Chapter 20 - The Knock on the Door
The sun had completely dipped below the horizon by the time we finished dinner and cleared the plates, leaving the farmhouse bathed in the warm, orange glow of kerosene lamps and porch lights. Mom and Dad had already driven back to the suburban house, promising to return on Tuesday to help with the spring pruning in the north orchard. Amanda was upstairs in her old childhood bedroom, going through boxes of high school notebooks and deciding which clothes she wanted to donate to the local women's shelter.
I was sitting at the kitchen table with Grandma, sharing a quiet cup of black coffee and going over the preliminary agricultural supply catalog for the upcoming planting season, when a sudden, sharp rap echoed through the quiet house.
It wasn't the polite, hesitant knock of a family member seeking permission to enter. It was a heavy, authoritative pounding—three rapid strikes against the weathered oak of the front screen door that made the glass rattle in its frame.
Grandma paused, her coffee mug halfway to her lips, her sharp eyes darting toward the hallway. "Expecting company, Ethan?"
"No," I said, standing up slowly from the table, a sudden, cold knot forming in the pit of my stomach. "Nobody knows we’re here tonight."
I walked through the dim hallway, the floorboards groaning slightly beneath my boots, and approached the heavy front door. Through the dark mesh of the screen, I could see the silhouette of a tall, broad-shouldered man standing on the porch, flanked by two figures in dark, heavy overcoats.
May you like
I reached out, unlatched the wooden hook, and pushed the screen door open just an inch.
"Ethan Vance?" the lead man asked, his voice gravelly and completely devoid of warmth. He didn't wait for an answer; he reached into his breast pocket and flashed a small, hard leather badge under the amber porch light, alongside a thick manila envelope stamped with the crimson seal of the Federal District Court. "We have an emergency subpoena and a federal warrant for immediate asset seizure regarding the secondary Delaware holdings. We need you to come with us downtown right now."
