Chapter 15 - Kyle's Version
Kyle Mercer surrendered at his brother's auto shop. In his first interview, he tried to make the story sound like a series of small favors. He had approved an invoice here, overlooked a signature there, carried a bag when Alma asked. Nothing, he insisted, that should have brought the police to his door.
When Park showed him June's work order, he stopped pretending.
“Yes,” he said. “I chained the door. Alma told me there'd be a records inspection. She wanted that stairwell out of service so nobody would see the boxes stored behind it.”
“On the night of the fire?” Park asked.
“It was already chained. I was supposed to remove it the next morning.”
“Why didn't you?”
“Because by then June was dead.”
Kyle claimed the fire began when old wiring sparked near a storage room. Investigators had never proved arson, and Park refused to promise otherwise. A reckless locked exit and a stolen trust were crimes enough to pursue on their own evidence.
He admitted that Alma ordered the forged transfers, coached him on the hospital intrusion, and told him to retrieve anything connected to my father's recordings. He didn't know the difference between the first and second envelopes. That was why Alma had panicked when she saw one in my hand.
I expected relief when I heard about his confession. Instead I thought of Grace, a girl who had spent six years believing her sister died because of one decision nobody cared to reverse.
Park asked Kyle about the brown medical bag.
“It belonged to Rafael,” he said. “Alma kept it. She thought there was a tape inside with her voice on it.”
“Is there?”
Kyle looked at the detective for a long time. “I don't know. But I know why she's scared of it.”
He said my father had called an attorney shortly before he died. He was planning to place Harbor Light's remaining assets in a court-supervised trust for the families. Alma had threatened to leave him and take me away. Rafael didn't back down.
On the day he collapsed for the final time, he wrote a letter to the state attorney general. Alma intercepted it.
“Where is that letter?” Park asked.
Kyle leaned forward. “There's a false bottom in his bag. Alma couldn't open it. She asked me to cut it out.”
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“And did you?”
“No,” he whispered. “Because there's one thing inside she doesn't know about.”
