know everything.””
“That's not an answer.””
A metallic click came from outside.
The back-door handle moved.
Baxter barked.
“WOOF!””
Ethan stepped away from the windows.
“Did you lock it?””
“Yes.””
The handle moved again.
Then stopped.
Ethan looked toward the hallway leading to his office.
“Come with me.””
“Where?””
“Somewhere without windows.””
He grabbed the black bag.
Baxter followed immediately.
They entered Ethan's office, and he locked the door.
Nora whispered, “What are you doing?””
Ethan opened a cabinet hidden behind a framed photograph and removed an old tablet.
Nora stared.
“You keep another device?””
“My company requires emergency backups.””
He activated it.
“I'm calling the police.””
Nora grabbed the desk.
“If you do, they'll disappear before anyone arrives.””
“Good.””
“No, Ethan. They'll take everything with them.””
He looked at her.
“What everything?””
She hesitated.
Ethan leaned forward.
“Nora, someone came to my home asking for my dog after you put something in my tea. Stop deciding which parts of the truth I'm allowed to hear.””
Her shoulders dropped.
“There are records.””
“Where?””
“I don't know.””
“Records of what?””
“Your father.””
Ethan froze.
His father, William Cole, had died fourteen months earlier after what doctors described as complications from a neurological illness.
For the final six months of his life, William had become increasingly confused.
He forgot appointments.
Signed documents he couldn't remember signing.
Sometimes he didn't recognize Ethan.
Dr. Halpern had called it rapid cognitive decline.
Ethan's gaze fell toward the black bag.
Weak.
Confused.
Unable to work.
The same words Nora had just used.
“No,” Ethan whispered.
Nora looked away.
“What did you do to my father?””
“Nothing.””
“WHAT DID YOU DO?””
“Nothing!”” Nora cried.
“I didn't even know these people then.””
Baxter moved closer to Ethan.
Nora lowered her voice.
“I swear.””
Ethan remembered something.
Three weeks before William died, Baxter had refused to enter his father's bedroom.
The dog would stand outside whining.
Ethan had assumed Baxter was frightened by the medical equipment.
But Baxter had also started growling whenever Dr. Halpern arrived.
At the time, everyone had laughed about it.
Everyone except William.
One afternoon, his father had gripped Ethan's hand and whispered something.
“Trust the dog.””
Ethan had thought it was confusion.
His stomach turned.
“Why did Halpern disappear?””
Nora remained silent.
“Answer me.””
“I think he discovered what was happening.””
“To my father?””
“To several people.””
Ethan stared at her.
A faint sound came from the kitchen.
Glass tapping against something.
Then silence.
The men were still outside.
Nora approached the desk.
“Ethan, they told me your father was part of something bigger. After he died, they needed control of Cole Meridian.””
Ethan's company.
A logistics and pharmaceutical-distribution corporation founded by William thirty-two years earlier.
Ethan had inherited his father's controlling shares.
“You're saying someone poisoned my father for his company?””
“I don't know if they poisoned him.””
“You just said—”
“I said there was a pattern.””
Ethan looked at the tablet.
No signal.
He checked again.
Nothing.
“They're blocking it,” Nora whispered.
His phone showed the same.
No service.
Then Baxter's ears lifted.
A soft scraping sound came from the hallway.
Someone was inside.
Ethan shut off the office lights.
Nora covered her mouth.
The doorknob moved.
Once.
Twice.
Baxter crouched.
Ethan silently pulled Nora behind the heavy desk.
The handle stopped moving.
Footsteps retreated.
Ethan waited.
Five seconds.
Ten.
Twenty.
Then he heard a drawer opening somewhere down the hall.
“They're searching,” Nora whispered.
“For what?””
“The vial, probably.””
“No.””
Ethan watched Baxter.
The dog wasn't looking toward the office door anymore.
He was staring at the black bag.
Ethan remembered how Baxter had uncovered the photograph.
He emptied the bag across the carpet.
Gloves.
Scale.
Cash.
Containers.
Nothing else.
Baxter sniffed the bag, then pawed repeatedly at the bottom seam.
Ethan ran his fingers along the lining.
There was something underneath.
He tore the fabric.
A tiny memory card fell into his palm.
Nora stared at it.
“I've never seen that.””
Ethan inserted it into the tablet.
One folder appeared.
WILLIAM COLE.
His hands trembled.
He opened it.
There were medical reports, payment records and photographs.
Then a video file.
Ethan pressed play.
His father appeared on screen.
William looked exhausted, sitting in what appeared to be Dr. Halpern's clinic.
“If Ethan is watching this,” William said, “then they finally came for him too.””
Ethan stopped breathing.
William leaned toward the camera.
“And if Baxter is still alive, protect that dog. He's the only witness they couldn't buy.””
A floorboard creaked outside the office.
May you like
Then a man's voice came through the door.
“Mr. Cole, we know you're watching your father's video.””
