Chapter 10 - The Name in Margaret's Ledger)
Rebecca agreed to meet under one condition.
Margaret could not know.
The meeting happened in a private conference room at Rebecca Sloan's law office.
Claire arrived first.
Then Edward.
Rachel waited outside.
At 2:17 in the afternoon, a woman entered wearing a gray coat and large sunglasses.
Claire recognized her immediately.
Older.
Thinner.
But unquestionably the girl from the framed photographs in Margaret's hallway.
Rebecca Morgan.
Alive.
Daniel's sister stopped when she saw Edward.
"You."
Edward nodded.
"Hello, Rebecca."
She removed her sunglasses.
"You knew where I was."
"Until Harold died."
Rebecca laughed bitterly.
"He kept everyone informed except the people who needed the truth."
Claire stood.
"I'm Claire."
Rebecca stared at her.
"I know."
Claire did not know whether to hug her.
So she did nothing.
Rebecca sat.
"You look like your mother."
Claire's throat tightened.
"You knew her?"
"She saved my life."
Edward looked surprised.
Rebecca continued.
"After I disappeared, Harold sent money. But your mother arranged the documents that allowed me to live under another name."
Claire sat.
"Why didn't you ever come back?"
Rebecca looked down.
"At seventeen, I believed my mother could destroy Daniel."
"Could she?"
"Yes."
"What had he done?"
"Nothing then."
Rebecca looked at Claire.
"That changed."
For the next hour, she explained.
At seventeen, Rebecca discovered Margaret had been using false invoices and shell companies to move money out of Morgan Development.
Harold knew some of it.
Not all.
Rebecca threatened to report everything.
Margaret told her Daniel would be blamed.
Several shell accounts were indeed in Daniel's name, opened when he was still a teenager.
He did not know.
Margaret had used his information.
Then came the accident.
Rebecca had been driving with a friend, Melissa Ward.
They argued.
Rebecca demanded to be let out of the car.
Melissa drove away alone.
Twenty minutes later, the vehicle crashed and burned.
Police initially believed Rebecca was inside because her purse remained in the car.
Margaret made a decision.
She identified the badly burned remains as Rebecca's before complete testing.
Then she sent Rebecca away.
Claire whispered.
"What happened to Melissa's family?"
Rebecca's eyes filled with tears.
"They were told Melissa ran away."
Edward swore.
Claire felt sick.
Margaret had not murdered Melissa.
But she had stolen even the truth of her death.
"What happened when the identity was discovered?"
"It almost was. Margaret paid someone in the medical examiner's office to delay questions."
Claire thought of Northbridge.
"The secret payments."
Rebecca nodded.
"Harold later created Northbridge to track the money Margaret was using to keep people quiet."
"But the eight million was yours."
"Originally."
"Daniel took it."
Rebecca's expression hardened.
"He demanded it."
"Why did you give it to him?"
"I didn't."
Claire frowned.
Rebecca opened her bag and removed a ledger.
"He forged authorization using old documents."
Rachel entered when Rebecca called her.
The ledger contained names.
Dates.
Payments.
Most were years old.
One was recent.
Dr. Leonard Pierce.
Claire recognized it.
Her physician.
She went pale.
"What did Margaret pay my doctor for?"
Rachel read the notation.
"Evaluation support."
Claire felt suddenly nauseated.
The guardianship.
Rebecca turned another page.
There were three payments to Pierce.
Then another name.
James Corwin.
Claire's mother's former estate attorney.
Edward leaned forward.
"Corwin died two years ago."
Rebecca nodded.
"Margaret paid him for copies of your mother's estate documents."
Claire looked at Edward.
"So they knew exactly how to bypass the trust."
"Apparently."
The last page had only one payment.
Dated eight months earlier.
One million dollars.
Recipient listed as D.M.
Claire's skin went cold.
"Daniel Morgan?"
Rebecca shook her head.
"No."
"Then who?"
She tapped a second page containing the full name.
David Mercer.
Edward stood so fast his chair moved backward.
Claire looked at him.
"Who is David Mercer?"
Edward did not answer.
"Dad?"
Rebecca stared.
"You know him?"
Edward's face had gone gray.
"David Mercer was your mother's private investigator."
Claire frowned.
"Was?"
"He disappeared seven years ago."
"When?"
Edward looked at her.
"The week before your mother died."
The room became silent.
Claire slowly looked down at the ledger.
Margaret had paid a missing investigator one million dollars eight months ago.
Which meant he was not missing.
May you like
He was alive.
And if he was alive, he might know what Claire's mother discovered in the final days of her life.
