Slowly, as Klein reached inside his jacket for his phone, he shook his head. Ethan watched him swipe across the screen, just like he had every other time he’d wanted to show him something. And then, when he found what he was looking for, he pushed the phone to Ethan and watched him with those intense eyes.
“Recognize him, Ethan?”
The man on the screen had a clean but trendy beard that covered his face and cascaded down toward his collarbone, light brown hair, a round face. The teeth behind his smile were perfect, white, the kind of guy who took care of himself. He was wearing a sweater, the kind with thick lines in it that cost a small fortune. Like Hyatt, this man appeared poshy, trendy, unaware of the presence of clearance racks or discount haircutters. But what did that have to do with Raleigh or Thomas Braun?
“Damien Parker,” Klein said. “How about now that you know his name? Any bells of recognition going off in your head?”
The trade magazine . . . Damien was the fourth son, the one who wasn’t part of the business, not on the cover with his father and three other siblings. Is Damien the same as Maltby? Or was Damien the one that returned to the Elmwood with Maltby?
Lawrence Parker and his wife had four sons. His eldest, Andrew, had gone to Harvard and even a decade prior, back when Raleigh had first started with ParkerPharma, there had been rumors that Andrew would take over for his father once the old man decided to step aside and retire.
The second eldest and the youngest sons were also Ivy-league graduates and involved in the company, but Damien was . . . the odd duck. Whenever one of the Parker men were around, Raleigh had told Ethan, they weren’t supposed to mention Damien or bring up what the trade magazine called his “serial entrepreneurialism”, which was just a polite way to say he was perpetually trying new things, always giving up whenever his ideas didn’t take off immediately. Damien, the trade magazine had pointed out, wanted nothing to do with the “crooked and corrupted” pharmaceutical industry.
“Is Damien the link between Hyatt, Braun, and my wife?”
Klein seemed uncertain, the way he shrugged. But there was a gleam to his eye that suggested Damien was involved in this. Ethan wasn’t so sure, though.
“I don’t know, Agent Klein. It seems unlikely to me.” But then he remembered what Phil had said about the lunch at the Signature Room. Had Raleigh been there with Damien Parker, the look of love in their eyes so intense that the rest of the world, and even Phil himself, had faded to background music? His wife and the black sheep of the Parker family? “I just can’t see how Raleigh and Damien Parker could be connected, that’s all.” Not Raleigh.
Or am I just trying to convince myself of that?
“Are you sure about that, Ethan?” Klein had a different view. As he swiped and tapped at his phone’s screen, he went on with his train of thought. “Damien Parker keeps a fairly prolific social media profile. Getting back to when this numbered company’s bank account was established eight years ago, check this out.” He turned his phone to Ethan.
In the selfie image, Damien Parker was smiling through his beard. He was shirtless, his bare chest redder than it should be if he’d applied the right amount of SPF. Behind him, in the background, there were white-capped waves slipping through several large boulders protruding through a blue sea. A few windsurfers farther out traced the shoreline.
Unsure what the picture meant, Ethan raised his attention to Klein. “Let me guess, that’s somewhere in the Barbados.”
Klein nodded and pulled the phone back. “Silver Sands, a local site that draws a lot of tourists. The photo was taken a couple of days after that account was opened at Banco Barrington.” He took a deep breath. “Any idea what Raleigh was up to that day?”
Almost involuntarily, Ethan’s attention rotated to Raleigh’s phone, hooked up to a charger on the kitchen counter where it spent all of its time, whenever he wasn’t browsing through its files. Gulping back the worry that had risen up his throat like a bad case of heartburn, Ethan walked over and unplugged it from the wall.
“I guess we’ll find out,” he said, not sure that he wanted to.
Chapter Fifty
Ethan’s heart pounded in his chest as he accessed Raleigh’s calendar on her old phone. Moving back eight years, he started with the first date that Klein had thrown at him—February fourth. Ethan saw that, in those months before her abduction, she had nothing planned for that day. It was a Thursday, a workday for both of them.
“And April second?” Klein said, urging him to snap out of his wandering thoughts and get back to the task at hand. Because April second was the date in the photo Klein had just shown him.
