Chapter 5 - The Girl in the Photograph
Claire nearly collapsed.
“He was watching Lily at school.”
Marcus grabbed David Hale by the jacket.
“You knew about this?”
“No!”
“You work with him.”
“I work with fifty attorneys.”
Marcus slammed him against the wall.
Davis pulled Marcus away.
“Enough.”
Marcus pointed at the photograph.
“A man kidnaps his wife, escapes police, then sends a picture of his daughter. And you’re his messenger.”
Hale’s face had lost all color.
“He told me it was a custody dispute.”
Claire stared at him.
“And you believed that?”
“I didn’t know what was in the envelope.”
“Then why bring it?”
Hale looked ashamed.
“Because Julian threatened me.”
That changed the room.
Davis stepped closer.
“With what?”
Hale looked toward the officers.
“I need immunity.”
Marcus laughed.
“You haven’t even been accused of anything.”
“Not yet.”
Davis’s voice hardened.
“What did Julian have on you?”
Hale lowered his eyes.
“For three years, Julian has been moving client settlement funds through shell companies.”
Claire looked at Marcus.
“Money laundering?”
Hale nodded.
“Some of it.”
“What else?”
“Blackmail.”
Marcus stared.
Hale continued.
“He collected recordings. Affairs. Drug use. Bribes. Anything clients wanted hidden.”
Claire looked toward the basement.
“The cameras.”
“Yes.”
Hale swallowed.
“Julian didn’t just watch this house.”
“How many houses?” Davis asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Guess.”
Hale hesitated.
“More than twenty.”
Davis immediately called his supervisor.
Marcus stood beside Claire.
“This is bigger than us.”
Claire barely heard him.
She stared at Lily’s photograph.
“He can reach her school.”
“He won’t,” Marcus said.
“He already did.”
Officer Grant stepped in.
“School has been notified. They’re locking down access and assigning officers.”
Claire shook her head.
“I want Lily with me.”
Davis looked at her.
“You may need medical treatment.”
“I’m not leaving my daughter.”
Marcus intervened.
“We’ll all go together.”
Davis agreed.
An hour later, Claire sat in a hospital room while Lily slept curled beside her.
Marcus stood near the door.
A nurse cleaned the bruises on Claire’s wrists.
“You were dehydrated,” the nurse said. “But you’re lucky.”
Claire laughed bitterly.
“Lucky.”
Marcus looked away.
The nurse left.
For several minutes, neither sibling spoke.
Then Claire said, “Dad tried to warn us.”
Marcus leaned against the wall.
“We were kids.”
“You were twenty.”
“I was still an idiot.”
Claire almost smiled.
“He always said that.”
Marcus looked at her.
“You remember what happened the night he died?”
Claire’s expression changed.
“Car crash.”
“Police said he fell asleep.”
“He had been working late.”
Marcus crossed his arms.
“He called me that night.”
Claire stared.
“You never told me that.”
“I missed the call.”
“What time?”
“Eleven forty-three.”
Their father died at midnight.
Claire sat up.
“Did he leave a voicemail?”
Marcus hesitated.
“Yes.”
“What did it say?”
“I deleted it years ago.”
Claire stared at him in disbelief.
“Marcus.”
“I couldn’t listen to it.”
“What did it say?”
His face tightened.
“He said, ‘If anything happens, don’t trust Evelyn.’”
Claire went completely still.
“Evelyn Mercer.”
“Yes.”
“You knew her name?”
“No. I thought he meant Aunt Evelyn.”
Their father had a cousin named Evelyn.
Marcus rubbed his forehead.
“I spent years thinking Dad had become paranoid.”
Claire whispered, “He wasn’t.”
Marcus sat beside her.
“No.”
Her phone rang.
Both of them looked at the bedside table.
It wasn’t Claire’s phone.
It was Marcus’s.
Unknown number.
He answered.
“Hello?”
For several seconds, there was only breathing.
Then Julian spoke.
“You should have stayed out of my house.”
Marcus stood.
“Where are you?”
Julian laughed.
“Ask Claire what happened in 2015.”
Marcus looked at his sister.
Claire frowned.
“What?”
Julian continued.
“Ask her why your father’s company really collapsed.”
The line went dead.
Marcus stared at Claire.
“What happened in 2015?”
Claire looked confused.
“Dad died in 2015.”
“No.”
Marcus shook his head.
“That’s what Julian meant.”
Claire suddenly looked terrified.
Because she remembered something.
“Marcus... Dad didn’t own the company when he died.”
Marcus froze.
“What?”
Claire’s voice dropped.
“He signed it away two days before the crash.”
“To who?”
Claire looked toward the door.
“To a trust.”
Marcus’s stomach tightened.
“What trust?”
May you like
She whispered the name.
“Mercer Family Holdings.”
