Chapter 15 - Emily’s Last WitnessRachel Sutton answered on the fourth ring.
“Daniel?”
Her voice sounded stunned.
He had no time for apologies.
“Did Emily give you documents before she died?”
Silence.
“Rachel.”
“Where are you?”
“Driving toward Annapolis.”
Another silence.
Then:
“Yes.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“What did she give you?”
“Enough to put several people in prison.”
“Why didn’t you come forward?”
“She told me not to unless Robert moved against you or Kate.”
Daniel felt anger.
“He moved against us months ago.”
“I didn’t know.”
“Kate disappeared.”
“I believed the police theory that she ran away.”
“She’s nine.”
“I know.”
Rachel’s voice cracked.
“Daniel, Emily was terrified Robert would destroy the evidence and retaliate against Kate. She told me secrecy protected her.”
“It didn’t.”
“No.”
Maya leaned closer.
“Ask what Robert is afraid of.”
Daniel did.
Rachel hesitated.
“There’s a recording.”
“What recording?”
“Your father and Robert.”
Daniel said nothing.
Rachel continued.
“They discuss the Maryland development. Robert wanted to bankrupt the minority partners deliberately so Mercer could buy them out cheaply.”
Vanessa’s father.
It had not been ordinary business failure.
It had been engineered.
“Your father objected.”
Daniel frowned.
“But the ledger shows payments.”
“Your father participated in other illegal deals. He was no saint. But on Blackwater, Robert manipulated him too.”
Daniel absorbed that.
Robert had told Vanessa that the Mercer family destroyed her father.
Partly true.
But Robert had been the architect.
“He recruited Vanessa using his own crime as her reason for revenge.”
“Yes.”
Daniel looked toward the road.
Every person Robert controlled had been given a partial truth.
Marcus believed he was protecting old corruption.
Vanessa believed she was avenging her father.
Daniel believed Robert was his father’s loyal friend.
Kate had been told Daniel stopped looking.
Robert’s power depended on making people live inside incomplete stories.
“Where’s the recording?”
Rachel answered.
“Safe deposit box.”
“Can you send a copy?”
“I digitized it years ago.”
“Send it to Maya.”
Maya provided an address.
Within minutes the file arrived.
They played enough to confirm Robert’s voice.
Daniel’s father confronted him.
“You destroyed those families, Robert.”
Robert answered:
“We bought land at forty cents on the dollar. You benefited.”
“You told me financing collapsed naturally.”
“You believed what was convenient.”
Daniel stared forward.
The same accusation could have been aimed at him.
Rachel said, “Daniel, there’s more.”
“What?”
“Emily suspected Robert knew she was investigating him.”
Daniel tensed.
“Did he hurt her?”
“No.”
Rachel answered immediately.
“Emily died from cancer. Don’t let grief create another conspiracy.”
Daniel appreciated the bluntness.
“But she believed Robert planned to discredit her as mentally unstable if she survived long enough to expose him.”
The same strategy used against Daniel.
A family method.
Maya called federal agents at the marina.
Robert’s boat was still docked.
No one aboard.
Daniel’s phone rang again.
Robert.
“You found Rachel.”
It was not a question.
Daniel realized their calls were being monitored somehow.
“Where are you?”
“Closer than you think.”
Daniel looked around the car.
Robert laughed.
“You’re still following roads.”
The connection ended.
Maya stared toward Annapolis Harbor.
“Following roads…”
Daniel looked at the chart on her dashboard.
Waterways connected the old Mercer properties.
Robert had a second boat.
Not the sailboat.
A small service vessel registered to Mercer Foundation.
Its dock was not at the marina.
It was at Blackwater Point.
They had left it behind.
Daniel’s stomach dropped.
Robert had drawn them to Annapolis while returning toward Blackwater by water.
Again.
Maya radioed units.
But Daniel looked at the sunrise time.
Robert had said sunrise.
He did not mean departing at sunrise.
He meant something was scheduled to happen then.
“What is at Blackwater by sunrise?”
Maya searched.
Demolition.
A county permit had been issued.
At 6:30 a.m., contractors were scheduled to demolish the unfinished sales pavilion.
The same structure where Daniel had met Robert.
The same structure with an underground room.
Daniel checked the clock.
5:51.
If Kate was beneath it—
May you like
Daniel felt ice in his veins.
“Turn around.”
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