Chapter 11 - The Man Beneath the Mask
Mark overturned the dining table.
Laura screamed as hundreds of pounds of oak crashed sideways.
Robert grabbed Mark from behind.
Mark drove an elbow into his ribs.
Robert fell.
Laura ran toward the kitchen.
Mark caught her hair.
She screamed.
"You spying bitch!"
He yanked her backward.
Laura twisted and struck him with the evidence folder.
Papers exploded across the marble.
"Get away from me!"
Mark grabbed her throat.
Then the front door burst open.
Agents flooded the hallway.
"Federal agents!"
"Hands!"
"Let her go!"
Mark dragged Laura in front of him.
His arm tightened around her neck.
"No one comes closer."
Mercer appeared.
Weapon raised.
"Mark."
"Back off."
"It's over."
Mark laughed.
"You think this is about a house?"
Mercer's expression did not change.
"Let Laura go."
"You people have no idea what you've walked into."
Robert struggled upright.
"Laura."
Mark glanced toward him.
That distraction lasted less than a second.
Laura stomped on Mark's foot, dropped her weight, and twisted.
Mercer crossed the room immediately.
Three agents tackled Mark.
He hit the marble hard.
Handcuffs snapped around his wrists.
Laura crawled toward Robert.
"Dad."
"I'm fine."
"You were supposed to stay back."
"So were you."
Even then, she laughed.
Then Keller's tablet was recovered from fragments of the coffee cup.
Laboratory testing later identified a powerful combination capable of triggering cardiac arrest, particularly in older adults.
Mark had not planned an ambiguous illness.
He had planned a death.
But the arrest revealed something the family had not expected.
Inside Mark's phone was an encrypted messaging application.
Agents cracked part of it within forty-eight hours.
Mark had been communicating with someone identified only as:
CROWN.
One message read:
BENNETT TRANSFER MUST OCCUR BEFORE THE 14TH.
Another:
IF OLD MAN RESISTS, USE MEDICAL OPTION.
Another:
WIFE REMAINS USEFUL UNTIL SIGNATURE VALIDATION.
Laura read that sentence three times.
Useful.
That was what twelve years of marriage had meant.
Useful.
Mercer closed the file.
"I'm sorry."
Laura looked at him.
"Who is Crown?"
"We don't know."
"Mark knows."
"He's refusing to cooperate."
Laura gave a bitter smile.
"He'll cooperate."
Mercer studied her.
"What makes you think that?"
"Because Mark isn't brave."
May you like
She looked through the interrogation-room glass at her husband.
"He only looks brave when he thinks everyone else is trapped."
