Chapter 4 - THE BROTHER WHO KNEW TOO MUCH
Marcus Mercer had always been easier to dislike than Daniel.
Even as children.
Daniel had been quiet.
Marcus had been loud.
Daniel apologized when he broke something.
Marcus explained why technically it had already been unstable.
Daniel hated conflict.
Marcus seemed to collect it.
But there was one thing Marcus had never been.
A coward.
That made the blood in his car worse.
Daniel stood in the parking garage staring through the open driver’s door.
Dark streaks covered the tan leather.
Moreno stopped him from touching anything.
“Could be less blood than it looks like.”
“That sentence does not help.”
“It isn’t supposed to help.”
“It’s supposed to be accurate.”
Daniel looked at the windshield.
YOUR BROTHER REMEMBERED TOO LATE.
“What did he remember?”
Moreno asked.
Daniel thought of the ring.
Anna had stayed with Lily under police protection at a temporary apartment Garcia owned above the diner.
Daniel had wanted them farther away.
Anna refused to run.
Again.
“I think it’s connected to Anna’s wedding ring.”
Moreno turned.
“What about it?”
Daniel explained.
Marcus had known Anna thought she lost it.
Jennifer somehow returned it.
Jennifer claimed Marcus gave it to Victor.
Moreno frowned.
“So your brother may have supplied an object later used to falsely identify Anna’s remains.”
Daniel stared at the blood.
“Yes.”
“That is not proof he knew why.”
“I know.”
“You don’t sound like you know.”
Daniel shoved his hands into his coat pockets.
“I want him innocent.”
“That’s reasonable.”
“I also want the truth.”
“That’s useful.”
Moreno examined the car.
A technician found Marcus’s phone under the passenger seat.
Screen shattered.
They cloned it.
The latest messages appeared.
Most were ordinary.
Board matters.
Staff.
A dinner reservation.
Then a message from an unknown number at 2:12 PM.
SHE’S ALIVE.
Marcus replied:
WHO IS THIS?
A photograph arrived.
Anna leaving Rosewood Diner three days earlier.
Marcus:
WHERE DID YOU GET THIS?
Unknown:
YOU ALWAYS WERE SLOWER THAN DANIEL.
Marcus:
VICTOR?
No response.
Then, one hour later:
COME ALONE IF YOU WANT TO KEEP HIM FROM FINDING HER.
Marcus answered:
WHERE?
The location was an abandoned rail depot near the river.
Daniel looked at Moreno.
“We go.”
“You stay.”
“No.”
“Daniel.”
“That is my brother.”
“And you are currently the center of this investigation.”
Daniel stepped closer.
“I’ve spent seven years letting other people tell me what happened to my family.”
“I’m done.”
Moreno studied him.
Then sighed.
“You ride with me.”
The depot smelled of rust and wet concrete.
Police cleared it first.
No Marcus.
No Victor.
But they found a chair.
Rope.
Blood.
And a camera on a tripod.
Moreno pressed playback.
Marcus appeared bound to the chair.
Time stamp: ninety minutes earlier.
His face was bruised.
Someone behind the camera spoke.
Victor’s voice.
“Tell your brother.”
Marcus looked into the lens.
“Daniel.”
He coughed.
“If you see this, listen before you decide I’m guilty.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
Marcus continued.
“Anna’s ring.”
“I gave it to Victor.”
Daniel felt the room narrow.
“Three days before the crash.”
Marcus looked ashamed.
“He told me he was reviewing a security issue.”
“He said he needed something with Anna’s fingerprints and DNA.”
“I thought he was trying to identify who had accessed restricted files.”
Moreno paused.
“Security issue?”
Daniel answered.
“Marcus oversaw corporate security then.”
She resumed.
Marcus continued.
“I didn’t know they planned to stage anything.”
“I swear.”
“But I knew Victor was following Jennifer.”
“I knew there was something wrong.”
“And I did nothing because I was afraid the board would find out how badly I had screwed up.”
Daniel stared.
Marcus swallowed.
“The money Anna found was real.”
“I thought Jennifer was stealing it.”
“She wasn’t.”
“Victor was.”
