Chapter 2 - My Mother Knew Before She Died
Detective Brooks arrived at 1:17 the next morning.
Not in a police car.
Not wearing a badge where anyone could see it.
She came through the kitchen door wearing jeans and carrying groceries.
Rosa let her inside.
Victor had finally left forty minutes earlier.
Brooks sat across from me at my mother's kitchen table while I slid the flash drive toward her.
“Before you touch it,” I said, “I made three copies.”
Her eyebrows rose.
“Occupational habit?”
“Fraud investigator.”
For the first time that night, she smiled.
“Your godfather underestimated you.”
“I need to know whether I'm wrong.”
Brooks stopped smiling.
“I hope you are.”
We listened to the recording again.
My father's accusation.
Victor's warning.
Then another voice entered the conversation.
My mother's.
“You're finished, Victor.”
A chair scraped.
Victor replied calmly.
“You should both think about your daughter.”
My stomach turned.
Brooks paused the recording.
“He mentioned you specifically.”
“Yes.”
“Did your parents ever tell you they suspected him?”
“No.”
“Then they were protecting you.”
The financial records were worse.
Over eighteen months, money had disappeared from Hale Mercer Logistics through consulting companies that appeared legitimate.
They weren't.
I recognized the pattern immediately.
Layered invoices.
Duplicate freight charges.
Fake subcontractors.
Someone had siphoned millions from the company.
Victor had authorized almost every transaction.
But the largest discovery wasn't money.
It was land.
My father had recently rewritten the corporate structure so that the Mercer family trust—not Hale Mercer Logistics—owned the land beneath the company's warehouses.
If my father died, I inherited the trust.
If I died without children, however, an old partnership provision gave Victor's holding company the first purchase option.
Brooks stared at the screen.
“How much is the land worth?”
“Maybe eighty million.”
Her expression changed.
“You need protection.”
“No.”
“No?”
“If Victor knows police are watching me, he'll disappear.”
“You think he'll come after you?”
I remembered the documents.
“He already is.”
Brooks leaned forward.
“Then we make him believe you're still the frightened goddaughter he remembers.”
That became our plan.
The next morning Victor returned.
He carried coffee.
“Feeling stronger?”
“Not really.”
Perfect.
I let my hands shake.
I asked him to open medication bottles.
I pretended numbers confused me.
When he mentioned the company, I changed the subject.
Victor relaxed.
Within three days, he stopped hiding his impatience.
“You need to sign the temporary authorization.”
“I don't understand it.”
“I'll explain.”
“I get tired.”
His smile tightened.
“We all get tired, sweetheart.”
Then he touched my cheek.
I forced myself not to recoil.
That afternoon, Brooks called.
The man in my mother's photograph had been identified.
Raymond Pike.
Former security contractor.
Multiple arrests.
No convictions.
And his phone records showed three calls with a prepaid number used near the restaurant on the night my parents died.
“Can you arrest Victor?”
“Not yet.”
“What else do you need?”
“A direct connection.”
I looked through my mother's files again that night.
Near midnight, I found something I had missed.
A text message.
Victor to my father.
Tomorrow. 9 p.m. Same restaurant. We settle everything.
The dinner hadn't been random.
Victor knew exactly where my parents would be.
Then I noticed another file.
It was password protected.
The filename consisted of two words:
FOR CLAIRE.
My name.
I tried birthdays.
Anniversaries.
Addresses.
Nothing.
Then I remembered something my mother used to say whenever I was afraid before heart procedures.
Count the good things.
I entered the number of letters in that phrase.
18.
The folder opened.
Inside was a video.
My mother appeared on the screen.
She was sitting exactly where I was sitting.
In her sewing room.
Her face looked frightened.
“Claire,” she began, “if you're watching this, something has happened to your father and me.”
I covered my mouth.
“If Victor tells you we're imagining things, don't believe him.”
She looked directly into the camera.
“He has been stealing from the company. Your father confronted him. Victor threatened us.”
She paused.
Then she said something I hadn't expected.
“And Claire, there's something else you need to know.”
My mother's voice trembled.
May you like
“Victor has been lying to you about your heart since you were a child.”
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