Chapter 14 - The Man with the Radio

I thought of Marcus Bell immediately and hated myself for it. He'd helped me find the cameras, warned Noah, and stood against Vanessa. If his name was on those payments, nothing about the last two days would make sense.

Julian pushed a page across Priya's desk. The listed recipient was M. BELL SECURITY SERVICES. I stared until the letters blurred.

“No,” I whispered.

Marcus came in voluntarily after Ortiz summoned him. He didn't deny that his company had received payments. He explained that his father, a private driver named Malcolm Bell, had worked for Richard twenty years earlier. Malcolm died four years ago. Marcus had inherited the business accounts without recognizing the payments as hush money.

“Why didn't you check?” I asked.

“Because the deposits were labeled security retainer,” he said. “I'd been trying to cancel them for months. They kept coming. My father wouldn't speak about what happened on the bridge, even when he was sick.”

Ortiz verified parts of his story and asked for the company's full books. Marcus handed them over, then looked directly at me.

“I know what this looks like. If my father hurt yours, I won't hide it.”

The next day Marcus arrived with a box of his father's belongings. Inside was a repair invoice, an expired driver's license, and a handwritten note sealed in plastic. Malcolm had written it during his final hospitalization: RICHARD ORDERED ME TO FOLLOW MARA. I DID. I DID NOT HIT HER CAR. THE BLACK SEDAN DID. I SAW THE DRIVER.

Beneath it was a license plate number.

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Ortiz traced the plate to a vehicle leased by the Mercer Foundation itself. Arthur Mercer had access to that car, as did several board members.

I wanted to believe Arthur's shame wasn't covering something worse. But when Ortiz showed him the plate, he sank into a chair and said, “That car was assigned to my son.”