Chapter 7 - THE GODFATHER Daniel stared at the man he had called Uncle Thomas since childhood.
Thomas Reed was sixty-eight now, silver-haired, composed, and dressed in the same dark tailored suits Daniel remembered from courthouse steps and family Christmas dinners.
He looked exactly like the man America saw on television.
Calm.
Measured.
Respectable.
That frightened Daniel more than anger would have.
“You knew Sarah was investigating you.”
Thomas sighed.
“Sarah was intelligent.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
“She was also reckless.”
Daniel stepped toward him.
“Don’t talk about my wife like that.”
“Then don’t ask questions you aren’t prepared to hear answered.”
Daniel’s fists tightened.
Thomas looked at them.
“Are you going to hit me?”
“I haven’t decided.”
“You won’t.”
“You sound confident.”
“I know you.”
Daniel laughed once.
“No. Apparently you don’t.”
Thomas smiled sadly.
“That’s what Sarah said.”
The sentence hit Daniel harder than expected.
“What did you do to her?”
“I didn’t kill Sarah.”
“Michael did.”
“Yes.”
“Because of you?”
Thomas looked toward the frozen image of Sarah on the wall.
“Michael panicked.”
“You keep saying that like panic absolves murder.”
“It explains stupidity.”
Daniel stepped closer.
“Did you order him to stop her?”
“I told Evelyn the situation needed containment.”
“Containment.”
“Yes.”
“She was my wife.”
“And she was about to destroy hundreds of lives.”
Daniel stared.
“No. She was about to expose criminals.”
Thomas’s expression hardened.
“The world is more complicated than Sarah believed.”
“That’s what cowards say when truth becomes inconvenient.”
Thomas smiled faintly.
“There you are.”
“What?”
“Your father.”
Daniel’s face changed.
“Don’t compare me to him.”
“I’m not insulting you.”
“You should be.”
Thomas walked toward an old drinks cabinet.
He poured bourbon.
Daniel watched.
“You’re remarkably calm for someone confessing to conspiracy.”
Thomas took a drink.
“I haven’t confessed to anything.”
“Sarah’s recording exists.”
“And yet you brought it to me.”
Daniel touched his jacket.
Thomas smiled.
“You think I believe that’s the original?”
Daniel said nothing.
“I taught you better than that.”
“Maybe that’s your problem.”
“What?”
“You still think I’m the boy who needed your approval.”
Thomas’s smile disappeared.
Daniel continued.
“My father trusted you.”
“Yes.”
“My mother trusted you.”
“Yes.”
“Michael worked for you.”
Thomas didn’t answer.
“And Vanessa’s father?”
Silence.
Daniel moved closer.
“Captain Robert Hale.”
Thomas placed his glass down.
“He was an unfortunate man.”
“He deleted the traffic footage.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To protect Vanessa.”
Daniel frowned.
Thomas smiled.
“Still missing pieces.”
“Then explain them.”
“Robert Hale discovered what Mercer Development was doing. Like Sarah, he thought truth was a simple thing.”
“What happened?”
“He attempted to expose us.”
“And you threatened Vanessa?”
“No.”
“Her brother?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
Thomas’s expression became almost sympathetic.
“Robert was stealing too.”
Daniel stopped.
Thomas continued.
“Not much at first. Evidence money. Seized assets. Then larger amounts.”
“You blackmailed him.”
“I gave him a choice.”
“You own a lot of people by giving them choices.”
“That is how power works.”
“No. That’s how fear works.”
Thomas studied him.
“Your father understood the difference.”
“My father was a criminal.”
“Your father was practical.”
“And Sarah?”
Thomas’s jaw tightened.
“Sarah was neither.”
Daniel wanted to attack him.
He could feel every muscle demanding it.
But Sloan had warned him.
Keep him talking.
Get evidence.
Stay alive.
“Where’s Mateo?”
Thomas’s expression changed.
Only slightly.
Daniel saw it.
“You know he’s alive.”
“I know many things.”
“Where is he?”
“You should ask Elena.”
“She thinks he disappeared.”
“Does she?”
Daniel froze.
“What does that mean?”
Thomas walked toward the projector.
“Did you ever wonder how Elena entered your household so easily?”
“She applied for a job.”
“And passed one of the most extensive private security screenings in California.”
Daniel said nothing.
“Her employment history was fabricated.”
“I know.”
“Yet your security team found nothing.”
Daniel’s stomach tightened.
“Someone helped her.”
Thomas nodded.
“Who?”
Thomas looked toward Sarah’s image.
“Mateo.”
Daniel shook his head.
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“It will.”
The projector changed.
Another video appeared.
Security footage.
Daniel recognized his Malibu house.
Timestamp:
FOUR YEARS EARLIER.
Before Sarah died.
Elena stood at the back entrance.
Beside her was Mateo.
And Sarah.
Daniel stared.
Sarah handed Mateo an envelope.
