Chapter 9 - Rachel
Rachel Wynn Mercer chose a diner in Queens.
No dramatic warehouse. No private club. No bodyguards.
She sat in a corner booth drinking black coffee.
She was sixty, silver-haired, and looked tired rather than dangerous.
Clara slid into the seat across from her.
"You used me."
Rachel nodded. "Yes."
The directness threw Clara.
"You put evidence in my mother's purse."
"I needed it outside Sterling security."
"You sent my father the ledger."
"He deserved a chance to stop being afraid."
"You lured me to a warehouse."
Clara leaned forward. "Did Olivia have my uncle killed?"
Rachel's eyes hardened.
"I don't know."
"You just spent years inside their systems."
"And I still don't know. That's the problem."
She slid a small folder across the table.
Inside was a police report from twenty-two years ago.
Daniel Wynn's car had gone off a rural road at 1:12 a.m.
A mechanic later noted that a brake line had ruptured.
The report called it wear.
Rachel tapped another page.
"Daniel had his brakes serviced two days earlier."
Clara's pulse quickened.
"Why wasn't that investigated?"
"Because the shop records disappeared. Because the officer in charge took early retirement six months later. Because I was twenty-three and furious and nobody listened to me."
"So you've been waiting."
"I've been collecting."
"Why now?"
Rachel looked directly at her. "Because Ethan started moving Harbor money again. Old crimes leave old trails. New crimes create fresh ones."
Clara felt a wave of disgust. "You let him do it so you could catch them."
"I couldn't stop what I didn't control."
"You could have warned me before he forged my name."
Rachel looked away.
That was answer enough.
Clara stood.
"We're done."
"No," Rachel said. "We're not."
She placed a phone on the table and played an audio file.
Olivia's voice came through clearly.
"If Clara won't marry him after tonight, we move to Plan B."
May you like
A man's voice asked, "And her parents?"
Olivia replied, "Use them."
