Chapter 11 - The Investigator Who Came Back From the Dead)
Finding David Mercer took six hours.
Getting him to talk took six minutes.
He was living in a small rented house outside Albany under his middle name.
Rebecca Sloan contacted his attorney.
By midnight, David had agreed to a protected interview.
Claire watched him enter the conference room the next morning.
He was sixty-three.
Gray hair.
Thin.
Nervous.
Not the dangerous shadow she had imagined.
He looked exhausted.
Edward stood.
"David."
Mercer looked at him.
"You always did have terrible timing."
"You disappeared."
"I survived."
Claire stepped forward.
"My mother hired you."
Mercer looked at her.
"Evelyn's daughter."
"Tell me what happened."
He sat.
"Your mother believed Margaret was stealing from Morgan Development."
"We know."
"She also believed Margaret was blackmailing Harold."
"With what?"
"Rebecca."
Rebecca remained near the window.
Mercer nodded toward her.
"Harold wanted to bring her home."
Rebecca's eyes filled.
Mercer continued.
"Margaret threatened to expose everything in a way that would make Harold appear responsible."
Claire asked, "Why did you disappear?"
"Because I found the payment records connected to Melissa Ward."
Rebecca closed her eyes.
Mercer looked at Claire.
"Your mother was preparing to turn the evidence over to federal investigators."
Edward stiffened.
"She never told me that."
"She didn't trust you not to stop her."
Edward absorbed the blow.
Claire asked the question everyone was avoiding.
"My mother died four days later."
Mercer nodded.
"Yes."
Her voice became quiet.
"Was her death an accident?"
Edward stood.
"Claire."
She did not look at him.
"Was it?"
Mercer took a long breath.
"Your mother died from an aneurysm."
Claire waited.
"Natural?"
"According to the official report."
"According to you?"
Mercer looked at her.
"I don't know."
Edward clenched his jaw.
"You investigated."
"I tried."
"What stopped you?"
Mercer looked toward Rebecca.
"Margaret."
Claire's hands tightened.
"She threatened you?"
"She showed me photographs of my daughter."
The room went silent.
"She knew where my family lived."
"So you disappeared."
"I sent Evelyn's evidence to Harold. Then I left."
"Why take Margaret's money eight months ago?"
Mercer looked ashamed.
"Because she found me."
"And paid you a million dollars?"
"To destroy one remaining copy of your mother's investigation."
Claire stared.
"Did you?"
Mercer reached inside his coat.
Edward stepped forward.
Mercer slowly removed a small key.
"No."
He placed it on the table.
"I moved it."
Claire looked at the key.
"Where?"
"Storage facility in New Jersey."
Rebecca Sloan asked, "What is in the file?"
"Everything Evelyn collected."
"Financial fraud?"
"Yes."
"Melissa Ward?"
"Yes."
"Anything else?"
Mercer looked directly at Claire.
"Your husband."
Claire felt the familiar drop in her stomach.
"What about Daniel?"
Mercer hesitated.
"The investigation began before you met him."
"I know."
"No."
He shook his head.
"I mean Evelyn was investigating Daniel before you met him."
Claire frowned.
"Why?"
"Because he was already accessing information about you."
Claire felt cold.
"What information?"
"Your schedule. Charitable events. Friends. School records."
Rachel whispered, "He targeted her."
Mercer nodded.
"Margaret gave him the idea. Daniel did the rest."
Claire closed her eyes.
Every coincidence erased.
Mercer continued.
"Your mother confronted Daniel once."
"When?"
"Two months before the engagement."
Claire looked up.
"What did he say?"
"That he loved you."
"Did she believe him?"
"I think part of her did."
"And the other part?"
"Believed love didn't erase deception."
Claire sat.
That sounded exactly like her mother.
Mercer slid the key toward her.
"The storage file also contains a recording."
"Of whom?"
"Daniel and your mother."
Claire stared at the key.
"What are they saying?"
Mercer looked away.
"You should hear it yourself."
Three hours later, Claire stood inside a climate-controlled storage facility while Rebecca Sloan opened a metal cabinet.
Inside were file boxes.
A laptop.
Photographs.
Audio tapes.
One digital recorder.
Label:
Evelyn Vale and Daniel Morgan.
Claire pressed play.
Her mother's voice filled the small room.
"Does Claire know why you approached her?"
Daniel answered.
"No."
"Will you tell her?"
"When the time is right."
"The time was before your first date."
Silence.
Then Daniel.
"I love her."
Evelyn responded.
"Then prove it by walking away from her money."
Another silence.
Daniel said, "If I do that, my family loses everything."
"That is not Claire's responsibility."
"You don't understand."
"I understand perfectly."
Then Evelyn spoke the sentence that made Claire close her eyes.
"If you marry my daughter while hiding the truth, one day she will discover that every good memory was built on a lie."
The recording ended.
Rachel stood motionless.
Rebecca Sloan said nothing.
Claire pressed stop.
Her mother's prediction had come true.
But there was another file inside the box.
Marked:
If Daniel refuses.
Claire opened it.
Inside was a document signed by Evelyn Vale.
It changed the trust again.
Claire read the first page.
Then the second.
On the third, she began to understand.
"If Daniel's marriage to Claire ends because of financial fraud, coercion, or abuse..."
Rebecca Sloan finished reading silently.
Then looked up.
"Claire."
"What?"
"This clause gives you more than controlling interest."
"How much?"
May you like
Rebecca looked almost stunned.
"Everything."
