Chapter 6 - MARCUS VALE
Marcus entered the lake house without knocking.
Daniel waited at the bottom of the stairs, holding Jonathan’s cassette in his pocket and the brass key in his fist.
Marcus removed his leather gloves.
“You look like your father.”
“You knew him.”
“I knew all of you.”
“Why did Vanessa lie about who she was?”
Marcus glanced around the ruined sitting room.
“Because the Mercers are very good at destroying people and calling it protection.”
“The recording says my father protected her from you.”
“Recordings can be edited.”
“These were made twenty-eight years ago.”
“Lies are not improved by age.”
Daniel stepped closer.
“Are you Vanessa’s father?”
Marcus smiled without warmth.
“Has she truly never told you?”
“Answer me.”
“Yes.”
The word landed heavily.
Daniel had imagined many explanations. None made the betrayal easier.
“Why did she marry me?”
“You should ask her.”
“I am asking you.”
Marcus walked toward a covered chair and pulled away the sheet.
Dust rose around him.
“When Vanessa was seventeen, your father convinced her to steal documents from my office. He told her she was helping expose corruption. He used a frightened child against her own family.”
“The ledgers prove you stole money.”
“The ledgers prove numbers were written on paper.”
“My father died three days later.”
“So did my life as I knew it.”
“Did you kill him?”
Marcus’s eyes sharpened.
“No.”
“Did my mother?”
Marcus did not answer.
Daniel pulled out his phone.
“I recorded that silence.”
“Good. Play it for anyone you like.”
“Why are you here?”
“To recover what belongs to me.”
“The key?”
Marcus glanced at Daniel’s closed hand.
“You found it.”
“What does it open?”
“A box your father should never have taken.”
“Where is it?”
“Not here.”
“Then why bring me here?”
“I didn’t.”
Daniel studied him.
“The message was written on the photograph.”
“Vanessa wrote it.”
“How do you know?”
“Because she called me after leaving your house.”
“Where is she?”
Marcus’s expression changed slightly.
“She is missing.”
Daniel’s anger faltered.
“What do you mean?”
“She asked me to meet her last night. She never arrived.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“No. I expect you to keep searching for reasons to hate her. It will make what comes next much easier for everyone.”
“What comes next?”
Marcus stepped toward the door.
“Your mother signs the property transfer. The Mercer estate is sold. The past stays buried.”
“And if she refuses?”
Marcus looked back.
“Then someone shows you the photograph from the accident.”
“What photograph?”
“The one proving Evelyn was behind the wheel.”
Daniel felt the brass key cut into his palm.
“You said you didn’t kill my father.”
“I didn’t.”
“Was his death an accident?”
Marcus opened the door.
“That depends on which part of the night you are asking about.”
He walked outside.
Daniel followed him onto the porch.
“Where is Vanessa?”
Marcus paused beside the sedan.
“She spent her entire life believing she could escape what happened in this house. Then she married you.”
“That was not an answer.”
Marcus opened the car door.
“Check your mother’s bank records. Look for a payment made every October seventeenth. When you find the recipient, you will understand why Vanessa came back.”
The sedan disappeared down the road.
Daniel returned to the blue room and searched until sunset.
Inside the metal box, beneath the ledgers, he found a list of annual payments from Evelyn’s private account.
Each payment was for $50,000.
Each had been sent to a company called Northstar Care.
The most recent transfer had been made six days earlier.
Daniel searched the company.
Northstar Care owned a private residential facility two counties away.
May you like
Its patient records were confidential.
Its director was Dr. Adrian Cole.
