Chapter 5 - the dead man's ring)
Charles Mercer had been buried beneath a black marble headstone in Oakridge Cemetery.
Daniel knew because he had stood beside the grave.
He had watched the casket lowered.
He had placed a white rose on the lid.
There had been a body.
Unlike Emily, his father's death had never been mysterious.
Charles suffered a massive heart attack in his office at sixty-eight.
Paramedics declared him dead.
Daniel identified him at the hospital.
There was no possibility Charles was alive.
Yet the man following Emily wore his ring.
"It could have been stolen," Michael said.
They sat inside the estate library while police continued interviewing guests.
Daniel stared at the paused image on Ruiz's laptop.
"From his hand?"
"From the house. Before he died."
"Dad never took it off."
Michael rubbed his forehead.
"Then somebody made a copy."
Ruiz looked between the brothers.
"What did the ring represent?"
"Family," Daniel answered.
Michael gave a humorless laugh.
"Power."
Daniel looked at him.
Michael continued.
"Our grandfather created a private investment group called Mercer Heritage. Dad inherited control. The ring was mostly ceremonial, but older partners recognized it."
"Who received control after your father died?" Ruiz asked.
Daniel answered.
"Me."
"How much money?"
"That isn't simple."
"Make it simple."
Daniel hesitated.
"Assets under management are approximately one point eight billion dollars."
Ruiz sat back.
"That makes things simpler."
Michael crossed his arms.
"You're suggesting Emily's disappearance was about money?"
"I'm suggesting a billion-dollar structure attracts people willing to do terrible things."
Daniel looked toward the window.
"Emily hated Mercer Heritage."
Ruiz's attention sharpened.
"Why?"
"She thought my father had too much control over our lives."
"What kind of control?"
Daniel remembered arguments he had tried not to remember.
Charles disapproving of Emily's career.
Charles objecting when Daniel wanted to sell family shares.
Charles hiring private security nobody requested.
"Financial. Personal. Everything."
Michael leaned forward.
"Emily once accused Dad of monitoring her phone."
Daniel looked at him.
"You never told me that."
"She made me promise."
"When?"
"About two months before the crash."
Daniel stood.
"What exactly did she say?"
Michael looked uncomfortable.
"She said she thought someone was following her."
"And you said nothing after she disappeared?"
"I told Dad."
Daniel stared.
"You told him?"
"I thought I was helping."
"What did he say?"
"That Emily was overwhelmed and imagining things."
Daniel turned away, furious.
"Three years."
"Daniel."
"Three years, Mike."
"I didn't know."
"You knew she was afraid."
"I didn't know she was alive."
Ruiz intervened.
"Blaming each other won't help."
Daniel looked at her.
"Then tell me what will."
"Vanessa."
The bride had disappeared only minutes after Emily appeared.
Ruiz believed the connection was too strong to ignore.
A search of Vanessa's dressing room revealed two phones.
Her normal phone was gone.
A cheap prepaid phone had been hidden inside the false bottom of a cosmetics case.
Most messages had been deleted.
Forensic technicians recovered fragments.
One repeated phrase appeared several times.
THE ASSET MUST REMAIN STABLE UNTIL MARRIAGE.
Daniel read it twice.
"What asset?"
Ruiz looked at him.
"Possibly you."
Another message was dated six months earlier.
THE CHILD REMAINS THE PROBLEM.
Daniel's face changed.
"Lily?"
"We don't know."
Daniel slammed his palm against the table.
"She lived in my house."
"Daniel."
"She ate breakfast with my daughter."
Ruiz lowered her voice.
"And if you lose control right now, you make it harder for me to find her."
He forced himself to sit.
The forensic analyst recovered one more message.
It had been sent the previous night.
THE LOCKET HAS BEEN PLACED. IF THE GIRL FINDS IT, EMILY WILL HAVE HER WINDOW.
Ruiz read it aloud.
Everyone became silent.
Daniel looked at her.
"Vanessa didn't put the locket there."
"Apparently not."
"Then somebody wanted Lily to find it."
"And wanted Emily to appear."
Michael frowned.
"Why create a public scene?"
Ruiz looked at the photograph of Emily standing at the chapel door.
"Maybe public was the only place she believed she could be seen safely."
Daniel thought of Emily running when she saw the man wearing the ring.
"She was trying to reach me."
"Possibly."
"And someone stopped her."
Ruiz nodded.
Daniel's phone rang.
Unknown number.
Everyone looked at the screen.
Ruiz gestured for him to answer and placed the call on speaker.
Daniel pressed the button.
"Hello?"
Silence.
Then breathing.
A woman's breathing.
Daniel stood.
"Emily?"
A faint sob.
Michael covered his mouth.
Daniel gripped the phone.
"Emily, is that you?"
A whisper came through.
"Daniel."
His knees weakened.
"Where are you?"
"I can't."
"It's okay. Tell me where you are."
"You shouldn't have married her."
"I didn't."
Silence.
Daniel's eyes filled.
"Emily, where have you been?"
The woman began crying.
"I'm sorry."
"For what?"
A sound occurred in the background.
A door.
The breathing changed.
Fear.
"Emily?"
"Don't let Lily sleep at the house tonight."
Daniel froze.
"What?"
"Take her somewhere your family doesn't know."
"Why?"
The voice became urgent.
"Daniel, your father didn't start this."
The line went dead.
Daniel stared at the phone.
Ruiz immediately ordered the call traced.
The result arrived less than two minutes later.
May you like
The call had originated from a pay phone eighty miles north.
Near the same mountain road where Emily's car had gone over the ravine three years earlier.
