Chapter 3 — The Favor

The first clue came from a favor.

Four days before my trip, Ethan came to my house carrying a thin folder. He said one of his former business accounts had been flagged by a bank in Chicago, and he needed someone to confirm that an old company was inactive.

“I’d do it myself,” he told me, “but the timing is terrible.” He said it was routine — meet a representative, show ID as a witness to the company’s closure, deliver a signed statement.

I should have refused. Instead I agreed, because he was my closest friend. That was exactly what he’d counted on.

He believed sending me to Chicago would accomplish two things. It would remove the last obstacle between him and Lauren for a few nights. And it would let him use my name as a witness on a document tied to the old company.

He underestimated the bank’s compliance officer. The moment she examined the paperwork, she noticed that my signature already appeared on a document I had never seen.