Chapter 2
Two police cars arrived before Daniel reached the second floor.
He heard doors opening below.
Voices filled the foyer.
Andrew called after him, but the security guard ordered him to stay in the kitchen.
Daniel carried Lucy down the hall toward Claire’s old sewing room.
The room had remained locked since her death.
Daniel had not been able to enter it.
Marlene claimed she dusted it every Friday.
Now Daniel wondered what else she had done inside.
The brass doorknob would not turn.
“Where is the key?” he asked.
Lucy pointed at the frame.
“Marlene puts it up high.”
Daniel reached above the door.
His fingers found a small silver key.
He unlocked the room.
The smell of Claire’s lavender perfume still clung faintly to the curtains.
Daniel’s chest tightened.
Fabric covered the long table.
A dress Claire had started sewing for Lucy’s fourth birthday hung unfinished near the window.
And on the floor, beside an open storage chest, lay the stuffed rabbit.
One ear had been torn apart.
“Bunny!”
Lucy struggled from Daniel’s arms.
She ran to the toy and hugged it.
Then she stared at the damaged ear.
“Why did they hurt him?”
Daniel knelt beside her.
“They were looking for something.”
Lucy pushed her little hand into the torn seam.
Her fingers came out holding a tiny brass key wrapped in plastic.
Daniel stared at it.
“What does that open?”
“Mommy’s secret.”
Footsteps approached.
A female police officer appeared in the doorway.
“Mr. Mercer?”
Daniel stood quickly.
“Yes.”
“I’m Officer Elena Ruiz. We need you downstairs.”
He showed her the key.
“My wife hid this in my daughter’s toy before she died. My brother and the housekeeper were searching for it.”
Officer Ruiz studied his face.
“Put it in this evidence bag. Don’t handle it more than necessary.”
Daniel obeyed.
Lucy clung to the rabbit.
Downstairs, Marlene sat at the kitchen table with another officer.
Andrew stood near the windows, speaking to someone on his phone.
He ended the call when Daniel entered.
Officer Ruiz photographed the bucket, Lucy’s untouched food, the steak, the blue box, and the bank document.
She then crouched to Lucy’s height.
“Hi, Lucy. My name is Elena.”
Lucy hid behind Daniel.
“You’re not in trouble,” Elena said gently. “I only want to make sure you’re safe.”
Marlene leaned forward.
“She’s tired. She invents things when she’s tired.”
Officer Ruiz looked at her.
“I wasn’t speaking to you.”
Marlene sat back.
Elena asked Lucy what had happened.
Lucy’s answers came in broken pieces.
Marlene had caught her inside the pantry.
Lucy had opened the blue box because she recognized her mother’s flowers.
Marlene had grabbed her arm.
She had told Lucy she was a sneaky little thief.
Then she had poured dirty water on the marble and ordered Lucy to clean until every mark disappeared.
“Did she hurt you?” Elena asked.
Lucy looked at Marlene.
Marlene’s lips pressed into a thin line.
Daniel knelt beside his daughter.
“You can tell the truth.”
Lucy slowly pushed up her sleeve.
There were faint red marks around her wrist.
Daniel felt something inside him break.
He turned toward Marlene.
Officer Ruiz stepped between them.
“Mr. Mercer, stay with your daughter.”
“She put her hands on my child.”
“And we’re documenting it.”
Marlene stood.
“I barely touched her.”
Lucy flinched again.
Elena ordered Marlene to sit.
This time, the second officer placed a hand near his cuffs.
Marlene obeyed.
Daniel called his attorney, Naomi Brooks.
She arrived twenty minutes later.
Naomi had been Claire’s closest friend in college.
She was sharp, careful, and almost impossible to intimidate.
The moment she saw Lucy’s wrist, her expression changed.
“Who did that?”
“Marlene,” Daniel said.
Naomi turned toward Andrew.
“And why are you here?”
Andrew folded his arms.
“I came to discuss business.”
