Chapter 6 - The Man Daniel Trusted
Mara grabbed the phone before Daniel could touch it.
“Someone knows we’re here.”
She signaled the officers.
The station was searched. No one obvious remained near the lockers. Security video showed a man in a baseball cap passing the concourse three minutes before the text arrived, but his face never turned toward a camera.
Daniel recognized the jacket anyway.
Mercer Industrial issued the same navy work coat to managers at its distribution plants.
By dawn, his whole life had become evidence.
Mara advised him not to return Lily to the house until they understood who had access to the security system. Owen arranged a guarded suite at a private hotel under another name.
Daniel carried Lily inside while she slept against his shoulder.
At seven, he called Gavin.
“I need you at the office.”
“Now?”
“Yes.”
“What’s going on?”
Daniel forced himself to sound exhausted instead of furious. “Police are crawling through my house. I need somebody I trust.”
Gavin arrived forty minutes later.
He hugged Daniel.
That almost broke him.
Twenty-two years of friendship. College apartments. Bad business ideas. Funerals. Weddings. Lily’s birth. Claire’s death. Gavin had stood beside Daniel at every terrible moment.
Now Daniel had heard his voice discussing a forged trust.
They sat in Daniel’s office while Mara listened remotely through a concealed transmitter.
Gavin leaned forward. “Nora did this?”
“That’s what Lily says.”
“Kids can be manipulated.”
Daniel looked at him. “By whom?”
Gavin’s expression barely moved. “I mean in general.”
Daniel changed direction. “Do you know North Vale Holdings?”
For the first time, Gavin blinked too slowly.
“Vendor, I think.”
“You think?”
“We have hundreds.”
Daniel stood and walked to the window. “My mother mentioned it before she died.”
Gavin’s voice went soft. “Dan, grief can turn coincidences into patterns.”
There it was.
The same tone Nora had used with Lily.
You imagined it. You misunderstood. You’re upset.
Daniel turned back. “Maybe.”
Gavin relaxed by half an inch.
After he left, Mara entered through the conference room.
“He’s careful,” she said.
“He’s guilty.”
“That is not the same thing as something I can prove.”
Daniel’s phone buzzed.
Owen was calling from the hotel.
Daniel answered.
Owen did not say hello.
“Someone just tried to get into Lily’s suite.”
Daniel’s blood turned cold.
“Is she safe?”
“Yes. The guard stopped him. He ran.”
“Did anyone see his face?”
“No. But he dropped something.”
Owen sent a photo.
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On the carpet lay a silver cuff link engraved with two letters.
GR.
