This time the documents in the lockbox made that impossible. They included handwritten payment instructions, original company seals, and a ledger recording every false invoice.

More importantly, the ledger was in Ethan’s handwriting. Claire had believed it burned in the storage fire. It hadn’t. Ethan had taken it. He kept it because it was both dangerous and valuable — if another participant ever threatened him, the ledger was leverage.

He’d hidden it in my house because he believed no one would ever connect me to the Mercer case, and because he believed I trusted him too much to search.

He’d been right about that, until tonight.

“Put Lauren on the phone,” I said.

“No.”