Chapter 6
Police returned to Claire’s property before sunrise.
Rachel stayed at the hospital with Daniel and Mia.
This time, no one tried to keep her out.
Daniel had been placed in intensive care under police protection.
Dr. Cole expected him to survive.
But survival was not the same as recovery.
“He experienced repeated sedation, dehydration, and a head injury,” the doctor explained. “We need to watch for memory loss and neurological damage.”
Rachel looked through the glass.
Daniel seemed smaller beneath the blankets.
For two weeks, she had believed he was traveling.
She had sent him pictures of Mia coloring.
She had complained about the leaking sink.
She had told him she missed him.
Someone else had replied to every message.
The realization made her sick.
“Can I sit with him?”
“For a few minutes.”
Mia climbed onto Rachel’s lap beside the bed.
She placed a stuffed rabbit under Daniel’s hand.
“He doesn’t like hospitals,” she whispered.
“I know.”
“Is he mad because I took his bracelet?”
“No, sweetheart.”
“Did I make Aunt Claire put me in the hole?”
Rachel turned Mia toward her.
“Nothing Claire did was your fault.”
“But she said I was nosy.”
“You were brave.”
Mia studied Daniel’s face.
“Why didn’t Daddy tell us?”
Rachel had no answer.
Daniel had hidden the investigation to protect them.
But secrets had given Claire power.
Rachel stroked Mia’s hair.
“When Daddy wakes up, we’re going to ask him.”
Daniel’s fingers closed weakly around the rabbit.
Rachel stood.
“Daniel?”
His eyes opened.
Confusion filled them.
Then he saw Rachel.
Tears slid toward his temples.
“I’m sorry.”
His voice was barely audible.
Rachel took his hand.
“You’re safe.”
“Mia?”
“I’m here, Daddy.”
Daniel looked toward her.
Relief passed across his face.
Then fear replaced it.
“Claire?”
“Arrested.”
“Mom?”
“Also arrested.”
Daniel shut his eyes.
Rachel could see the grief even before the tears came.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked.
“I thought I could fix it.”
“You filed for divorce.”
“No.”
“They forged everything.”
Daniel struggled to breathe.
Rachel lowered her voice.
“Don’t force yourself.”
“The pit.”
“Police are searching it.”
“Metal box.”
“What’s inside?”
Daniel’s eyes opened again.
“Dad’s journal.”
Rachel frowned.
Daniel’s father, William Mercer, had died seven years earlier after falling from a balcony at the family lake house.
His death had been ruled accidental.
“Why did you have William’s journal?”
“Found it in Grant’s office.”
“What does it say?”
Daniel looked toward the doorway.
“Dad knew.”
“Knew about the stolen money?”
Daniel shook his head.
“Knew who killed him.”
Rachel stopped breathing.
A nurse entered as Daniel’s heart rate climbed.
“You need to leave.”
Rachel took Mia into the corridor.
Naomi was waiting with Detective Ortiz.
One look at their faces told Rachel they had found the box.
Ortiz led her into a private waiting room.
“We recovered a locked metal container beneath the pit.”
“Was the journal inside?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“William Mercer believed Grant was stealing from the company. He also believed Judith was helping him.”
Rachel sat down.
Naomi placed several copied pages on the table.
William’s handwriting filled them.
Grant says the money is temporary.
Judith refuses to explain why Claire’s signature appears on the new account.
Daniel must not know until I have proof.
The final entry was dated the night William died.
I asked Judith to meet me at the lake house. Grant arrived first. If anything happens, the recording is inside the old clock.
Rachel looked up.
“Did police find a recording?”
“Not yet,” Ortiz said. “The clock was removed from the lake house years ago.”
“Who has it?”
Naomi turned another page.
A photograph showed the large wooden clock in the Mercer family library.
Rachel had seen it yesterday.
It stood in Judith’s foyer.
Ortiz had officers searching the house.
