Chapter 4 - THE BULLET
The bullet struck the wall beside my head.
I dropped and rolled behind a service cart.
Hale fired once.
Daniel disappeared through a fire door.
The crewman went the opposite direction.
“Which one?” Hale yelled.
“Daniel!”
We ran after him.
The door opened onto an outdoor promenade.
Wind slammed into us.
The sea below was black and violent.
Daniel was gone.
I saw blood on the railing.
Hale touched it.
“Could be his.”
“It isn’t enough.”
Nothing about Daniel was enough anymore.
Not his lies.
Not his dead women.
Not the man who had handed him a gun.
The captain ordered a shipwide lockdown.
Every passenger was returned to a cabin.
Every crew member was checked.
Daniel Mercer had vanished.
Again.
Back inside, Hale finally told me everything.
Rebecca Lane had married Daniel under another name.
David Marshall.
Two years before her, a woman named Joanna Brooks disappeared from a rental property Daniel owned in Arizona.
After Rebecca came Nicole Avery.
Engaged.
Missing after a hiking trip.
No bodies.
No murder charges.
Just insurance policies, transferred assets, and grieving families.
“He chooses women with money,” Hale said.
I stared at him.
“I don’t have money.”
He gave me a strange look.
“You have more than you think.”
“My parents died with debt.”
“Your grandfather didn’t.”
I stopped.
“My grandfather?”
“Arthur Morgan.”
I laughed once.
“My grandfather repaired farm equipment in Iowa.”
“No.”
Hale slid a folder toward me.
“Arthur Morgan created Morgan Tactical Systems.”
I knew the company.
Everyone in defense procurement knew it.
Secure communications.
Surveillance hardware.
Government contracts worth billions.
“That’s impossible.”
“He sold most of his shares twenty years ago. The remaining trust is estimated at forty-eight million dollars.”
I sat very still.
“And Daniel knew?”
“We believe so.”
I thought of our first date.
Daniel asking about my family.
Daniel pretending not to care about money.
Daniel encouraging me to investigate my grandfather’s estate.
I felt sick.
Hale continued.
“The trust becomes fully accessible when you turn thirty-five.”
“My birthday is next month.”
“Yes.”
Suddenly, our rushed wedding made perfect sense.
I looked at the photographs.
“So he planned to kill me before my birthday.”
“Probably after increasing your life insurance.”
My phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
A photograph appeared.
Daniel.
Standing inside a dark room.
Beside him was a woman tied to a chair.
The unconscious housekeeper from the stairwell.
May you like
Under the photograph were six words.
COME ALONE OR SHE GOES OVERBOARD.
