Chapter 17 : Reopening the case
1330 Words
The office door closed behind Ethan.
His footsteps faded down the hallway.
Mercer stayed behind his desk, staring at the door.
For a few seconds, he didn't move.
Then he grabbed the pen on his desk and slammed it down.
“Damn it.”
The pen bounced once and rolled across the desk.
Mercer leaned back in his chair. The calm expression he'd worn in front of Ethan was gone.
“Some kid like that has no idea what he's getting into.”
He'd done his best to stay calm while Ethan was there.
But now the young man's face kept coming back to him.
Especially when Ethan mentioned Whitmore.
Mercer rubbed a hand over his face.
“And Whitmore…”
He paused.
“How the hell did he just die like that?”
The office fell silent again.
Then a thought crossed his mind.
Mercer's expression darkened.
“Could the company have had something to do with it?”
He didn't say anything else.
He just stared at the pen on his desk.
Meanwhile, Ethan sat in his car.
He closed the door but didn't start the engine.
Mercer's reaction kept playing over and over in his head.
Ethan leaned back and stared through the windshield.
“Mercer has to be connected to Claire's disappearance.”
He said it quietly.
“Why else would he lie?”
But the thought only left him with more questions.
What was he supposed to do now?
He had no evidence.
No solid lead.
And he couldn't exactly explain how he'd found out some of the things he knew.
If he went to the police now, would they even believe him?
Ethan let out a quiet, bitter laugh.
There was no way he could tell them he could see pieces of the past.
Not yet.
He tightened his hands around the steering wheel.
“So what am I supposed to do?”
Of course, there was no answer.
He'd finally gotten close to something.
He could feel it.
But whatever he was looking for still seemed to be just out of reach.
Ethan finally started the car.
He'd go home first.
Maybe if he went through Whitmore's notes again, something would make sense.
The drive home was quiet.
A few minutes later, Ethan pulled up outside his apartment building.
He climbed the stairs and stopped in front of his door.
He reached for his keys.
Then stopped.
Something felt off.
He stared at the door.
He clearly remembered locking it that morning.
But now…
A bad feeling settled in his stomach.
Ethan didn't put the key in the lock.
Instead, he stood there and listened.
Nothing.
He took a slow breath and carefully opened the door.
The moment he stepped inside, he froze.
His apartment had been completely searched.
The couch cushions were on the floor.
Books had been pulled from the shelves and left scattered around.
Every drawer had been opened, and everything inside had been tossed around.
Papers covered his desk.
Ethan stayed in the doorway.
Someone had been here.
He moved through the apartment, checking what was missing.
His computer was still there.
So was his camera.
Even the valuables were untouched.
This wasn't a normal burglary.
Whoever had come here hadn't been interested in stealing anything.
They'd been looking for something.
Then Ethan noticed the empty space in the corner of the room.
His box.
Whitmore's belongings.
Gone.
His expression changed.
“No…”
His mind immediately went back to the two men who had attacked him the day before.
Ethan clenched his jaw.
It had to be them.
They'd taken the USB yesterday.
Now they'd found his apartment.
But why take Whitmore's things?
What were they looking for?
Ethan stopped thinking about it and pulled out his phone.
He called Maya.
She answered almost immediately.
“Ethan?”
“Maya, someone broke into my apartment.”
“What?”
“My place has been searched.”
Ethan looked around the room.
“And Whitmore's box is gone.”
There was a short pause.
“Are you still inside?”
“Yeah.”
“Get out.”
“What?”
“Don't touch anything. Just get out.”
Her voice turned firm.
“Lock the door and leave. We're on our way.”
Ethan looked around one last time.
Then he stepped into the hallway and pulled the door shut.
He locked it.
For a moment, he just stood there with his phone in his hand.
Only then did it really sink in.
Someone was investigating him.
They might even be following him.
And whatever they were looking for was probably connected to something Whitmore had left behind.
Ten minutes later, Maya met him at a café across from his apartment.
She spotted him sitting in the corner and walked over.
“Start from the beginning.”
She sat down across from him.
“And this time, give me the whole story.”
Ethan looked at her.
Maya's expression was serious.
“This isn't just you digging into an old case anymore.”
“Someone broke into your apartment and took something.”
She paused.
“That means you're in danger now.”
Ethan lowered his eyes.
He knew he couldn't keep everything to himself.
At least, not anymore.
“A few days ago…”
He took a breath.
“I found a notebook while I was going through Professor Whitmore's things.”
“It had a lot of notes about Claire Morgan's disappearance in 2009.”
Maya didn't interrupt.
“There were a lot of things in it that didn't make sense.”
“So I started looking into them.”
“That's how I found the storage locker.”
He paused.
“And you know what happened after that.”
Maya watched him for a moment.
“So all of this started with Whitmore's notebook?”
“Yeah.”
Ethan nodded.
He was still keeping one thing from her.
Some things were better left unexplained.
Especially something he couldn't explain himself.
Maya was quiet for a moment.
Then she asked,
“Do you still have the notebook?”
“Can I see it?”
“Yeah.”
Ethan reached into his bag.
“I've been carrying it with me. That's why they didn't get it.”
He handed it over.
Maya flipped through the pages.
Her brow furrowed.
“What are all these?”
She pointed at the scattered notes.
“These numbers, the symbols…”
She looked up.
“Do you know what they mean?”
Ethan glanced at the notebook.
“That's how Whitmore took notes.”
“He had his own way of putting things down.”
“A lot of it probably only made sense to him.”
Maya turned another page.
“And you can make sense of it?”
“Some of it.”
Ethan gave a small shrug.
“But I need to connect these notes to the other clues before I can figure out what they mean.”
“On their own, most of them don't tell me much.”
Maya closed the notebook and handed it back.
She leaned back in her chair and thought for a moment.
“Ethan…”
She looked at him.
“If you really think something's wrong with this case, I can put in a request to reopen it.”
Ethan looked up.
“With the police involved, you'll have access to things you can't get on your own.”
“We can go through the old records properly.”
She paused.
“And you'll be a lot safer doing it this way.”
Ethan looked down at the notebook in his hands.
Reopen Claire's case.
That meant he wouldn't be investigating alone anymore.
But it also meant the police would start getting closer to the things he'd kept to himself.
He was quiet for a few seconds.
Then he looked up.
“Okay.”
He nodded.
“Let's reopen the case.”
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