THE TOWN WHERE ETHAN COLE WASN’T A STRANGER
Chapter 9
Anna told the truth the next morning.
She had been fourteen when Thomas Cole brought her mother to Greyhaven.
Her mother had been a bookkeeper for the organization.
She knew names.
Accounts.
Locations.
Routes.
When she realized what the organization was doing, she copied everything.
Thomas helped her escape.
But someone discovered them.
Anna’s mother was killed.
Anna survived.
She had spent twenty years hiding.
Lily was her daughter.
The baby was safe with relatives.
The people who had come for her weren’t looking for money.
They wanted the names.
The truth.
The evidence.
And Thomas had hidden the final piece with Anna.
A memory.
One location.
One name.
The person who had ordered everything.
Ethan looked at her.
“Who?”
Anna hesitated.
Then said:
“Robert Vale.”
Ethan frowned.
“He’s dead.”
Anna shook her head.
“No.”
“He died twenty years ago.”
“No.”
She looked toward the ocean.
“That was another lie.”
Ethan closed his eyes.
Another ghost.
Another man who had disappeared.
But this time, Ethan didn’t feel the old pull.
The need to chase.
The need to solve everything.
He looked at Anna.
“Where is he?”
She smiled sadly.
“I don’t know.”
Ethan nodded.
“Then we’ll find him.”
Walter looked at him.
“You’re staying?”
Ethan looked around the shop.
The harbor.
The town.
Then toward the road leading back to his house.
“Yeah.”
Walter smiled.
“Good.”
