Chapter 8 - The First Lie
State police moved Daniel, Sarah, and Lily to a protected hotel under false names.
Vanessa remained in custody.
At noon, Daniel met investigators in a conference room. They showed him years of company transfers: Mercer Development money sent to vendors that existed only on paper.
His signature appeared on every authorization.
“They’re good forgeries,” Captain Elena Ruiz said. “Good enough to fool auditors.”
Daniel stared at the pages. “Grant had access to my digital signature.”
“So did your executive assistant.”
“Vanessa never worked for the company.”
Ruiz slid another page across the table.
Vanessa Hale had.
Eight years earlier, under her maiden name—Vanessa Cole.
Daniel looked up slowly.
“Cole?”
“Grant’s half sister.”
The room tilted.
Daniel thought of every dinner, every bedtime story Vanessa had read Lily, every time Grant had shaken his hand and asked how the relationship was going.
“They set me up together.”
“Looks that way.”
But when Ruiz questioned Vanessa again, the story became messier.
Vanessa admitted Grant had recruited her to get close to Daniel after Sarah disappeared. She claimed she had originally believed Sarah had run away with stolen company money.
“Grant told me Daniel would lose the business unless I helped keep him stable,” she said through the interview-room glass. “He said Sarah was dangerous.”
Ruiz asked, “When did you realize he was lying?”
Vanessa stared at the table.
“The night I saw Sarah alive.”
Daniel almost laughed from rage.
“You had years to ask questions.”
Vanessa turned toward the one-way glass as if she could see him.
“I was scared of my brother long before I ever met you.”
Ruiz returned to Daniel with a second discovery.
Rourke’s garage contained traces of the same industrial adhesive used in the hidden wall.
“And one more thing,” Ruiz said. “We pulled his deleted calls. Grant contacted him the day your father died.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
His phone buzzed.
A text from an unknown number.
A photograph loaded.
It showed Lily standing outside her elementary school six weeks earlier, taken from across the street.
Under it was one sentence:
ASK SARAH WHAT SHE DID WITH THE SECOND COPY.
Daniel looked toward the hotel room where Sarah waited.
May you like
He realized Grant believed the flash drive wasn’t the only evidence.
And suddenly Daniel wasn’t sure Sarah had told him everything.
