Chapter 4 - THE MAN WHO KNEW DANIEL FIRST
The flash drive contained six folders.
Property records.
Bank transfers.
Audio files.
Photographs.
And one folder marked D.H.
Daniel Harper.
My fingers went numb.
“Open it,” Jenna said.
I did.
The first photograph showed Daniel standing beside Michael.
My dead husband.
The picture was dated seven months before Michael’s accident.
I sat down.
“That’s impossible.”
But it wasn’t.
Daniel was younger.
His hair was longer.
But it was him.
They were standing outside one of Michael’s development sites.
The second photo showed them arguing.
The third showed Daniel getting into a black sedan with Margaret.
Lily leaned against me.
“You knew Daniel knew Dad?”
“No.”
I opened an audio file.
Static filled the room.
Then Michael’s voice.
I hadn’t heard it in years.
I nearly closed the computer.
Claire, if this recording exists when you hear it, then I was probably too late.
I covered my mouth.
Michael continued.
There’s something beneath the Walker property.
Not oil.
Not gold.
Something more complicated.
Twenty years ago, Dad and two partners bought contaminated industrial land through a holding company.
They cleaned most of it, built homes, and buried the records.
One parcel remained untouched.
Ours.
Jenna whispered, “Oh God.”
Michael’s voice became harder.
Daniel Harper works for people buying up liability rights connected to those properties.
He approached me pretending to represent investors.
He wanted the parcel.
I refused.
Two days later, someone tampered with the brakes on my truck.
I reported it.
The report disappeared.
My heart hammered.
Michael had not died in his truck.
His construction accident had happened three months after this recording.
A platform collapse.
A supposedly failed support cable.
Michael continued.
If something happens to me, do not let Claire sign anything transferring ownership.
The land is protected by the Walker trust.
As long as Claire remains unmarried, she controls the property until Lily turns twenty-five.
If Claire remarries, certain marital rights can be triggered unless a properly executed independent prenup blocks them.
I closed my eyes.
Robert had handled our prenup.
Daniel’s brother.
“Oh my God.”
Jenna pulled out her phone.
“We need police.”
I laughed once.
It sounded broken.
“With what? A dead man’s recording and a forged medical transport form?”
“Yes.”
Lily touched the screen.
“There are more.”
The next file was a scan of my prenuptial agreement.
I opened it.
My signature looked normal.
The document looked normal.
Then I noticed page eleven.
I had never seen page eleven.
Upon marriage, Claire Bennett-Walker granted Daniel Harper temporary management authority over the Walker marital estate during any medically documented incapacity.
My ears rang.
“I didn’t sign this.”
Jenna pointed at the notarization.
It had been witnessed by someone named Edward Cole.
“I know that name.”
“Who?”
“Daniel’s financial adviser.”
My phone rang.
Daniel.
I rejected the call.
A text arrived.
You’re scared because you don’t understand.
Another.
Michael didn’t understand either.
Then a third message appeared.
Look outside.
We turned.
A black sedan was parked across the street.
May you like
The same model from Michael’s photograph.
And Margaret was sitting behind the wheel.
