Chapter 12 - THE KNOCK THAT NEVER CAME
Margaret lowered the phone.
“She was coming here?”
Daniel stared at her.
“I didn’t know.”
Grant was still on the line.
Margaret put it on speaker.
“Why?”
Grant answered, “Because Emily finally figured out Robert couldn’t control you forever.”
Margaret felt sick.
“She wanted to tell me.”
“She wanted to give you the evidence.”
Daniel’s face twisted with pain.
Emily had trusted Margaret.
After everything.
After Margaret had thrown Daniel away.
“She thought you’d believe her,” Grant continued.
Daniel laughed once.
A broken sound.
“She believed in you more than I did.”
Margaret closed her eyes.
Grant kept talking.
“You want to blame me for everything because that’s easy.”
“You drove her off the road,” Daniel said.
Grant’s voice changed.
“I didn’t mean to kill her.”
“You hit her car.”
“She was supposed to stop.”
“You hit her twice!”
“I was angry!”
Lily jumped at Daniel’s shout.
He immediately lowered his voice.
Grant said, “You want the truth, Daniel? Everybody in this family destroyed somebody.”
Daniel stared at the phone.
“You don’t get to make us the same.”
Then Grant hung up.
Ortega had recorded the entire call.
“That helps,” he said.
“Helps?” Daniel snapped. “He just admitted it.”
“Not cleanly enough. His attorney will say he meant a traffic accident.”
Daniel slammed his fist against the wall.
Margaret looked at the old clock.
Then something clicked in her memory.
“Emily’s sealed statement.”
Ortega looked at her.
“What about it?”
“The order I signed didn’t destroy it.”
“No.”
“It sealed it.”
Daniel stopped pacing.
Margaret turned toward him.
“The original may still exist in court archives.”
Thirty minutes later they were back at the courthouse.
Margaret no longer had authority over the case, but she still knew exactly where old sealed records were stored.
With Judge Morales’s permission, the clerk opened Box 6A-114.
Inside was Emily Reed’s sworn statement.
Daniel stared at his wife’s signature.
Margaret read aloud.
“Grant Hale has threatened me twice regarding financial documents connected to the Hale Family Foundation.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
She continued.
“If anything happens to me, I believe Mr. Hale or someone acting for him should be investigated.”
Ortega whispered, “That’s enough for probable cause.”
Then Margaret reached the final page.
Her own emergency sealing order was attached.
Requested by Assistant District Attorney Paul Mercer.
A name Margaret knew.
Now District Attorney Paul Mercer.
The same man whose office was prosecuting Daniel.
Daniel looked at her.
“He buried Emily’s statement.”
Margaret nodded.
“And now his office is trying to bury me.”
A clerk rushed into the room.
“Judge Hale?”
“What?”
“There are police downstairs.”
“For Grant?”
The clerk shook her head.
“For Mr. Reed.”
Daniel frowned.
“Why?”
The clerk looked terrified.
“They just issued a new arrest warrant.”
May you like
“For what?”
“Murder.”
