Chapter 5 - The Cop Ethan Feared
“Hands where I can see them!”
The officer’s voice thundered through the diner.
Daniel raised his hands slowly.
Three more officers poured through the entrance.
The first cop was tall, clean-cut, maybe forty-five.
His badge read M. BRENNER.
Ethan hid behind Daniel.
Brenner saw him.
Something flickered in his eyes.
Gone almost immediately.
But Daniel caught it.
“Step away from the child.”
Daniel didn’t move.
“He says he knows you.”
Brenner’s expression remained flat.
“I said step away.”
Ethan grabbed Daniel’s shirt.
“Don’t.”
Daniel looked down.
“What happened at your house?”
Ethan’s face crumpled.
“They killed my dad.”
Several people gasped.
Brenner’s jaw tightened.
Daniel crouched.
“Tell me.”
“My dad was going to tell the police something.”
Ethan’s voice cracked.
“He had papers. Pictures. He kept saying people were stealing money and hurting people.”
Brenner stepped closer.
“That’s enough.”
Daniel looked at him.
“Why?”
“This is an active investigation.”
“You arrived thirty seconds after two men came here to grab a witness.”
Brenner stared at him.
Daniel stared back.
Nobody spoke.
Then Ethan whispered:
“He was there.”
Brenner’s eyes snapped toward him.
Ethan pointed.
“At our house.”
Brenner’s face hardened.
“That kid is traumatized.”
“He saw you.”
“He saw a lot tonight.”
Daniel rose slowly.
“What’s your name, Ethan?”
“Ethan Cole.”
Brenner’s face changed again.
Tiny.
But Daniel saw it.
Cole.
The name meant something to him.
He didn’t know why.
Not yet.
Brenner ordered another officer to take the two injured men outside.
Daniel watched.
Neither suspect was handcuffed.
That was wrong.
Very wrong.
“Officer,” Daniel said.
Brenner turned.
“Aren’t you forgetting something?”
“What?”
“Handcuffs.”
For the first time, Brenner smiled.
It wasn’t friendly.
“Mr. Hayes, I know exactly who you are.”
Daniel went still.
Ethan looked between them.
Brenner leaned closer.
“You should’ve stayed out of Chicago.”
Daniel felt the room disappear around him.
He had never met this man.
But Brenner knew his name.
And then Daniel finally remembered where he had heard the name Cole.
A dead man.
Five years earlier.
A mission that officially never happened.
And a voice on a radio screaming:
“Hayes, get out! They sold us out!”
The voice belonged to Ethan’s father.
The next chapters are on the left side of your screen.
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