Scrolling forward through March, he stopped on April. The second of that month was a Friday. Raleigh’s calendar had a line running right through it, starting on the Wednesday and ending on the Saturday.
“What is it, Ethan?” Klein leaned a little closer, hammering home the message that he was interested in whatever it was that showed up for April second on Raleigh’s calendar.
Glancing over, Ethan swallowed the lump in his throat. He showed the screen to Klein. “She was away that day. For a few days.”
Frowning, Klein scrutinized the screen. He took the mobile phone from Ethan. “Says she was in New York for business.” He raised his attention, his eyes wide. “Do you know what that was all about, Ethan?”
“Of course not. It wasn’t uncommon for Raleigh to travel. The management team often called on their senior researchers to accompany them on important travel to provide scientific or technical support.” He ran his hands through his hair. “You’re suggesting she didn’t go on a business trip to New York?”
Klein said nothing, he simply stared back at Ethan.
“You’re suggesting she went to the Barbados.” It wasn’t a question that time. “With Damien Parker.”
Klein held his stare for a moment before looking at the phone again. “Says here she came home on a Saturday. For a business trip? That doesn’t strike you as odd, Ethan?”
“ParkerPharma was a small company,” Ethan said, shrugging. He’d likely asked Raleigh the same question at some point. “The airline tickets for business travel are cheaper on the weekend.”
“Uh huh.” Handing the phone back to Ethan, Klein found his own phone and started tapping away on the keypad.
Ethan couldn’t see what the federal agent was writing, so he stopped trying to spy the words and instead went back to Raleigh’s phone. Since the year on the screen was just eight years ago, and not 1994 like the full date version the numbered company suggested, he scrolled back to the prior year.
Sure enough, on April second of the previous year, Raleigh had been away again, returning on the Saturday once more. The year prior to that, there was no entry at all.
“These entries stop ten years ago,” Ethan said, staring down at the phone, but the other man didn’t seem to hear him. Maybe it was because Ethan’s lips had gone numb.
When Klein finished with his typing, he pocketed his phone. “Ethan, what else do you know about Damien Parker? Did he come around the house much? Did you go out on double-dates? Social events? That kind of thing.”
“No.” He shook his head, rubbed his temples. “None of that. I guess I might have met him once or twice, possibly at a work function like the Christmas party, but all I knew about him was whatever Raleigh told me. And what she told me was that nobody at ParkerPharma thought highly of the one Parker son who refused to get involved in the family business.”
“Uh huh.” Klein looked away. It was obvious there was something else he wanted to bring up; even Ethan could see that.
“Agent Klein, do you think Damien was involved with my wife’s abduction?”
Raising an inquiring eyebrow, Klein seemed to be asking if Ethan was being serious. “I think there’s a slightly different picture coming into focus here, Ethan.”
Ethan was afraid of that.
“Damien’s in his mid-thirties right now. A little older than Raleigh, but not b
y much. And those dates in April? Nine years ago, eight, seven, and so on? I can confirm to you that he was in the Barbados on those dates. But it can all be a coincidence, Ethan.”
Ethan thought about Phil, their meeting at Barney’s where he talked about Raleigh and another man at the Signature Room, the looks in their eyes, their smiles and body language. Phil had never liked Raleigh, he’d always suspected something was going on with her. Was that something Damien Parker? Were he and Raleigh lovers? Was April second their anniversary?
“His credit card transactions show activity that is inconsistent with the expenses a single person would incur. Even at inflated Barbados prices, Damien spends a lot of money on those trips.”
So that was it, wasn’t it? Damien Parker and Raleigh were having an affair, making an annual trip to the Barbados from their northern Michigan property, carrying on behind Ethan’s back for how long? Since 1994? No, that part didn’t make sense, which begged the question: What was that the relevance of those next four numbers in the numbered company’s name?
“Ethan, are you okay?”
