Chapter 9 - GRACE MILLER’S SECRET
Adrian returned to the apartment before sunrise.
Grace was waiting at the kitchen table.
Emma slept on the sofa.
Lily rested in the crib.
Adrian placed Evelyn’s recorder on the table.
Then sat across from Grace.
“Start at the beginning.”
Grace looked exhausted.
“I married Daniel Reed when I was twenty-three.”
“Marcus’s brother.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t I know?”
“Because Marcus didn’t approve.”
“Of you?”
“Of Daniel leaving.”
Adrian frowned.
Grace continued.
“Daniel wanted nothing to do with the organization.”
“He changed his name.”
“We moved.”
“We had Emma.”
Adrian stared.
“Emma is Marcus’s niece.”
Grace nodded.
“He’s never met her.”
“What happened to Daniel?”
Grace looked down.
“He died three years ago.”
“How?”
“A car accident.”
Thomas, standing near the window, turned.
Grace continued.
“Police said he fell asleep driving.”
“But Daniel called me twenty minutes before the crash.”
“He said Marcus had found him.”
Adrian’s eyes hardened.
“Why didn’t you tell anyone?”
“Who?”
Grace laughed bitterly.
“The police officer who came to my door worked security at one of Marcus’s clubs.”
“The insurance investigator later took a job with Vale Security.”
“Everywhere I looked, Marcus was already there.”
“So you became a housekeeper in my home.”
Grace nodded.
“I wanted to know whether Daniel had been right.”
“About what?”
“That Marcus was building something against you.”
Adrian sat back.
For years, Grace had been cleaning rooms twenty feet from Marcus.
Listening.
Watching.
Waiting.
“You were spying.”
“I was surviving.”
“Why Evelyn?”
Grace’s eyes softened.
“She was kind to Emma.”
“She remembered my birthday.”
“She once sat on the laundry room floor with me for an hour because I got a call from Emma’s preschool saying she had a fever.”
Grace smiled sadly.
“Evelyn never treated me like furniture.”
“So when I heard about the convoy…”
“You went.”
“Yes.”
Thomas looked at Grace differently now.
“Daniel ever give you evidence?”
“One thing.”
Grace stood.
She opened her purse.
From the lining, she removed a small photograph.
Two young men stood beside a river.
Marcus and Daniel Reed.
On the back, Daniel had written numbers.
Adrian recognized them as bank account routing codes.
Thomas entered them into the laptop.
One account opened into a network of offshore transfers.
Payments connected Marcus to Victor.
To compromised officers.
To the St. Catherine’s property.
And to one unexpected name.
Grant Mercer.
Adrian stared at the screen.
“So Mercer was involved.”
Thomas shook his head.
“Maybe.”
“Or Marcus was paying someone inside Mercer’s organization.”
Adrian called Grant Mercer himself.
Grant answered on the fourth ring.
“You have impressive timing.”
“We need to meet.”
Grant laughed.
“After eight months of trying to prove I killed your fiancée?”
“I know you didn’t.”
Silence.
Grant’s voice changed.
“Where?”
Two hours later, Adrian entered a closed restaurant near the river.
Grant sat alone in a corner booth.
No guards.
No weapons visible.
Grant was older than Adrian.
Silver at his temples.
A scar across one hand.
He looked at Adrian for a long time.
“Marcus finally turned on you.”
“He turned eight months ago.”
Grant shook his head.
“Longer.”
Adrian sat.
Grant slid a folder across the table.
Inside were photographs of Victor Sloane meeting with Grant’s former accountant.
Bank records.
Vehicle purchases.
Two trucks bought three weeks before Evelyn’s ambush.
Grant said, “Marcus paid one of my men to buy the trucks.”
“So the paperwork would lead to you.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Grant laughed.
“You were burying men before anyone could finish a sentence.”
Adrian did not deny it.
Grant continued.
“Marcus wanted a war.”
“You gave him one.”
Adrian looked at the photographs.
“Did you know about Evelyn?”
“No.”
“When I realized what he’d done, I killed the arrangement.”
“Marcus killed my accountant.”
“That’s when I understood he wasn’t playing both sides.”
“He was building a third side.”
Adrian closed the folder.
“I need testimony.”
Grant stared at him.
“You want me to walk into court?”
“Yes.”
“You’ve changed.”
“My daughter is alive.”
Grant’s expression shifted.
“That rumor is true?”
“Yes.”
Grant leaned back.
“Then Marcus has already lost.”
“Why?”
“Because he built his entire plan around your grief.”
Adrian looked at him.
Grant continued.
“He knows how to control the man who has nothing left.”
“He has no idea what to do with a father who does.”
Adrian stood.
Grant stopped him.
“There’s more.”
Adrian turned.
Grant placed a second photograph on the table.
Marcus stood beside a private aircraft.
The timestamp was from the previous evening.
Grant tapped the plane.
“He’s moving money.”
“And people.”
“Where?”
“Canada first.”
“Maybe Europe.”
Adrian looked toward the door.
“He’s running.”
Grant shook his head.
“No.”
“If Marcus were running, he’d already be gone.”
“He’s gathering whatever he needs before one last move.”
Adrian’s phone rang.
Elias.
Adrian answered.
May you like
Elias spoke only four words.
“Lily’s security detail disappeared.”
