Calvin answered on the second ring.
“Ethan,” he said warmly. “I heard about Audrey. I’m sick over it.”
For one moment, I almost believed him. That was Calvin’s gift. He could make betrayal sound like concern.
“Are you alone?” I asked.
A pause.
“Why?”
I played the audio.
The silence after it ended was not confusion. It was calculation.
Then Calvin sighed.
“You should’ve stayed retired.”
The hallway seemed to narrow around me.
“You helped them.”
“No,” he said softly. “I protected something bigger than your anger.”
“My daughter was tortured.”
“And now she’s alive,” he replied. “Because I kept Julian from going too far.”
I stared through the glass at Audrey’s still body. Something inside me went quiet. Not calm. Not peace. Something colder.
“Who was the man?” I asked. “The one Julian said disappeared.”
Calvin didn’t answer.
“Tell me.”
“He came looking for one of the women,” Calvin said. “A sister, I think. Maybe a fiancé. Brave, stupid man.”