Feeling a little dizzy, Ethan decided he needed water. But when he reached for the plastic bottle, it tumbled over, empty, and rolled off the other edge of the counter. Thirsty for something to drink, he rose from the bar stool, swaying on his feet as the world began to spin uncontrollably. He noticed how Klein’s voice seemed to come to him through a fog, or cotton balls, and the next thing Ethan knew, he was falling.
Chapter Fifty-One
The emotional roller coaster that had become his life was taking its toll. As Ethan came to, the crotch of his pants soaked, he found Klein standing before him, pacing and gesturing with his free hand. The federal agent had somehow dragged Ethan across the kitchen’s hardwood floor and set him in the corner of the room so he couldn’t fall over and hurt himself.
“Thirsty,” Ethan mumbled, remembering that the thirst was what had led to his fainting.
Klein didn’t answer, didn’t even seem responsive right away, and as his sense of hearing returned to him, Ethan made out the other man’s quiet, soft voice as he spoke into his mobile phone. Ethan heard him ask about passport traces for Raleigh Vernon. Klein provided her date of birth and a series of numbers that sounded like a passport number. And then he asked about an update on Damien Parker.
So it was true? Could it be that his wife had been cheating on him right from the start of their marriage?
“I’ll be back in the office in an hour,” Klein said into the phone as he checked his wrist. Once he hung up, Klein grabbed a fresh bottle of water from the refrigerator and snapped its cap off before he approached Ethan. “How are you feeling, Ethan?”
Taking the water, Ethan downed half of it in a single swallow. When he pulled the bottle away, he inhaled a deep breath of air and felt the tears burning a path down his face. “I don’t know what’s worse, Agent Klein.”
Klein lowered himself into a back-catcher’s stance so that they could make eye contact. “How’s that?”
“When I thought she was dead, I was crushed.” Ethan shook his head, trying to get a grip of his emotions, rein them in. “But an affair? Behind my back? All these years, she’s been lying about being dead, and who knows what else?” More head shaking as he choked on the sobs. The worst part was that it all made sense to him. Everything from Raleigh’s emotional outbursts after their love-making, to the way she’d throw unwarranted tantrums whenever he did the slightest thing wrong, to the way she’d always look forward to those business trips, always rushing out the door but never rushing back to be with him, instead claiming exhaustion from the travel and hectic back-to-back meetings, and how she needed a nap.
It had all been one big, tidy lie, hadn’t it?
Klein patted him on the leg, standing straighter. It felt like an I told you so gesture. “I’ve got some work to do at the bureau, Ethan. I can let myself out.”
Ethan offered a wave goodbye, aware of the now-cool wet spot in his crotch. He knew he’d have to change, but he was no longer as certain about whether he even wanted to make that road trip to northern Michigan anymore. What for? So see if Raleigh and Damien Parker were living happily ever after? What was the point?
She doesn’t want to come home. If she did, she’d have returned by now.
He spent the next ten minutes on the floor, feeling sorry for himself while the smells of pity and piss intensified in the room. It disgusted him, but thinking of Raleigh’s betrayal was way worse.
Slowly, he rolled onto his side, the pit of his stomach knotting with disappointment. All of this work, it had been for nothing.
When Ethan finally crawled to his feet, he stumbled to the kitchen island. Before reaching for his phone, he grabbed the trade magazine with Lawrence Parker and his three sons on its cover and hurled it at the far wall. But midway there, it opened up and fluttered like a butterfly to the floor.
I can’t even lose my shit properly, no wonder she left me for Damien Parker.
Taking his phone, he stared at the image he’d placed on the lock screen: Raleigh and him on their wedding day. They’d both been so incredibly happy that day, even though, after they’d consummated their vows that night, Raleigh had gotten angry about how “distant” he was (he’d been spooning her and, after their argument, they’d slept on opposite ends of the mattress).
Suddenly, he had an idea and navigated across the screen to the phone’s internet browser. He ran a quick search for Damien Parker and then clicked on the Images tab.
His screen filled with photos of the man he suspected to be with his wife at that very instant, his arm around her while they sat in Adirondack chairs, plaid wool shirts, watching deer trot through the backyard of their Boyle Mills retreat. As the tears burned in his eyes, Ethan made a screen print of the clearest image he found of Damien Parker, one where he smiled for a camera. The source of the image said it came from his LinkedIn profile.
