Chapter 9 - Brenda’s Silent Partner
Samuel asked to speak with Jessica privately.
She refused.
For months, every important truth had been hidden behind closed doors. She was finished allowing other people to decide what she was strong enough to hear.
“Say it here,” she told him.
The dinner guests remained in their chairs while investigators cataloged evidence. Connor stood near the wall, separated from Brenda. Lydia had been taken into the hallway for questioning.
Samuel placed the second will on the table.
“Ashcroft House was purchased using funds from the Ellison Continuity Trust.”
Jessica looked around the room as though the walls of her home might somehow be visible beyond the restaurant.
“My grandparents bought it.”
“Legally, yes.”
“For one dollar.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Margaret needed the property removed from her name. Your grandfather agreed to hold it until the threat passed.”
“What threat?”
“Brenda’s father.”
Brenda’s expression remained composed, but her eyes sharpened.
Samuel continued.
“Edmund Mercer managed private investments for several wealthy families. Thomas Ellison discovered that Edmund was moving funds without authorization. When Thomas threatened to report him, Edmund began transferring responsibility to others.”
“Including Margaret?”
“Yes.”
Jessica looked at Brenda.
“You inherited the operation.”
Brenda laughed.
“You make it sound like a criminal dynasty.”
“What would you call it?”
“Survival.”
Mara asked Samuel how Jessica’s father became involved.
“Robert Hale discovered the trust while reviewing his parents’ estate,” Samuel said. “By then, Edmund Mercer was dead. Robert believed the danger had ended.”
“But Brenda knew,” Jessica said.
“Yes.”
Brenda had married into the Mercer family’s public reputation while privately restoring the hidden network. Lydia helped identify estates with weak oversight. Brenda placed trusted people around the owners.
Caregivers.
Advisers.
Business partners.
Romantic partners.
Connor looked at Jessica.
She understood what he was thinking.
Their meeting at the charity auction had not been chance.
“Did Brenda send you to meet me?” Jessica asked.
Connor’s silence answered before his words.
“She told me you might attend.”
“And she told you about Ashcroft House.”
“Yes.”
“Before you knew anything else about me?”
Connor looked down.
“Yes.”
The truth hurt differently from the forgery.
The house could be restored through law.
The years she had given him could not.
“Did you ever love me?” she asked.
Connor raised his eyes.
“Yes.”
Brenda made a quiet sound of disgust.
Connor turned toward her.
“I did.”
Jessica believed he might be telling the truth.
That did not make what he had done less cruel.
Perhaps he had loved her within the narrow limits of his own courage. Perhaps he had expected love to excuse every decision he made after it.
It did not.
Mara asked Brenda about the victims listed in her notebook.
Brenda requested an attorney.
Her confidence suggested she still believed the most serious crimes could not be proven.
Then Lydia screamed from the hallway.
Everyone turned.
An officer rushed through the doors.
“Her vehicle is on fire.”
Mara ran outside with two investigators.
Jessica followed until Samuel stopped her at the doorway.
Across the parking area, flames rose from Lydia’s black sedan. Fire alarms sounded. Restaurant employees guided guests away from the windows.
The metal case had already been removed, but anything hidden inside the car was being destroyed.
Mara returned several minutes later.
“The fire started remotely.”
“Who activated it?” Jessica asked.
“We don’t know.”
Brenda remained calm.
Connor stared at her.
“You did this.”
Brenda smiled faintly.
“I have been seated beside you.”
“You arranged it.”
“Prove it.”
Mara ordered officers to seize every phone in the room.
One guest protested loudly.
Another claimed political connections.
Brenda offered her phone without hesitation.
It had been wiped.
Lydia’s device contained only recent messages.
Connor’s phone showed communications with Brenda, but none involving the car.
Then Jessica remembered the shocked woman seated near the far end of the table.
A guest named Evelyn Cross had barely spoken all evening. She was an executive assistant at Mercer Family Enterprises and had arrived with Brenda.
During the fire, Evelyn remained seated.
Jessica walked toward her.
“Where is your phone?”
Evelyn looked up.
“I gave it to the officer.”
“No. You gave him your personal phone.”
Evelyn’s hand moved toward her handbag.
The officer stopped her.
Inside was a second device.
Mara returned to the table as the officer placed it inside an evidence bag.
The screen displayed a remote vehicle application.
A command had been sent three minutes before the fire.
Lydia stared at Evelyn from the hallway.
“You destroyed my files.”
Evelyn began crying.
“Brenda told me the car had been stolen.”
Brenda said nothing.
Mara asked, “What files were inside?”
Lydia looked at Brenda.
For the first time, hatred replaced fear.
“The original client ledger.”
Brenda’s face hardened.
Lydia continued.
“Every property. Every payment. Every person Brenda placed inside a family.”
“Where was the backup?” Mara asked.
“There wasn’t one.”
Brenda smiled again.
Jessica watched Lydia carefully.
The attorney had warned her not to sign. She had also forged documents, created false identities, and returned to complete the transfer.
She was neither innocent nor loyal.
But she was afraid of Brenda.
“Lydia,” Jessica said, “you told me Brenda had done this before my grandmother owned Ashcroft House.”
Lydia’s eyes met hers.
“Yes.”
“Who was the first person she targeted?”
Brenda interrupted.
“Do not answer.”
Lydia laughed bitterly.
“You burned my protection.”
“What protection?”
“The ledger was the only reason you kept me alive.”
The room fell silent.
Lydia turned toward Jessica.
“The first person Brenda targeted was not Margaret Ellison.”
May you like
She pointed at Samuel.
“It was his wife.”
