Chapter 3 - The Mother Ethan Was Told Was Dead
Rachel Cole had died in a private medical facility after a long illness.
At least, that was what Ethan had been told.
The date on her death certificate was eighteen months before his disappearance.
Anna insisted that three hours before Ethan vanished, she saw Rachel inside the Cole estate.
David called it impossible.
Then Anna described what Rachel wore.
Gray coat.
Black gloves.
Silver locket.
David’s face changed.
The locket mattered.
Rachel had been buried with it.
Or supposedly had.
Investigators obtained old funeral inventory.
No locket was listed.
David explained that Rachel had given it to him shortly before death.
“Where is it?”
“Lost.”
Another missing object.
Another incomplete answer.
But Anna’s claim still had problems.
She had only seen the woman from behind.
Could have been someone similar.
Ethan listened silently.
Then he remembered perfume.
His mother used lavender.
The woman who held his hand that night smelled like lavender.
“Mommy?”
Anna cried.
“I don't know.”
That distinction mattered.
She refused to transform uncertainty into certainty.
Then records from the private clinic were examined.
Rachel had indeed died eighteen months earlier.
Medical records, witnesses, burial authorization.
No fake death.
So Anna saw someone impersonating her.
Why?
Perhaps to make Ethan cooperate.
A four-year-old boy might follow a familiar silhouette, scent and locket.
David suddenly stood.
“Someone planned this.”
Anna stared at him.
“You knew that three years ago.”
“What?”
“I told you.”
David denied it.
Anna reminded him of a meeting the morning after Ethan was found.
David said Anna had already fled by then.
“No,” she whispered. “I came to your office.”
David froze.
“You told me to disappear.”
The room went silent.
David shook his head.
“I never saw you.”
Anna started crying harder.
“You gave me fifty thousand dollars.”
David looked genuinely stunned.
Bank records were pulled.
Two days after Ethan returned, $50,000 left a private Cole account.
Recipient:
Anna Mercer.
Authorized electronically by:
D. COLE.
There was David’s name.
There was his money.
There was apparently his order.
Then investigators enlarged the transaction authorization.
David stared.
“That isn't my account.”
It belonged to:
DC Family Protection LLC.
David had created it.
But someone else had transaction authority.
The administrator was his mother.
Eleanor Cole.
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The problem?
Eleanor had supposedly died six weeks before Ethan was taken.
