Chapter 7 - The Man in the Tan Coat
Adrian took Nora to his apartment above a closed law office, where the curtains stayed drawn and the only light came from a desk lamp. He had kept a box of Ethan’s belongings in a locked cabinet: a cracked watch, a grease-stained notebook, and a photograph of the three of them at a summer fair.
Nora picked up the photo. Ethan was laughing so hard his eyes had nearly disappeared. Adrian stood beside him, one arm around Nora’s shoulders.
“You kept this?” she asked.
“I kept everything.”
“Except me.”
He looked down. “I thought if I pushed you away, Richard would stop watching you.”
“He didn’t.”
“I know.”
“Then what did your sacrifice accomplish?”
“Nothing. That’s the part I have to live with.”
She wanted him to defend himself. His guilt made her angrier than an excuse would have.
Adrian opened the notebook to a page marked with Ethan’s initials. A list of dates ran down the margin, each beside a vehicle identification number. One entry had been circled twice: TEST 17 — NORTH TRACK — 11:42 P.M.
“That was the night he died,” Nora said.
“Ethan told me the company had run an unauthorized test after the official session ended. He thought someone was using the track to hide a dangerous override.”
“Who had access?”
“Richard, the head of engineering, and two contractors. One of those contractors vanished after the crash.”
“Name.”
“Marcus Bell.”
Nora wrote it down. “And you knew all this when you let me bury my brother.”
“I knew pieces. I didn’t know the full picture until three days ago, when Luis contacted me.”
“Why should I believe you now?”
“You shouldn’t. Verify everything.” Adrian slid a small envelope across the desk. Inside was a printout of a transfer from a company account to a shell firm owned by Marcus Bell. “I copied this before Richard shut down my access.”
Nora studied the date. The payment had been made the morning after Ethan’s crash.
A knock sounded at the door. Adrian went still, then looked through the peephole.
May you like
He turned back, face pale.
“It’s Richard,” he whispered. “And he brought my father.”
