Chapter 11 - The Man Daniel Called UncleWestbridge produced another empty room.
Kate had been moved again.
But investigators recovered clear evidence she had been there within forty-eight hours.
Juice boxes.
A blanket.
A paperback Daniel had read to her when she was seven.
And another photograph.
Not of Kate.
Of Robert Keene.
Daniel stared at it.
Robert had been his father’s closest friend.
Chairman of Mercer Residential.
Daniel had called him Uncle Robert as a child.
The photograph showed Robert entering the Westbridge garage three weeks earlier.
Maya placed the image down.
“You need to tell me everything about him.”
Daniel shook his head.
“No.”
“Daniel.”
“No. Robert helped me today.”
“Which gave him access to everything happening.”
Daniel looked sick.
Robert had comforted him after Emily’s death.
Had sat beside Daniel during Kate’s first police press conference.
Had accused Marcus of betrayal in the boardroom.
Maya asked, “Who recommended Marcus as CFO?”
Daniel knew the answer before she finished.
“Robert.”
They searched Robert’s office.
He was gone.
His assistant said he had left immediately after the board meeting.
Police issued another alert.
Inside his desk they found an old photograph.
Daniel’s father.
Robert.
Marcus.
Twenty years younger.
All three standing at the Maryland development site that had ruined Vanessa’s father.
Vanessa had believed Marcus recruited her to avenge her family.
But Marcus had not been the architect.
Robert had.
Maya visited Vanessa in custody.
Three hours later she returned.
“She didn’t know.”
Daniel laughed bitterly.
“Finally something she didn’t know.”
“Robert approached Marcus years before Vanessa entered the picture. He controlled the political payments Emily discovered.”
“So why destroy my family?”
“To preserve himself.”
Daniel looked at the recovered records.
Emily had almost exposed them.
After she died, Robert assumed the evidence had disappeared.
Then Kate found Vanessa and Marcus together.
Marcus panicked.
Vanessa panicked.
Robert turned their mistake into an opportunity.
With Kate gone, Daniel became unstable.
With Daniel unstable, Marcus could take the company.
With Marcus leading the company, Robert could complete the merger and bury decades of financial crimes inside a larger corporate structure.
Daniel felt nauseated.
“My daughter became useful.”
Maya nodded.
“That appears to be what happened.”
A detective entered carrying a recovered cellphone.
Robert’s.
Found in a trash bin near the interstate.
Deleted messages had been restored.
One was to Grant.
Move K before D finds the ledger.
Another:
If Marcus fails, use contingency property E17.
Maya searched property databases.
E17 was not an address.
But Daniel recognized it.
“Estate parcel seventeen.”
The Mercer family still owned dozens of undeveloped parcels.
Parcel seventeen lay outside Annapolis.
“What’s there?”
Daniel searched company archives.
His heart stopped.
“A school.”
Maya stared.
“What?”
“An abandoned boarding school.”
The company had acquired it for redevelopment eight years earlier.
Construction never began.
Three brick buildings stood on forty acres.
Police mobilized.
Before Daniel left, Vanessa’s lawyer requested that he speak to her.
Daniel almost refused.
Then agreed.
Vanessa sat behind thick glass in the detention center.
She looked smaller without the mansion around her.
“Robert,” Daniel said.
She nodded.
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t.”
“I should have told you earlier.”
“You should have never put Kate in that room.”
Vanessa looked down.
“Yes.”
For once, no excuse followed.
Daniel studied her.
“Did you ever love her?”
Vanessa began crying.
“That’s the worst part.”
“What?”
“I did.”
Daniel looked away.
“She trusted me.”
“I know.”
“She called you when she was scared.”
Vanessa nodded.
Daniel leaned toward the glass.
“If Kate is alive, you may someday get to apologize to her.”
Hope flickered across Vanessa’s face.
Daniel crushed it.
“She may never forgive you.”
Vanessa closed her eyes.
“I know.”
Daniel stood.
“Daniel.”
He paused.
“Robert always carried two phones.”
Daniel turned.
“The second one was never registered under his name. Marcus called it the chapel phone.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
Daniel thought of Emily’s chapel.
The brass bell.
Kate’s drawing.
Three sounds.
Something was connected.
“Anything else?”
Vanessa hesitated.
“Yes.”
“The night Kate disappeared, Robert came to the mansion.”
Daniel froze.
“He told police he was in New York.”
“He lied.”
“Why didn’t you tell anyone?”
“Because he was the person Marcus called when Kate caught us.”
May you like
Vanessa looked directly at Daniel.
“And because Robert was the one who said Kate could never be allowed to talk to you.”
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