Chapter 5 - The Certificate —
Daniel arrived on the third afternoon.
Fresh shirt. Clean shave. Wedding ring in place.
He carried white roses.
I watched him on a silent security feed from a room down the hall while Ortiz stood beside me.
The woman behind the desk wore a nurse’s badge and had actually been a nurse before joining the investigative team. Her job that afternoon was simple: hand him the document and let him speak.
It looked like a death certificate.
It wasn’t part of any official record. It would never reach an insurer or a county office.
It was bait.
I hated that my name was on it.
Daniel accepted the paper.
He read the first line.
Then his knees folded.
The roses fell across the tile.
For one second, I leaned forward.
Habit. Love. Whatever part of me hadn’t caught up yet.
Ortiz touched the bed rail.
“Breathe.”
On the screen, Daniel covered his face. His shoulders shook.
Maybe some of that grief was real.
Maybe men like him could mourn the same person they had decided to kill.
The investigator knelt beside him.
“Captain Mercer?”
He looked up.
“Who identified her?”
The room around me seemed to shrink.
Not when did she die.
Not was she alone.
Who identified her?
The investigator gave him a careful answer. Daniel took another breath.
“Did she say anything?”
Ortiz reached for the volume.
“Before she died,” he added. “Was she able to talk?”
The investigator asked why.
Daniel wiped his face.
“I just need to know she wasn’t scared.”
I closed my eyes.
I had screamed his name until I couldn’t breathe.
He knew exactly how scared I had been.
Minutes later, he walked into the stairwell.
A camera caught him pulling out his phone. Investigators were already monitoring the number under a court order.
Ortiz’s phone buzzed.
She listened through an earpiece.
Then she put the audio on a small speaker.
Daniel’s voice filled my room.
“They gave me the certificate.”
A pause.
Vanessa.
“Are you sure?”
“I’m looking at it.”
“And she didn’t talk?”
Daniel exhaled.
“They won’t tell me much.”
My hands began shaking beneath the blanket.
Vanessa spoke again.
“Then stop asking questions. You’re going to make somebody nervous.”
Daniel’s voice dropped.
“Somebody already is.”
May you like
He paused.
“The banquet worker is still alive.”
