Chapter 14 - Emily's Last Errand
Emily's handwriting shook in the final paragraphs of her letter.
Daniel read it sitting on the garage steps while Lily leaned against Rachel.
If this reaches you much later than I intended, I am sorry. I wanted to tell Daniel something before I got sick. I found irregular payments connected to his company. I thought it was an accounting error, but the same names kept appearing. I rented a storage unit for copies until I could ask better questions.
Daniel reread the date. Emily had written the letter a month before her diagnosis.
"She knew about Northstar?" Rachel asked.
The storage unit smelled of cardboard, machine oil and the lemon detergent Emily had always used. Daniel found a roll of packing tape in her handwriting: CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS, DO NOT CRUSH. He sat on an overturned crate for a minute and let himself remember her as she had been before illness reduced their world to appointments and test results. She was sharp, funny and stubborn about receipts. If a company charged her twice, she called until somebody explained it. He had loved that about her. He'd also teased her for keeping too many papers. She had been collecting evidence while he was busy taking care of their business. The thought was painful, but it brought him something he hadn't felt in months: a sense that Emily was still helping them.
"Maybe not by that name."
The storage facility was on the other side of town. Grace and Maya accompanied him the next day, and the manager opened the unit after confirming the documentation.
Inside stood two cardboard boxes and an old printer. Emily had labeled every folder in careful handwriting.
There were shipping invoices from Harbor House, construction contracts with Daniel's company, and receipts for work that no crew had performed.
At the back sat a flash drive labeled DO NOT DELETE.
Maya arranged for a forensic copy. Daniel waited in the hall until she returned.
"We found spreadsheet records," she said. "They go back six years. Before you met Vanessa."
Daniel frowned. "So who started it?"
Maya showed him a signature on the earliest agreement.
May you like
The name was not Vanessa Hale.
It was Robert Mercer, Daniel's uncle and former business partner.
