Chapter 8 - THE FOURTH PERSON
Mom didn’t answer immediately.
That terrified me.
“Who else was there?”
Her hands trembled.
“Thomas Reed.”
My stomach dropped.
“The prosecutor?”
“He wasn’t the prosecutor yet.”
At the time, Reed had been a private attorney representing several Hayes Medical vendors.
Including Bellweather.
Dad had discovered the fraud.
Reed came to the house to negotiate.
Victor came too.
Mercer arrived later.
Mom had gone upstairs to put two-year-old Ethan to bed.
Then Dad shouted.
She came downstairs.
She saw Reed leaving through the back door.
Dad was bleeding.
Victor stood near him.
Mercer grabbed Mom before she reached her husband.
Then everything became chaos.
“Why was your robe bloody?”
“I knelt beside Daniel.”
Of course.
She had tried to save her husband.
The prosecution had turned that into proof of murder.
“What about the knife?”
“I picked it up.”
“Why?”
“I wasn’t thinking.”
“I saw it beside him.”
“I grabbed it.”
“Mercer screamed at me to drop it.”
That explained the fresh fingerprints.
Then Mercer took the knife.
Later it appeared beneath her bed.
Mom looked at me.
“I told all of this to police.”
“But Mercer wrote the report.”
“Yes.”
“And Reed eventually prosecuted you.”
“Yes.”
I felt sick.
The killer had helped control the investigation.
And another conspirator had prosecuted the victim.
Rachel reopened every piece of evidence.
Then the medical examiner made a discovery overlooked six years earlier.
Dad’s wound angle.
The killer was likely left-handed.
Victor was right-handed.
Mercer was right-handed.
Reed was left-handed.
Suddenly Victor’s claim that he hadn’t stabbed Dad seemed possible.
That didn’t make him innocent.
He had planted evidence.
He had protected the killers.
He had spent six years helping send Mom toward execution.
But maybe his hands had not held the knife.
The FBI arrested Mercer on obstruction and conspiracy charges.
Reed disappeared before agents reached his house.
A nationwide manhunt began.
Victor agreed to cooperate in exchange for prosecutors considering a reduced sentence.
He told investigators Reed stabbed Dad during an argument.
Dad threatened to expose Bellweather.
Reed panicked.
One thrust.
One second.
A life ended.
Mercer arrived and transformed panic into conspiracy.
Frame Caroline.
Control the evidence.
Use Victor’s obsession and greed to keep him loyal.
It almost worked perfectly.
Until Ethan remembered.
Then the FBI found Reed’s abandoned car near the Canadian border.
Blood was inside.
But no body.
No Reed.
He had switched vehicles.
Rachel believed he was coming back toward the city.
“Why?”
I asked.
“Because there’s still something here he wants.”
“What?”
“We don’t know.”
That night, Mom called me from prison.
She sounded frightened.
“Sophie.”
“What happened?”
“Someone came into my cell.”
“What?”
“They left something.”
My heart stopped.
“What?”
“A photograph of you and Ethan.”
I stood.
“When?”
“Tonight.”
“Mom, Reed isn’t in prison.”
“I know.”
“Then he still has someone inside.”
Mom started crying.
“There’s writing on the back.”
“What does it say?”
She read it.
THE BOY REMEMBERED.
THE GIRL FOUND THE FILES.
CAROLINE STILL KNOWS WHERE IT IS.
I frowned.
“Where what is?”
Mom went silent.
“Mom?”
Her breathing changed.
“Oh God.”
“What?”
“I know what Reed wants.”
May you like
“What?”
“Daniel’s second ledger.”
