Chapter Forty: Five Years Later

The drive back from Ashcroft was noticeably quieter than the journey that had brought them out there. Rain clung to the dark windshield in thin, glittering streaks as Marcus guided the car smoothly through the winding mountain road. Ethan followed closely behind with Amelia, neither of them saying much over the radio channels.

By the time they finally reached the city limits, the dusk had given way to deep night. Marcus dropped Lena off at the front doors of the precinct before heading inside the building himself.

"I'll have our technicians verify every document we collected from Section F," she said as she gathered the heavy cardboard evidence boxes from the trunk.

"And Michael Cole?" Marcus asked, lowering his voice.

Marcus paused, considering the options. "Handle it quietly."

"You think he'll run if he catches wind of this?"

"I think if he's innocent, he deserves a fair chance to explain himself to his son."

"And if he isn't innocent?"

Marcus looked out toward the empty parking lot. "Then I don't want him knowing we're looking into his history."

Ethan parked his car outside his parents' house but didn't get out immediately. The old photograph from the Ashcroft archives refused to leave his mind. He finally stepped out of the vehicle and walked up the steps.

Michael Cole answered the front door before Ethan could even raise his hand to knock.

"There you are," his father said with a warm smile. "Your mother was beginning to think you'd completely forgotten about dinner tonight."

Ethan managed to force a faint, tight smile. "I was working a case."

"You look absolutely exhausted, son."

"I feel it."

Michael studied his son's face for a long moment. "Is everything all right at the precinct?"

There was genuine paternal concern in his voice, which made the next question significantly harder to ask.

"Dad..."

"Yes, Ethan?"

"Have you ever heard of a place called Ashcroft Institute?"

The warm smile vanished from the older man's face. Not dramatically, but just enough for Ethan to notice the immediate tension in his jaw.

"Ashcroft?" Michael repeated the name carefully, clearly buying himself a single second to think. "I haven't heard that name in many years."

"So you do know it."

His father sighed heavily, looking past Ethan into the dark yard. "I worked there when I was much younger."

Ethan's chest tightened. "You never told me a single thing about it."

"You never asked."

"That's not the point, Dad."

"No," Michael stepped aside, gesturing into the warm hallway. "It isn't. Come inside."

Marcus was halfway through reviewing the Ashcroft files at his desk when his personal phone rang loudly. It wasn't Ethan calling. It was Thomas Greaves.

Marcus answered the line immediately. "Greaves? Did something happen?"

Thomas's breathing sounded uneven, almost panicked over the speaker. "I think someone has been inside the institute building since you left."

"We just left an hour ago."

"I know," Thomas whispered. "I came back up to the office to lock down the archives securely."

Marcus stood up from his chair. "What did you find?"

"The industrial cabinet we opened..." A long, terrifying pause followed over the line. "It's completely empty."

Marcus's expression hardened instantly. "Everything is gone?"

"Every single file, Marcus."

"Did you see anyone on the road?"

"No one."

"What about the security cameras?"

Thomas gave a tired, cynical laugh. "A place like Ashcroft never had working cameras in the specific rooms that mattered."

Marcus grabbed his heavy coat from the back of his chair. "Stay put. I'm on my way back." Before Thomas could reply, the phone line went dead.

Across town, Ethan sat directly opposite his father at the wooden kitchen table. Neither of them had touched the mugs of tea Michael had prepared minutes earlier.

"I wasn't lying to you all these years, Ethan," Michael said quietly, staring down at his hands. "I simply left that dark part of my life behind me."

"Why?"

"Because I desperately wanted a normal family life for you."

Ethan placed the Ashcroft photograph flat on the table between them. Michael stared at the image for several seconds. Then, he slowly closed his eyes.

"I wondered when this would eventually surface."

"You knew Clara Bennett."

"Yes."

"Were you a part of Project Lilac?"

Michael looked directly into his son's eyes. "No."

"Did you know about what they were doing?"

"I knew enough to pack up and leave the facility."

Ethan searched his father's lined face for any subtle sign of deception. "What about Daniel Hart?"

Michael's expression changed instantly. It wasn't a look of fear; it was grief. "He was my closest friend."

The honest answer caught Ethan off guard.

"We worked security together for three long years," Michael explained.

"Then where is he now, Dad?"

Michael looked toward the dark kitchen window. "I don't know."

"I don't believe you."

"I know," Michael's voice remained perfectly calm. "But you believing me won't change the underlying truth of what happened."

He reached into a drawer beside the kitchen table and removed removed a small photograph. It showed two young men standing outside the entrance of Ashcroft Institute. It was young Michael and Daniel Hart.

Michael handed the photograph to Ethan. "The last time I saw your father..." He stopped himself and quickly corrected the slip. "The last time I saw Daniel... his voice grew much quieter. He told me that if anyone ever came looking for him, they should never search where he disappeared."

Ethan felt confused. "Then where should we look?"

Michael met his son's intense gaze. "They should search exactly where he was trying to go."

Outside the house, a car slowed down briefly in front of the property before continuing quietly down the asphalt street. Inside that moving car, a older woman wearing a cream-colored hat glanced once toward the brightly lit kitchen window.

Then she drove on into the night, as though she had only been confirming that father and son had finally begun the conversation she had waited decades to see.