Chapter 6 - THE SECOND RECORDING
“DAD… WHO WAS MOM TALKING ABOUT?”
Daniel Mercer didn’t answer.
He stood beside Sarah’s grave with the phone trembling in his hand.
The twelve-second video had ended, but his dead wife’s frightened face remained frozen on the screen.
Behind him, the cemetery stretched beneath a gray California sky. White roses rested against Sarah’s headstone. A cold wind moved through the cypress trees, carrying the smell of rain.
Lily stepped closer.
“Dad?”
Daniel finally looked at his nine-year-old daughter.
He wanted to lie.
For once, he wanted to give her the comforting answer instead of the truthful one.
“I don’t know.”
Lily studied his face.
“But Uncle Mateo knows.”
Daniel looked sharply at her.
“Don’t call him Uncle Mateo.”
“Elena does.”
“That’s different.”
“Why?”
Daniel exhaled.
Because Mateo Ruiz was supposed to be dead.
Because a man believed missing for four years had just called Daniel from an unknown location.
Because Mateo had told him that Evelyn, Michael, and Vanessa were only pieces of something much larger.
And because Sarah’s final message had contained one sentence Daniel could not stop hearing.
The person behind everything is someone he trusts more than his own family.
Who?
Detective Sloan?
A longtime friend?
Someone inside Mercer Development?
Daniel’s thoughts moved faster than he could control.
Then Lily pointed toward the screen.
“Can you play it again?”
“No.”
“Dad—”
“No, Lily.”
His voice came out too sharply.
Her face fell.
Daniel immediately regretted it.
He crouched in front of her.
“I’m sorry.”
“I’m not scared.”
“I am.”
That surprised her.
Daniel took her hands.
“I’m scared because people have been lying to us for years. Every time I think I know who I can trust, something changes.”
Lily looked toward Sarah’s grave.
“Mom trusted Elena.”
“Yes.”
“And Elena trusted Mateo.”
Daniel nodded slowly.
“So maybe we should find him.”
A black sedan stopped beyond the cemetery gates.
Daniel immediately stood.
Detective Rachel Sloan stepped out.
Daniel felt an unexpected wave of relief.
Then Sarah’s warning returned.
Someone he trusts more than his own family.
Sloan approached.
“What happened?”
Daniel showed her the video.
She watched it without speaking.
When it ended, her expression remained controlled.
“Where did this come from?”
“Unknown number.”
“Mateo?”
“Probably.”
“You spoke to him?”
Daniel hesitated.
Sloan noticed.
“That wasn’t a difficult question.”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Five minutes ago.”
“What did he say?”
Daniel told her.
Not everything.
He omitted Mateo’s exact warning.
He didn’t know why.
Maybe instinct.
Maybe paranoia.
Maybe because Sarah had died after trusting the wrong person.
Sloan handed the phone back.
“We need to trace the number.”
“It’ll be disposable.”
“Probably.”
She looked at Lily.
“Your daughter shouldn’t be involved in this.”
Daniel’s expression hardened.
“She became involved when people started lying to her about her mother’s death.”
“That doesn’t mean she belongs in an active investigation.”
Lily quietly said, “Everybody keeps saying that.”
Sloan looked at her.
“What?”
“That I shouldn’t be involved.”
Lily’s voice trembled.
“But they were talking about me before I even knew there was an investigation.”
Nobody answered.
Daniel put an arm around her.
Sloan finally said, “Take her home.”
“No.”
Daniel surprised himself.
“Not the Malibu house.”
“Why?”
“Because if Mateo knew where I was five minutes ago, somebody else might know too.”
Sloan nodded.
“I’ll arrange a safe location.”
Daniel studied her.
“Who knows where those locations are?”
Her eyes narrowed.
“What are you asking?”
“Nothing.”
“That sounded like something.”
Daniel put his phone away.
“I’m tired of assuming.”
For the first time since they met, Detective Sloan looked offended.
Then her expression softened.
“Good.”
Daniel frowned.
She stepped closer.
“Stop assuming anyone is safe, including me.”
The words chilled him.
“What do you know?”
“Not enough.”
“Rachel.”
It was the first time he had used her first name.
Sloan glanced toward Lily.
“Not here.”
Thirty minutes later, they were inside an unmarked police vehicle while Lily waited with a female officer nearby.
Sloan opened a folder.
“After Evelyn’s arrest, I reopened everything connected to Sarah’s crash.”
She placed an old police photograph in front of Daniel.
Sarah’s wrecked car.
Daniel looked away instinctively.
“I’ve seen this.”
“Look again.”
“I don’t want to.”
“You need to.”
Daniel forced himself.
Sloan pointed toward the guardrail.
“What do you see?”
“Nothing.”
“Exactly.”
She placed another photograph beside it.
Same location.
Different angle.
A small roadside camera was mounted on a utility pole.
Daniel stared.
“That camera wasn’t mentioned in the report.”
“No.”
“Was it working?”
“Yes.”
Daniel’s heart began pounding.
“Then where is the footage?”
“Deleted.”
“By Michael?”
Sloan shook her head.
“Michael didn’t have access.”
“Evelyn?”
“No.”
“Who did?”