“Three hours before Daniel was expected home?”
“I don’t report my movements to you.”
“No, but you may have to report them to a detective.”
Andrew smiled.
“You always did enjoy drama.”
Naomi ignored him and examined the bank documents.
“This transfer came from Daniel’s private investment account.”
Daniel looked at Andrew.
“You said company funds.”
“A reasonable assumption.”
Naomi pointed to the authorization code.
“This required Daniel’s fingerprint and a rotating password.”
Lucy had said Andrew used Daniel’s hand while he slept.
Daniel told Naomi everything.
She looked at the teapot.
“Take that,” she told Officer Ruiz. “And every container Marlene used to prepare his drinks.”
Marlene’s chair scraped the floor.
“You can’t search the whole kitchen.”
Officer Ruiz held up the consent form Daniel had signed.
“We can.”
Andrew moved closer to Marlene.
“Stop reacting.”
Marlene spun toward him.
“This is easy for you. It isn’t your son’s name on that transfer.”
Andrew’s voice dropped.
“Your son received the money.”
“His name was used.”
“That’s your story now?”
“It was always the truth.”
Daniel watched them turn on each other.
“Where is Tyler?” he asked.
Marlene fell silent.
“Where is your son?”
“I don’t know.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
Her eyes filled with fear.
“He disappeared yesterday.”
The room became still.
Andrew looked surprised, but Daniel no longer trusted any expression on his brother’s face.
Marlene gripped the edge of the table.
“Tyler called me at six in the morning. He said someone had been inside his apartment. He said his laptop was gone.”
“Why didn’t you report it?” Naomi asked.
“Because he told me not to.”
“Why?”
Marlene looked toward Andrew.
Andrew’s face went cold.
“Say what you want to say,” he told her.
“You said your people were only watching him.”
“I never said any such thing.”
“You said if I kept Daniel calm, Tyler would be protected.”
Officer Ruiz stepped closer.
“Protected from whom?”
Marlene began to cry.
It was not the quiet crying of regret.
It was the desperate crying of someone whose plan had collapsed.
“I don’t know.”
“You know something,” Daniel said.
“I know Tyler owed money.”
“To Andrew?”
“No.”
Andrew gave a short laugh.
“This is becoming absurd.”
Marlene pointed at him.
“He paid the debt. Then he told Tyler to open a consulting company.”
“That is a lie.”
“He said money would pass through it once. Just once.”
“But it didn’t,” Naomi said.
She sorted through the statements.
“There are at least seven deposits.”
Daniel stared at the papers.
The $240,000 transfer was only the newest transaction.
Smaller amounts appeared over eleven months.
The total was more than one million dollars.
Naomi kept reading.
“Daniel, some of these came from Claire’s trust.”
Andrew’s face tightened.
Daniel felt as if the floor had shifted beneath him.
Claire had inherited money from her grandmother.
After her death, the trust was supposed to pass untouched to Lucy when she turned twenty-five.
“No one can access that trust,” Daniel said.
“You can,” Andrew replied.
“As Lucy’s guardian.”
“I never did.”
“There are records showing otherwise.”
Naomi lifted one page.
“There’s also a petition requesting an emergency review of Daniel’s guardianship.”
Daniel turned to his brother.
“You filed against me?”
Andrew did not answer.
Naomi found the filing date.
“Yesterday.”
Marlene stopped crying.
Even she seemed shocked.
Andrew buttoned his jacket.
“I was advised to act after witnessing Daniel’s decline.”
“What decline?”
“Missing meetings. Sleeping during the day. Signing documents he later forgot.”
“You drugged him,” Marlene said.
Andrew ignored her.
“You have become unstable since Claire died. Lucy needs consistency.”
“You’re trying to take my daughter.”
“I’m trying to protect her.”
Lucy began sobbing.
“No! I stay with Daddy!”
Daniel lifted her.
Andrew’s expression softened for the officers.