Daniel’s eyes narrowed.
Marcus continued.
“He was using fake vendor accounts.”
“Fake relocation services.”
“Fake employee protection contracts.”
“I confronted Jennifer instead of Victor.”
“Biggest mistake of my life.”
“She tried to tell me he was dangerous.”
“I didn’t believe her.”
“Then she disappeared.”
Marcus looked toward someone off camera.
Victor said, “Tell him the rest.”
Marcus closed his eyes.
Daniel whispered, “What rest?”
Marcus opened his eyes.
“After Anna’s funeral, I found Jennifer’s laptop.”
Daniel stopped breathing.
“She had copied everything.”
“Payments.”
“Names.”
“Victor’s accounts.”
“I also found a video of Anna at the gas station.”
“Alive.”
Daniel stepped closer to the screen.
“When?”
Marcus’s recorded voice answered as if he could hear.
“Two years after the crash.”
Daniel stared.
Moreno looked at him.
Marcus continued.
“I didn’t know where she was.”
“The video had no timestamp I could verify.”
“I thought maybe it was from before the crash.”
“But I hired someone.”
“Thomas Reed.”
Daniel recognized the name.
His mother’s private investigator.
Marcus’s voice broke.
“Reed found Anna.”
Daniel felt rage hit him like heat.
“He told me she had a child.”
“A daughter.”
“I knew she might be yours.”
Daniel whispered, “You knew.”
Marcus looked directly into the camera.
“I knew there was a chance.”
Daniel punched the concrete pillar beside him.
Moreno grabbed his arm.
The video continued.
“I wanted to tell you.”
“Victor sent me a photograph of you leaving your apartment.”
“There was a rifle scope drawn over your chest.”
“He said if I contacted Anna or told you, he would kill both of you.”
“I believed him.”
Daniel’s eyes burned.
Marcus lowered his head.
“I was a coward.”
“I told myself silence kept you alive.”
“For five years.”
Daniel stared.
Five years.
His brother knew.
Maybe not everything.
But enough.
The camera shook.
Victor stepped partly into frame.
Scar visible.
“You forgot something.”
Marcus looked at him with hatred.
Victor leaned closer.
“Tell Daniel what Jennifer gave Anna.”
Marcus said nothing.
Victor struck him.
Daniel flinched.
Marcus spat blood.
Then whispered:
“A red folder.”
Daniel’s chest tightened.
“What was in it?”
Victor asked.
Marcus laughed weakly.
“If I knew, you wouldn’t still be looking.”
The video ended.
Moreno stared at the black screen.
Daniel’s hands shook.
He did not know whether he wanted to rescue Marcus or hit him.
Both felt honest.
An officer shouted from the far end of the depot.
They found Marcus in a maintenance tunnel.
Alive.
Conscious.
His left arm dislocated.
Two broken ribs.
No life-threatening injuries.
Daniel stood outside the ambulance.
Marcus looked at him.
“Danny.”
Daniel punched him.
Not hard enough to injure.
Hard enough to mean something.
Marcus took it.
“Fair.”
Daniel grabbed his jacket.
“You knew my daughter existed.”
“I knew there was a kid.”
“You knew she might be mine.”
“Yes.”
“For five years.”
Marcus’s eyes filled.
“Yes.”
Daniel shoved him back.
Marcus winced from his ribs.
“I’m sorry.”
“You don’t get that sentence yet.”
Marcus nodded.
“I know.”
Moreno stepped closer.
“Victor let you live.”
Marcus looked at her.
“He wants the folder.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“Who else knew?”
Marcus’s gaze shifted.
“Adrian Voss.”
Daniel froze.
“You told Voss?”
“No.”
“He told me.”
“When?”
“The day after Anna’s funeral.”
Daniel stared.
“What did he say?”
“That Victor was dangerous.”
“That there were things in the company we didn’t understand.”
“He told me not to look.”
“So you looked.”
“Obviously.”
Despite everything, that sounded like Marcus.
“What did you find?”
Marcus swallowed.
“A private account.”
“Controlled by Voss.”
“Money flowed through it before reaching Victor’s shell companies.”
