Chapter 7 - The Safe Under the Floor
Raymond Pike survived.
Barely.
His vehicle exploded on an access road near Newark Airport, less than fifteen minutes from where federal agents intended to take him into protective custody.
The bomb had been placed beneath the driver’s seat.
Remote triggered.
Professional.
Clara learned this while sitting in a windowless airport security room in Paris.
Agent Cole ended his phone call and looked at her.
“He’s being transported to surgery.”
“Can he speak?”
“No.”
“Did he say anything before the explosion?”
Cole hesitated.
“One sentence.”
“What?”
“He told the surveillance agent, ‘The daughter needs the floor.’”
Clara stared.
“The floor?”
“That’s all.”
She repeated it silently.
The daughter needs the floor.
Her father’s house had been sold eleven years earlier.
Julian encouraged Clara to sell quickly.
Too many painful memories, he said.
The buyer renovated everything.
Or so Clara thought.
She called Daniel.
He answered immediately.
“I heard about Pike.”
“He left a message.”
“What?”
“The daughter needs the floor.”
Silence.
Then Daniel said, “Your father’s house.”
“I’m thinking the same.”
“Who owns it now?”
“Find out.”
“Already searching.”
Clara paced.
“If he hid something in the floor, it could still be there.”
“Unless renovations found it.”
“Then somebody would have known.”
Daniel typed in the background.
“Clara.”
“What?”
“The house changed ownership twice.”
“Who owns it now?”
Another pause.
“You’re not going to like this.”
“Who?”
“Mercer Meridian Residential Assets.”
Clara stopped.
“What?”
“Purchased six years ago through a subsidiary.”
“Why would Julian’s company buy my childhood home?”
“I don’t know.”
Clara looked through the glass partition.
Julian sat with his attorney.
His hands were clasped.
He looked exhausted.
She walked straight into his room.
Patrick stood.
“Clara, you can’t…”
She ignored him.
“Why do you own my father’s house?”
Julian looked up sharply.
“What?”
“Mercer Meridian purchased it six years ago.”
Patrick turned toward Julian.
Clearly he did not know either.
Julian said nothing.
“Why?”
“Sit down.”
“No.”
“Clara.”
“Why did you buy my father’s house?”
Julian rubbed his face.
“Because my father told me to.”
“When?”
“Before he died.”
Edward Mercer died seven years earlier from pancreatic cancer.
“Why?”
“He said something remained there.”
“What?”
“I don’t know.”
“You bought an entire house without knowing?”
“Yes.”
“You never searched it?”
“I did.”
Clara’s pulse quickened.
“What did you find?”
“Nothing.”
“Did you check the floors?”
Julian looked at her.
That expression was enough.
“You did.”
“In the study.”
“What was there?”
“An old metal safe.”
Clara felt dizzy.
“What was inside?”
“Empty.”
“You’re lying.”
“It was empty.”
“How did you open it?”
“It was already open.”
“Who found it?”
“Contractors.”
“Where is the safe now?”
Julian looked at Patrick.
Patrick said, “I advise against answering.”
Clara laughed.
“Of course you do.”
Julian ignored Patrick.
“Storage.”
“Where?”
“New Jersey.”
“Company storage?”
“Yes.”
“Give me the address.”
Patrick objected again.
Julian raised a hand.
Then wrote an address.
Clara sent it to Daniel.
“Search it.”
Daniel replied immediately.
ON IT.
Clara turned back toward Julian.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I was trying to understand it first.”
“For six years?”
“I had people searching.”
“For what?”
Julian’s voice dropped.
“The ledger.”
Clara frowned.
“What ledger?”
“My grandfather’s original account book.”
“Charles said he had it.”
“No. Charles said he knew where it was.”
“And Edward thought my father hid it?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Thomas took it.”
Clara’s anger returned.
“My father was not a thief.”
“I know.”
“Then why take it?”
“To protect evidence.”
Julian looked at her.
“He was going to turn it over.”
“To authorities?”
“Yes.”
“But he died first.”
“Yes.”
“So someone searched the car.”
“Yes.”
“And Pike recovered the case.”
“Yes.”
“But no ledger.”
“Apparently.”
Clara suddenly understood.
“The case was a decoy.”
Julian nodded.
“That’s what my father believed.”
“And the real ledger was in the house.”
“Maybe.”
“Under the floor.”
Julian looked toward her phone.
“What did Pike say?”
Clara regretted revealing too much.
“Nothing.”
“Clara.”
“Your turn to live without answers.”
She walked out.
Daniel called twenty-three minutes later.
His voice sounded different.
“We got access to the storage unit through the federal warrant.”
“And?”
“The safe is here.”
“Empty?”
“Not anymore.”
Clara stopped.
“What do you mean?”
“There’s a false bottom.”
Julian heard from behind the glass.
He stood.
Clara pressed the phone against her ear.
“What’s inside?”
“Photographs.”
“Of what?”
“Your father. Edward Mercer. Charles.”
“Anything else?”
“A key.”
“To what?”
“No label.”
“Ledger?”
“No.”
Clara closed her eyes in disappointment.
Then Daniel continued.
“And a cassette tape.”
Clara opened them.
“Can you play it?”
“We found equipment.”
“Do it.”
A few moments of static.
Then her father’s voice.
Clara nearly collapsed.
Thomas Ellison.
Twelve years dead.
Speaking as though he were in the room.
“If Clara is hearing this, then I failed.”
Her hand covered her mouth.
The recording continued.
“The Mercer accounts are not what Edward thinks they are.”
Julian entered behind Clara.
He recognized the voice.
Thomas continued.
“Charles believes the money belongs to his mother.”
Serena entered too.
Nobody stopped her.
“But Charles is wrong.”
The tape crackled.
“The money belongs to neither Mercer brother.”
Clara held her breath.
“I traced the original ownership.”
A long pause.
May you like
Then Thomas said:
“And when they discover who actually inherited it, they will come for my daughter.”
