Chapter 9 - Sarah’s Second Secret
Daniel closed the hotel-room door behind him.
Sarah sat at the table with a cup of coffee she hadn’t touched.
“What second copy?” he asked.
Her eyes lifted to his phone.
She didn’t pretend not to understand.
“Daniel—”
“What second copy?”
Lily was in the adjoining room with a state trooper and a movie turned up loud. Daniel kept his voice low anyway.
Sarah rubbed both hands over her face.
“The flash drive was insurance. The real evidence was a recording.”
“Of Grant?”
“And Rourke.”
She explained that three years earlier she had followed Grant to a closed construction site after discovering strange transfers. She heard him arguing with Rourke about money, forged contracts, and “the old man.” She recorded part of the conversation on her phone.
“Your father?” Daniel asked.
“I thought so.”
“Where’s the recording?”
“I mailed it.”
“To who?”
Sarah looked him in the eye.
“To your father’s attorney, Evelyn Price.”
Daniel knew Evelyn. She had handled the Mercer family trust for decades.
“Why didn’t she come forward?”
“I never knew if she received it. Grant grabbed me before I could check.”
Ruiz called Evelyn immediately.
The attorney answered from her office downtown. When Ruiz mentioned Sarah, there was a long silence.
Then Evelyn said, “You need to come here. Now.”
Police escorted Daniel and Sarah while Lily remained at the protected hotel.
Evelyn Price was seventy-two, sharp-eyed and normally impossible to rattle. Today her hands shook.
“I received the envelope,” she said.
Daniel leaned forward. “And you said nothing?”
“I opened it the morning after Sarah vanished. Inside was a memory card and a note telling me not to trust Grant Cole.”
“Where is it?”
Evelyn walked to an old painting behind her desk and revealed a wall safe.
“I kept it because Robert Mercer asked me years ago to preserve anything involving Grant.”
She entered the combination.
The safe door swung open.
Evelyn stopped.
The shelves were empty.
“No,” she whispered.
A cold draft moved through the office.
Daniel turned.
The window behind the conference table was open.
Then Sarah pointed at Evelyn’s desk.
May you like
A black watch lay beside the phone.
Grant’s watch.