Daniel’s anger cooled into dread.
“So Voss was paying Victor.”
“Yes.”
“For what?”
“Officially?”
“Security.”
“Unofficially?”
Marcus looked at Anna’s photograph on Daniel’s phone.
“I think Voss paid Victor to scare people.”
“Maybe relocate them.”
“Maybe worse.”
Daniel asked, “Did Voss order Anna’s disappearance?”
“I never proved it.”
“But?”
Marcus looked at him.
“Anna’s death made one thing happen immediately.”
“What?”
“You transferred temporary voting control of your Mercer shares.”
Daniel went still.
“To you.”
Marcus nodded.
“You were sedated.”
“Barely functioning.”
“Voss brought documents.”
“He told you they were estate and insurance authorizations.”
Daniel remembered signing papers in the days after Anna’s funeral.
He had no idea what they were.
“How long did you have control?”
“Four years.”
“Why?”
“Because you never revoked it.”
Daniel stared.
“And who benefited?”
Marcus gave a humorless smile.
“Everybody assumes me.”
“You did.”
“Yes.”
“But Voss controlled the board.”
Daniel felt the pieces shifting.
Anna disappears.
Daniel collapses.
Marcus gains voting control.
Voss controls Marcus through fear and hidden information.
Victor operates enforcement.
But what was the purpose?
Money?
Power?
Covering Victor’s theft?
Or something Anna had found that was worse?
Moreno’s phone rang.
She answered.
Listened.
Then looked at Daniel.
“They got authorization for the exhumation.”
Daniel said nothing.
Marcus’s face changed.
“Anna’s grave?”
“Yes.”
The exhumation happened the next morning.
Anna refused to go.
Daniel did not blame her.
He stood beside Moreno under a gray sky.
The cemetery looked exactly as it had seven years earlier.
Wet grass.
Black umbrellas.
Cold wind.
Daniel hated that memory could recreate weather.
The casket came up.
He stepped back when it opened.
There were remains inside.
So someone had been buried.
A woman.
Approximately Anna’s age.
Similar height.
Severe fire damage.
The forensic pathologist collected DNA.
A bracelet remained around one wrist.
Partially burned.
Letters visible.
J.H.
Daniel stared.
“Jennifer Hale?”
Moreno looked at him.
“Possible.”
The DNA comparison took less than twenty-four hours.
It was Jennifer Hale.
Daniel sat across from Anna when Moreno told them.
Anna covered her mouth.
“She was in my car.”
Daniel nodded.
“They buried her as me.”
Anna’s eyes filled.
“She died because she tried to help me.”
“We don’t know that.”
“I remember her bleeding.”
“I remember her saying Victor found her.”
Daniel reached toward Anna.
Stopped before touching.
She noticed.
Then placed her hand into his.
For the first time since they reunited, she chose the contact.
Moreno continued.
“Jennifer’s autopsy shows something unexpected.”
Daniel looked up.
“What?”
“She did not die in the crash.”
Anna froze.
“How?”
“Her fatal injury was blunt-force trauma to the back of the skull.”
“Before the fire.”
“Before the vehicle went into the gorge.”
Daniel stared.
“Someone killed her first.”
Moreno nodded.
“And then staged the crash.”
Anna’s hand tightened around Daniel’s.
“There’s more.”
Moreno placed an evidence bag on the table.
Inside was a small metal key.
It had been recovered from Jennifer’s clothing.
A numbered tag hung from it.
317.
Anna stared.
Memory flashed across her face.
“I’ve seen that.”
Daniel turned.
“Where?”
Anna whispered:
“Jennifer gave me a key at the gas station.”
Moreno pointed at the bag.
“This key?”
Anna shook her head.
“No.”
“A different one.”
Daniel felt cold.
“What did she say?”
Anna closed her eyes.
Then remembered.
“She said…”
“If anything happens to me, don’t let Victor find locker 317.”
Moreno leaned forward.
“Locker where?”
Anna opened her eyes.
“I don’t know.”
Then Daniel’s phone buzzed.
A message from Marcus.
DON’T GO HOME.
May you like
VOSS KNOWS ABOUT 317.
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