With his hands trembling, Ethan clicked on his Contacts list. It didn’t take long to find Phil’s entry; he didn’t have a whole lot of friends left, which only made things easier for Raleigh to carry on a relationship with the wealthy, black-sheep son of her former employer. With so few people left in his life, Ethan wasn’t exactly likely to hear one of Raleigh’s old friends slip up about how happy she is with Damien Parker. Even Chelsea, with her big mouth, seven cosmos into her next binge couldn’t mouth off to him about how Raleigh had left his abusive, broke ass for a Parker boy; because Chelsea had been one of the first “friend” to dump him.
Groaning at just how obvious Raleigh’s ploy had been—Klein had always said maybe she didn’t want to be found, hadn’t he?—he tapped the Call button and watched the screen turn black as the iPhone dialed one of his last remaining friends. After a few rings, Phil picked up.
“Hey, bro!” Always over-the-top flamboyant, Phil could only be tolerated in small doses. “Calling to invite me to the next wedding?” Phil laughed at his own suggestion. Very small doses.
Clenching his eyes shut, Ethan breathed through his mouth to avoid the smell of his own urine. “Actually, Phil, I need you to look at something for me.”
“Sure, man, is everything okay?” Now serious, Phil seemed like an entirely different person.
“Remember that day you saw Raleigh at the Signature Room?”
Phil groaned. “You’re not dwelling on this, are you, man? Jeez, Ethan, you gotta move on already.”
“Do you remember?” Ethan said, his voice snapping with a little more bite than he’d intended. “I’m sorry, Phil. But this is important.”
“Yeah, I guess.”
“If I showed you a picture of a guy, do you think you’d recognize him?”
A bit of silence from Phil, and Ethan wondered if his friend was deliberating whether he’d help.
“Phil,” Ethan said, his voice coming out with a feeble tremor, “this is important.”
After a sigh on the other end, Phil agreed. “Sure, send it through.”
They hung up, and Ethan sent Phil the image via text message. He watched the small circle turn from gray to green, indicating that Phil had not only received the image, but he’d opened it.
Now it was time to wait. And, to Ethan, it felt like he was waiting an eternity.
But, eventually, his phone vibrated from Phil’s incoming text. And when Ethan read his simple, two-word response—that’s him—he willingly lowered himself to the floor to avoid collapsing a second time.
Raleigh not coming home had nothing to do with captivity or death. It had to do with love.
Love for another man.
Chapter Fifty-Two
It was a little after noon when Ethan decided that he needed to see for himself whether Raleigh and Damien Parker had indeed shacked up in Boyle Mills, Michigan. Part of him questioned the possibilities, none of them exactly uplifting or positive for Ethan. Braun thought he’d helped stuff Raleigh’s corpse into a fiery incinerator; Klein’s logic and Phil’s sad admission suggested that she maintained an ongoing relationship with Damien Parker, including annual trips to the Barbados while she’d told him, all along, that she was traveling domestically for work. And don’t forget the known fact that everyone linked to the last night he’d seen Raleigh alive was turning up dead.
How can this end well?
But if there was a sliver of hope, Ethan told himself he would find it. He was good at that, an expert in the field of denial. Remember, Klein had only commented on Damien’s credit card spending; he’d said nothing about Raleigh’s. Which meant, Ethan deducted as he stepped into the shower, either Klein hadn’t accessed Raleigh’s records, or he had and they revealed nothing at all.
If Raleigh was playing, or legitimately, dead, she’d have no credit card activity at all, would she?
Ethan still wasn’t convinced, though. He knew his wife was alive, could feel it like a sixth sense as if their hearts not only beat as one, but would stop beating as one also. And while her running off with Damien Parker aligned with Klein’s theory, what Ethan couldn’t understand was why she would’ve had lunch with her company founder’s outcast son in the first place. If they were planning on eloping or whatever they’d done, why not put the fancy lunch on hold instead of risk being seen in public. Wouldn’t that complicate things?
The Last Night (The Last Series Book 2) Page 21