Sloan slid a document toward him.
Daniel read the name.
Then read it again.
CAPTAIN ROBERT HALE.
Daniel frowned.
“Hale?”
Sloan nodded.
“Vanessa’s father.”
Daniel stared.
“Vanessa told me her father died when she was a teenager.”
“He did.”
“When?”
Sloan met his eyes.
“Six months after Sarah’s crash.”
Daniel felt something tighten in his chest.
“Why would a police captain delete traffic footage?”
“That’s what I’ve been trying to determine.”
Daniel looked through the window toward Lily.
Then something occurred to him.
“Vanessa said Evelyn paid her brother’s medical bills.”
“Yes.”
“What if Evelyn wasn’t controlling Vanessa because of her brother?”
Sloan understood immediately.
“What if it was her father?”
Daniel nodded.
Sloan pulled another document.
“Robert Hale investigated Mercer Development fourteen years ago.”
Daniel stared.
“For what?”
“Money laundering.”
“What happened?”
“Case disappeared.”
“Who closed it?”
“District attorney’s office.”
“Name?”
Sloan didn’t answer immediately.
Daniel noticed.
“Who?”
She looked directly at him.
“Thomas Reed.”
Daniel’s blood went cold.
“No.”
“Daniel—”
“No.”
Thomas Reed wasn’t family.
He was something older.
Daniel’s father had met Reed at Stanford.
Reed had been at Daniel’s graduation.
At his wedding.
At Sarah’s funeral.
He had held Lily when she was born.
After Daniel’s father died, Reed became the man Daniel called whenever he needed advice.
His godfather.
The man Daniel trusted more than anyone alive.
More than Michael.
More than Evelyn.
Perhaps, once, even more than Sarah.
Daniel remembered the video.
Sarah’s terrified face.
Someone he trusts more than his own family.
“No.”
Sloan spoke quietly.
“Reed became California Attorney General six years ago.”
Daniel stared at her.
“You’re telling me the Attorney General may be involved?”
“I’m telling you his name keeps appearing whenever evidence disappears.”
Daniel stood.
“I need to talk to him.”
“Absolutely not.”
“He’ll know I’m suspicious.”
“Not if we’re careful.”
“He knows me.”
“That’s exactly why you don’t contact him.”
Daniel’s phone buzzed.
Both looked down.
A text.
From Thomas Reed.
Daniel stopped breathing.
Danny, I heard about Evelyn. I’m so sorry. We need to talk. Come by tonight. Alone.
Sloan read it.
“Don’t answer.”
Another message arrived.
And Daniel… don’t bring Detective Sloan.
Daniel slowly looked at her.
Sloan’s face changed.
“How does he know I’m here?”
Neither spoke.
Then Daniel’s phone rang.
Thomas Reed.
Daniel answered.
“Hello?”
The familiar voice was warm.
Almost fatherly.
“Danny.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
For thirty years, that voice had meant safety.
Now it sounded different.
“I imagine you have questions.”
Daniel stared at Sloan.
“Yes.”
“I have answers.”
“About Sarah?”
A pause.
Then Reed said something that made Daniel’s entire body go cold.
“I told her not to make that recording.”
Daniel couldn’t breathe.
“What did you say?”
But Reed had already disconnected.
A second later, another message appeared.
An address.
Not Reed’s house.
Not his office.
Daniel recognized it immediately.
The abandoned Mercer family estate in Bel Air.
The home where Daniel had grown up.
Beneath the address were four words.
BRING SARAH’S FLASH DRIVE.
Daniel looked at Sloan.
She shook her head.
“It’s a trap.”
Daniel stared at the message.
“Yes.”
“Then you’re not going.”
He looked toward Lily.
Toward Sarah’s daughter.
Toward the child who had already spent three years living inside the consequences of adults’ secrets.
Daniel put the phone in his pocket.
“Yes, I am.”
The old Mercer estate had been empty for seven years.
Daniel arrived shortly before midnight.
He wasn’t alone.
Sloan’s tactical team remained several blocks away.
Daniel carried a duplicate flash drive.
The original was locked inside police evidence storage.
At least, that was what Sloan had told him.
The front doors were unlocked.
Daniel entered.
Dust covered the marble foyer.
His childhood home smelled abandoned.
“Thomas?”
No answer.
He walked deeper.
A light appeared beneath the library door.
Daniel pushed it open.
Nobody.
Only a projector.
And a chair.
The projector suddenly turned on.
Sarah appeared on the wall.
Daniel froze.
This wasn’t the twelve-second recording.
It was another video.
The second recording.
Sarah looked directly into the camera.
“Daniel, if you’re watching this, Thomas knows I found out.”
Daniel’s knees nearly gave way.
Sarah continued.
“Your father didn’t build the Mercer network.”
A sound came from behind Daniel.
He turned.
The library door closed.
Locked.
Onscreen, Sarah whispered:
“Thomas Reed did.”
Then the lights went out.
Daniel heard footsteps in the darkness.
And a man’s voice spoke behind him.
“You were always supposed to inherit the company, Danny.”
Daniel turned slowly.
May you like
Thomas Reed stepped into the projector’s pale light.
“But you were never supposed to discover what the company was really built for.”
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