Chapter 2 - The Man Behind the Number
Lucy looked instinctively toward the house.
“Outside.”
“Outside where?”
“My house.”
Margaret shook her head.
“Not anymore,” she whispered bitterly.
Lucy’s voice trembled.
“Vanessa kicked us out.”
The man on the phone stopped breathing for half a second.
“What?”
“She said Dad is dead and the house belongs to her.”
This time the silence felt different.
Cold.
Controlled.
“Lucy, listen carefully. Is Vanessa near you?”
“She’s inside.”
“Do not go back in.”
Margaret frowned.
“Who is he?”
Lucy covered the phone.
“Elias Grant.”
Margaret’s face changed.
Lucy noticed immediately.
“You know him?”
Before Margaret could answer, Elias spoke again.
“Lucy?”
“Yes.”
“Are you with your grandmother?”
“Yes.”
“Put me on speaker.”
Lucy did.
Margaret stared at the phone.
“Margaret,” Elias said.
She went pale.
“I haven’t heard your voice in almost two years.”
“I know.”
“Daniel told me you stole from him.”
Lucy looked between her grandmother and the phone.
Elias answered quietly.
“Daniel was wrong.”
Margaret closed her eyes.
“And he found that out before he died.”
The Halloween noise around them seemed to disappear.
Margaret sat straighter.
“What are you talking about?”
“I can explain. But not on the front porch.”
Elias asked for the name of a nearby twenty-four-hour diner.
Margaret told him.
“I’ll meet you there.”
“Why should I trust you?”
“You shouldn’t,” Elias said.
That answer surprised both of them.
“Not yet. Trust Daniel instead. He gave Lucy my number for a reason.”
Margaret looked toward the closed door.
“What reason?”
Elias hesitated.
“Because Daniel believed something would happen after his death.”
Lucy’s skin prickled.
“What?”
“Exactly what happened tonight.”
Twenty minutes later, Lucy and Margaret sat in a corner booth at Miller’s Diner.
Their suitcase stood beside them.
Margaret had ordered tea she did not drink.
Lucy had hot chocolate she had barely touched.
At 9:17 p.m., a tall man in a dark jacket walked through the door.
He looked around.
When he saw Lucy, he stopped.
His expression softened.
“You have Daniel’s eyes.”
Margaret immediately stood.
“Don’t.”
Elias nodded.
“Fair.”
He sat across from them.
Lucy studied him.
He looked like someone who had not slept properly in a long time.
“Who are you?”
“Your father’s friend.”
“Grandma said Dad thought you stole from him.”
“He did.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
Margaret folded her arms.
“Then why did he fire you?”
Elias looked at Lucy before answering.
“I was chief financial officer of your father’s company for eleven years. About eighteen months ago, I found payments I couldn’t explain.”
“What payments?”
“Large ones.”
Margaret leaned forward.
“To whom?”
“A company called Ashmere Design Group.”
Lucy understood almost none of that.
But she understood Elias’s next words.
“I believed Vanessa was involved.”
Margaret stared at him.
“I warned Daniel. Vanessa convinced him I was trying to destroy their marriage.”
“And Daniel believed her.”
“For a while.”
Pain passed across Elias’s face.
“Daniel fired me.”
Lucy looked down.
“My dad wouldn’t do that.”
“Your dad loved people deeply,” Elias said. “Sometimes that made him too slow to believe they were lying to him.”
Margaret said nothing.
“Six weeks ago,” Elias continued, “Daniel called me.”
Margaret’s eyes lifted.
“He apologized.”
Lucy swallowed.
“For what?”
“For not believing me.”
Elias reached into his coat.
Margaret stiffened.
He slowly placed an envelope on the table.
Daniel Mercer’s handwriting was across the front.
FOR ELIAS — ONLY IF LUCY CALLS.
Lucy stopped breathing.
“When did he give you that?”
“Three weeks ago.”
“You already had something from Dad?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you come find us?”
“Because Daniel made me promise not to open it unless you called.”
Margaret stared at him.
“That is insane.”
“I told him the same thing.”
Lucy touched the envelope.
“Did you open it?”
“Five minutes after your phone call.”
“What does it say?”
Elias slid it toward Margaret.
Inside was one sheet.
Margaret read silently.
Her hand began shaking.
Lucy leaned closer.
The letter was short.
Elias—
If Lucy calls you, it means I was right to worry.
Help my mother protect her.
Do not let Vanessa pressure either of them into signing anything.
Contact Rachel Benton.
And above all, tell Margaret the truth about the house.
—Daniel
Lucy looked up.
“The truth about what?”
Elias turned toward her.
Then toward Margaret.
“Vanessa told you the house belongs to her.”
Margaret nodded.
“It doesn’t.”
A cold feeling moved through Lucy’s chest.
Elias leaned forward.
May you like
“And Daniel knew she might try to take it.”
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