His phone rang.
He answered.
His expression tightened.
“What do you mean, it’s gone?”
Rachel’s hope sank.
Ortiz ended the call.
“The clock was there when we arrested Judith. Now it isn’t.”
“Who had access?”
“House staff, investigators, and Judith’s attorney.”
“Grant was already in custody.”
“He has associates.”
Naomi studied the list of family employees.
“Judith’s driver,” she said. “Martin Vale.”
Rachel remembered the tire tracks behind Claire’s shed.
“A large vehicle moved Daniel’s briefcase before police arrived. What does Martin drive?”
Ortiz checked his notes.
“A black cargo van.”
“Find him.”
Ortiz left to make the call.
Naomi gathered the pages.
“If the recording proves William was murdered, Claire and Judith may face more than fraud charges.”
“Claire was young when William died.”
“She was twenty-three.”
“She could have known.”
Rachel looked through the glass at Daniel.
“How many lies can one family survive?”
Naomi gave her a tired look.
“That depends on whether they stop telling them.”
Later that morning, Judith requested to speak with Rachel.
Naomi advised against it.
Rachel went anyway.
Judith sat behind glass at the county detention center.
Without her perfect clothes and controlled surroundings, she looked older.
But her eyes were still hard.
Rachel picked up the telephone.
Judith did the same.
“Where is the clock?” Rachel asked.
Judith smiled faintly.
“You always did skip basic manners.”
“You locked Mia in a room.”
“I was trying to keep her calm.”
“You watched Claire put her in a pit.”
“I didn’t see that.”
“Mia saw you.”
“Mia sees monsters in shadows.”
“She saw you in a red car.”
Judith’s smile faded.
Rachel leaned closer to the glass.
“Daniel found William’s journal.”
For the first time, Judith looked shaken.
“Where?”
“Under the pit.”
Judith closed her eyes briefly.
“Claire was supposed to destroy it.”
“She didn’t know where Daniel put it.”
“And now you think you understand everything.”
“I understand that William believed you helped Grant steal.”
Judith’s voice turned bitter.
“William believed himself to be a saint. He left me with a company drowning in debt and two children who expected the world.”
“So you stole from employee pensions?”
“I borrowed money to keep the company alive.”
“For six years?”
“Grant controlled the accounts.”
“But you signed the transfers.”
Judith looked away.
“Claire was desperate to prove herself. Grant promised to build a separate company for her.”
“And when Daniel discovered it?”
“We asked him to wait.”
“You drugged him.”
“I did not.”
“You helped hide him.”
“I was trying to keep Grant from killing him.”
Rachel froze.
Judith looked back at her.
“You think Claire created this plan? Claire cannot plan breakfast without asking Grant what she should eat.”
“Then help the police.”
“If I talk, Grant will release the recording.”
“What recording?”
Judith’s eyes filled with something Rachel had never seen there before.
Fear.
“The one that makes everyone believe I killed William.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
“Then why are you afraid?”
“Because the truth sounds worse than the lie.”
Before Rachel could ask another question, Judith hung up.
She stood and called for the guard.
Rachel struck the glass.
“What happened that night?”
Judith did not turn around.
Rachel returned to the hospital.
Daniel was sleeping.
Mia colored beside him.
Naomi arrived with news.
Police had found Martin’s van abandoned near the river.
The wooden clock was inside.
Its back panel had been torn open.
The hidden recording was gone.
“But we found blood in the van,” Naomi said.
“Whose?”
“They’re testing it.”
Rachel’s phone vibrated.
A message from an unknown number appeared.
It contained a photograph of the missing recording.
An old cassette tape rested in someone’s hand.
Beneath it was one sentence.
Ask Daniel why his fingerprints were on the balcony rail the night his father died.
Rachel looked through the glass.
Daniel’s eyes were open.
May you like
He was watching her.
And from his expression, she knew he had seen enough to understand what the message said.