Then—
a fourth person entered the frame.
Detective Rachel Sloan.
Daniel stopped breathing.
“No.”
Thomas smiled.
“There’s your detective.”
Daniel stared at the footage.
Sloan looked younger, but it was unmistakably her.
She spoke with Sarah.
Then embraced her.
“What is this?”
“Ask Rachel.”
“She said she reopened Sarah’s case.”
“She never told you she knew Sarah?”
Daniel felt betrayed again.
“How?”
“Rachel Sloan was Sarah’s college roommate.”
Daniel looked at Thomas.
“That proves nothing.”
“No.”
Thomas nodded.
“But this might.”
Another recording.
Sloan’s voice.
Sarah, stop digging. If Reed finds out what you have, I can’t protect you.
Daniel’s face drained.
Thomas watched him carefully.
“Interesting, isn’t it?”
Daniel’s phone vibrated inside his pocket.
A silent signal.
Sloan.
The tactical team was ready.
Daniel ignored it.
He needed answers.
“Why didn’t she tell me?”
“Perhaps she had something to hide.”
“Or perhaps you’re manipulating evidence.”
“Possible.”
Thomas smiled.
“But you don’t believe that.”
Daniel hated that Thomas was right.
Doubt had already entered.
And doubt was enough.
“Where is Mateo?”
Thomas walked toward him.
“Mateo knows where the real ledger is.”
“What ledger?”
“The record your father kept.”
“Of what?”
“Everyone.”
Daniel frowned.
“Politicians. Judges. Police officers. Developers. Bankers.”
Thomas’s voice lowered.
“Thirty years of payments.”
Daniel understood.
“That could destroy you.”
“It could destroy far more than me.”
“That’s why Sarah died.”
“No.”
Thomas stepped closer.
“That’s why everyone around Sarah started dying.”
Daniel’s pulse hammered.
“Everyone?”
“Robert Hale.”
Daniel stared.
“Mateo.”
“He’s alive.”
“Barely.”
“What does that mean?”
Thomas didn’t answer.
Daniel heard movement outside.
Thomas heard it too.
His expression changed.
“You brought police.”
Daniel smiled coldly.
“You taught me better than that.”
Thomas suddenly pulled a pistol.
“DOWN!”
The library windows shattered.
Police entered.
Daniel dropped behind a table.
“POLICE! DROP THE WEAPON!”
Thomas fired once.
Chaos exploded.
Daniel crawled toward the door.
Another shot.
Then silence.
“Clear!”
Daniel looked up.
Thomas was gone.
A hidden panel behind the bookshelves stood open.
Sloan rushed inside.
“Daniel!”
He stared at her.
Not relief.
Not trust.
Something else.
She noticed.
“What?”
Daniel stood slowly.
“You knew Sarah.”
Sloan froze.
That was enough.
Daniel’s voice dropped.
“You knew my wife before she died.”
“Daniel—”
“You were here.”
“Listen to me.”
“You lied.”
“I omitted something because—”
“Because what?”
Sloan’s eyes filled with frustration.
“Because Sarah made me promise!”
Daniel stared.
“She knew Reed was dirty.”
“Yes.”
“And you knew?”
“I suspected.”
“You told her to stop investigating.”
“To keep her alive!”
Daniel laughed bitterly.
“That worked well.”
Sloan flinched.
Daniel immediately regretted it.
But the damage remained.
Sloan looked away.
“Sarah called me the night she died.”
Daniel froze.
“What?”
“I didn’t answer.”
The room went silent.
Sloan’s voice broke.
“I was working a homicide. I saw her call. I thought I’d call back.”
Daniel couldn’t speak.
“When I did, she was already dead.”
Daniel looked at her.
For the first time, he understood why Sloan had taken the case personally.
They had been carrying different versions of the same guilt.
Sloan wiped her eyes.
“There’s something else.”
Daniel almost laughed.
“There always is.”
“Sarah left me a voicemail.”
“Where is it?”
“I deleted it.”
Daniel stared.
“You WHAT?”
“Because she told me to.”
“Why?”
Sloan looked toward the hidden passage.
“Because the message named the location of the Mercer ledger.”
Daniel stopped.
“Do you remember it?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
Sloan looked directly at him.
“Your house.”
Daniel frowned.
“The Malibu house?”
“No.”
“The old estate?”
Sloan shook her head.
Then Daniel understood.
His childhood lake house.
The one place nobody had searched.
The one place Lily was being taken for protection that very night.
Daniel grabbed his phone.
“Where’s Lily?”
Sloan’s face drained.
Daniel called the officer assigned to her.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Then a text arrived from Lily’s phone.
A photograph.
Lily sitting inside the lake house.
Behind her stood a man.
Alive.
Bearded.
Thin.
Terrified.
Mateo Ruiz.
May you like
And beneath the photograph:
COME ALONE OR THE GIRL LEARNS WHAT HER MOTHER REALLY DID.
