Chapter 13 - Raymond Is Alive
Claire put the call on speaker.
Detective Ortiz signaled everyone to remain quiet.
Ethan repeated the demand.
“Original trust. Midnight tomorrow. No police.”
Claire asked, “Where is Raymond?”
“Safe enough.”
“Let me speak to him.”
A pause.
Then a weak male voice.
“Melissa?”
Claire looked toward Ortiz.
“It’s Claire Mercer.”
Raymond coughed.
“Peter’s daughter.”
“Yes.”
“Don’t give him anything.”
A thud.
Raymond groaned.
Ethan returned.
“Midnight.”
The call ended.
Sophie covered her mouth.
“He’s alive.”
Ortiz immediately began tracing.
Daniel asked, “If Raymond has been alive two years, where has Ethan kept him?”
Margaret whispered, “Not Ethan.”
Claire looked at her.
“What?”
Margaret’s face showed realization.
“Victor.”
Ortiz frowned.
“Why?”
“Victor never kills problems if he can control them.”
Sophie stared.
“You say that like you know.”
“I do.”
Margaret finally admitted something she had avoided.
Years earlier, Victor had threatened to expose her trust theft if she stopped cooperating.
She had wanted out.
He refused.
“He told me everyone needs insurance.”
Claire understood.
“Raymond is insurance.”
“Yes.”
“If investigators ever came close, Victor could blame him.”
Margaret nodded.
“Or force him to testify falsely.”
Ortiz’s team traced the call to disposable routing.
No location.
But Raymond’s voice gave one clue.
A rhythmic metallic horn.
Daniel recognized it.
“Freight train.”
There were three freight corridors near Victor’s properties.
They mapped Hale holdings.
Warehouses.
Storage yards.
An old textile mill.
Claire recognized the name.
Mercer Textiles Plant Number Four.
Formerly owned by Charles.
Victor acquired it through one of the forged transfers.
Ortiz organized surveillance.
Claire wanted to go.
Absolutely not.
For once, she accepted being excluded.
At eleven that night, police surrounded the mill.
No Ethan.
But in a locked office behind the loading dock, they found Raymond Cole.
Alive.
Weak.
Malnourished.
Terrified.
He had not been imprisoned continuously for two years.
The truth was more complicated.
Ethan had coerced him into hiding.
Threatened Melissa.
Moved him between properties.
Forced him to maintain false financial records.
Raymond had occasionally been allowed outside under supervision.
Enough to avoid suspicion if seen.
Not enough to escape.
At the hospital, Raymond asked for Sophie.
“You look like Peter.”
Sophie cried.
“You knew my dad?”
“He saved my life.”
“How?”
“When I found the fraud, Victor wanted me blamed. Peter helped me copy the records.”
“Why didn’t you go to police?”
“I was a coward.”
Claire shook her head.
“You were threatened.”
Raymond looked at her.
“Fear explains choices. It doesn’t erase them.”
Claire thought of Daniel.
Margaret.
Peter.
Herself.
Raymond gave Ortiz a full statement.
Victor ordered the financial coercion.
Ethan enforced it.
But Raymond delivered another surprise.
“The fire wasn’t Ethan’s idea.”
Claire leaned forward.
“Whose?”
Raymond looked toward Margaret.
“Victor never uses fire.”
Margaret frowned.
“How do you know?”
“He hates uncontrolled damage.”
“Then who?”
Raymond hesitated.
“Someone wanted Hawthorne destroyed faster than Victor did.”
Silence.
“Who?”
Raymond whispered:
“Margaret.”
Everyone looked at her.
Margaret stood.
“That’s a lie.”
Raymond shook his head.
“Two weeks ago, I heard Ethan talking to someone on the phone. A woman.”
“You assume it was me.”
“He called her Margaret.”
Claire stared at her mother.
Margaret’s face went white.
Sophie backed away.
“You burned the porch?”
“No.”
“Did you order it?”
“No!”
Raymond added quietly, “The woman said, ‘If the house survives demolition hearings, make sure the papers don’t.’”
Margaret shook her head violently.
“I never said that.”
Ortiz watched her.
“Can anyone verify where you were during that call?”
Margaret’s voice broke.
“I don’t remember.”
Claire saw real panic.
But she also knew her mother had lied for eighteen years.
Then Margaret said something no one expected.
“There’s another Margaret.”
Daniel frowned.
“What?”
Margaret looked at Claire.
“Victor’s wife.”
Claire blinked.
“Her name is Margaret too?”
“No.”
Margaret swallowed.
“Her legal first name is Margaret.”
“What does everyone call her?”
Margaret whispered:
“Peggy.”
And Claire suddenly remembered a woman from childhood.
Peggy Hale.
Victor’s quiet wife.
Always present.
Always overlooked.
May you like
Margaret continued.
“She was Charles Mercer’s bookkeeper.”