“See how emotional she is? This home is chaotic.”
Naomi stepped between the brothers.
“You should stop speaking.”
“I haven’t done anything wrong.”
“You filed for emergency guardianship one day before a suspicious transfer was discovered inside this house.”
Andrew looked at her with open contempt.
“You cannot prove those events are connected.”
“Not yet.”
Officer Ruiz asked Andrew to remain for questioning.
He refused.
She told him he was not under arrest and could leave.
Daniel hated watching him walk free.
At the doorway, Andrew stopped beside Lucy.
“I’m sorry you’re frightened, princess.”
Lucy turned her face away.
Andrew looked at Daniel.
“You should call Mom before someone else does.”
Then he left.
Marlene was arrested on suspicion of theft and child endangerment.
As officers led her through the foyer, she pulled away long enough to face Daniel.
“Ask your mother what happened the night Claire died.”
Daniel froze.
“What does my mother know?”
Marlene was pushed toward the door.
“She knows Andrew wasn’t home.”
Then she was gone.
Naomi closed the door behind the officers.
“You cannot stay here tonight.”
“This is my house.”
“It may also be a crime scene. And Andrew knows what Claire hid.”
Daniel looked at the evidence bag containing the brass key.
“Could it belong to a safe-deposit box?”
“Possibly.”
Lucy rested her head on his shoulder.
“Mommy said the key was for the place with no windows.”
Daniel’s breath caught.
Claire used to call bank vaults rooms with no windows.
Before he could answer, the doorbell rang.
A woman from Child Protective Services stood outside.
She held an emergency court order.
A report had accused Daniel of drug abuse, financial instability, and neglect.
Until a hearing could be held, Lucy was to be placed with a relative.
The approved relative was Daniel’s mother, Evelyn.
Lucy screamed when she heard she had to leave.
Daniel held her so tightly that Naomi had to remind him the caseworker was watching.
“I’m not letting them take you forever,” he whispered.
“You promise?”
“I promise.”
Evelyn arrived forty minutes later.
She wore pearls, a gray coat, and the controlled expression she used whenever the family was in crisis.
Lucy refused to go to her.
Daniel’s mother looked wounded.
“I’m her grandmother.”
“She’s terrified,” Daniel said.
“Because this house has become a nightmare.”
“Did you know Andrew filed for guardianship?”
Evelyn hesitated.
That pause answered him.
“You helped him.”
“I helped Lucy.”
Daniel stared at his mother.
“You knew they were drugging me.”
“I knew you were unwell.”
“I was being poisoned in my own home.”
Evelyn looked toward the officers.
“Lower your voice.”
“Tell me where Andrew was the night Claire died.”
Her face lost its color.
Naomi noticed.
So did the CPS worker.
Evelyn tightened her grip on her purse.
“This is not the time.”
“It is exactly the time.”
Lucy reached for Daniel as Evelyn carried her toward the door.
“Daddy!”
Daniel followed until Naomi caught his arm.
“If you interfere with the order, they’ll use it against you.”
Lucy’s cries echoed through the foyer.
Daniel stood helplessly as his mother took his daughter away.
At the front door, Evelyn looked back.
For one second, her perfect mask disappeared.
She was not angry.
She was afraid.
Later that night, Naomi drove Daniel to First Commonwealth Bank.
Claire’s brass key matched a private box registered under her maiden name.
The bank manager placed the box inside a viewing room.
Daniel unlocked it.
There was no money inside.
There was a digital recorder.
A photograph of Andrew’s car parked outside Claire’s office.
And a sealed letter addressed to Daniel.
His hands shook as he pressed play on the recorder.
Claire’s voice filled the windowless room.
“Daniel, if you’re hearing this, then Andrew found out I was investigating him.”
Daniel covered his mouth.
Claire continued.
“He is stealing from the company. But the money is not the worst part.”
A pause followed.
May you like
Then her voice broke.
“Your brother threatened Lucy.”
