“He knew,” Marcus replied. “That's why he endured what he did.”
They moved through the kitchen and toward the basement.
The stairs creaked beneath their weight. At the bottom, a bare light bulb illuminated shelves filled with old paint cans, broken appliances, and cardboard boxes.
The water heater stood in the far corner.
Thomas had described the hiding place with precision. Behind the heater, there was a section of wall that looked slightly newer than the surrounding plaster.
One investigator photographed the area.
Another checked the floor for signs of recent disturbance.
“Nothing obvious,” she said.
Marcus crouched beside the wall.
“Can you remove this section carefully?”
The investigator brought over a small tool kit. They worked slowly, removing a narrow strip of plaster and exposing the wooden framing behind it.
At first, there was nothing.
Then the investigator touched a section of insulation and stopped.
“There's something behind here.”
Everyone moved closer.
She carefully pulled the insulation aside. A narrow metal box appeared inside the wall, wrapped in a piece of dark plastic.
Marcus felt his pulse quicken.
“Don't open it yet. Photograph everything.”
The investigators documented the position of the box, its condition, and the surrounding structure. Only after the evidence photographs were complete did they remove it.
The box was heavier than it looked.
Its metal surface was covered with dust, but the lock appeared intact.
David stared at it.
“That's it?”
Marcus nodded slowly.
“Possibly.”
One investigator placed the box on a clean evidence cloth and examined the lock.
“No keyhole. Looks like a combination lock.”
Marcus remembered Thomas mentioning a small sequence of numbers during the earlier conversation.
“Eight hundred and fourteen,” he said.
The investigator tried 814.
The lock did not move.
She looked at Marcus.
“Maybe it's a longer combination.”
David examined the sides of the box.
“There's an inscription here.”
He brushed away some dust.
Three words had been scratched into the metal.
REMEMBER MICHAEL'S WARNING.
David went completely still.
For several seconds, he did not move or speak.
Then he reached out and touched the inscription.
“Michael.”
Marcus looked at him.
“Your brother?”
David nodded.
“He must have known about this box.”
He crouched beside it, studying the scratched words.
“My brother told me something before he died. I didn't understand it at the time.”
“What did he say?”
David swallowed.
“He said, ‘If anything happens to me, don't trust the first person who offers to help you.’”
Marcus looked at the box again.
“Who was he talking about?”
David's face had become pale.
“I thought he meant Harrington.”
“Maybe he did.”
“No.” David shook his head. “He said it before Harrington approached me. Before Michael's accident. He was talking about someone else.”
The basement seemed to grow colder.
“Who?” Marcus asked.
David stared at the inscription.
“I think he meant Lawson.”
Before Marcus could respond, an investigator called from the top of the stairs.
“Counselor? We have a problem.”
Marcus stood.
“What is it?”
The investigator held up a tablet.
“We've identified an active connection to the house's security system. Someone tried to access the old alarm account remotely three minutes ago.”
“From where?”
“We're tracing it.”
David looked toward the basement window.
“Could someone be watching the house?”
“Possibly,” Marcus said.
Then the investigator's tablet made a sound.
A new message had appeared.
It was a short text sent through the alarm system's emergency notification channel.
YOU FOUND THE BOX. NOW ASK YOURSELF WHY THOMAS NEVER TOLD YOU ABOUT THE SECOND ONE.
Marcus read it twice.
David stared at the words.
“The second one?”
The investigator began tracing the connection.
“It's coming through a masked relay. We may be able to identify the source, but it will take time.”
Marcus looked back at the wall.
Thomas had hidden the ledger here. But if there was a second box, why had he not mentioned it?
Perhaps he had forgotten.
Perhaps he had been unable to tell them.
Or perhaps the second box contained something so dangerous that even after ten years of suffering, Thomas had chosen to keep it secret.
Marcus took out his phone and called Elena.
She answered immediately.
“What's happening?”
“We found the first box. There's a message saying Thomas never told us about a second one.”
Elena was silent for a moment.
“Did the message identify the sender?”
“Not yet.”
“Secure the box. Don't open it until the forensic team arrives.”
“There's something else. David recognized an inscription on the box. It mentions his brother Michael.”
Elena's voice sharpened.