Chapter 4 - THE MAN WHO DIED ON PAPER
Daniel Voss looked nothing like a dead man.
He was fifty-six, silver-haired, broad-shouldered, and irritatingly healthy. When Grant entered the interview room at police headquarters, Voss stood as if greeting an old client at a country club.
“Grant.”
Grant did not shake his hand.
Elena stayed beside the door.
Detective Sloan had argued that she should remain outside. Grant had argued that Voss had already made her part of the case by involving Mateo.
Voss’s eyes moved to her.
Recognition flashed instantly.
“You’re Elena.”
She hated the way he said it.
Not as a question.
As confirmation.
“You knew my brother.”
Voss smiled faintly.
“Mateo knew a great many people.”
“Where is he?”
“I don’t know.”
“Wrong answer.”
“Elena,” Sloan warned.
Voss sat.
“Your brother was clever. Too clever for his own safety.”
Grant leaned over the table.
“Choose your next sentence carefully.”
Voss looked up at him.
“This protective side of you is new.”
“No. You just never earned it.”
That erased the smile.
Detective Sloan placed a folder on the table.
“Mr. Voss claims his death was the result of an administrative presumption following the boat explosion. He says he was never aboard.”
Grant looked at Voss.
“Then why let everyone believe you died?”
“Because Audrey asked me to.”
Elena watched Grant’s expression harden.
“Careful.”
“She was frightened.”
“You tried to kill her.”
Voss laughed softly.
“Is that what she told you?”
“She left a video.”
Voss stopped laughing.
It happened for less than a second, but Elena saw it.
He had not known about the video.
Good.
That meant Audrey still held information Harbor did not control.
Voss recovered quickly.
“Audrey was under tremendous psychological strain.”
Grant leaned closer.
“If you call my wife unstable, I will forget there is a detective in the room.”
Sloan sighed.
“Please don’t make me arrest the billionaire.”
Voss folded his hands.
“Audrey discovered financial irregularities involving Mercer Home Systems. She believed there was a criminal network. She became increasingly convinced everyone was involved.”
“She was right about Celeste.”
“Celeste is troubled.”
“She pushed a baby into a pool.”
“Yes.”
“Your client.”
“For the moment.”
Elena stepped forward.
“What did Mateo steal?”
Voss looked at her.
“Nothing.”
“Audrey says he had a ledger.”
This time his reaction was better controlled.
But still there.
“Elena, I’m sorry your brother disappeared.”
“No, you’re not.”
“You don’t know me.”
“My brother told me to remember your name if anything happened to him. That’s enough.”
Voss’s face became colder.
Detective Sloan opened another folder.
“Let’s discuss the trust.”
Grant sat.
The document was thirty-two pages long.
Mercer Continuity Holdings.
Grant recognized his signature.
Or something that looked exactly like it.
He flipped to Audrey’s.
Then Raymond Mercer’s.
“My father was dead.”
Voss nodded.
“Yes.”
“So how did he sign this?”
“He didn’t.”
Everyone looked at him.
Voss pointed at the page.
“That is not Raymond Mercer’s signature.”
“It says Raymond Mercer.”
“Look at the middle initial.”
Grant did.
Raymond A. Mercer.
His father had been Raymond James Mercer.
Grant frowned.
“There is no Raymond A. Mercer.”
Voss looked almost sympathetic.
“That is where you are mistaken.”
He slid a birth certificate across the table.
Raymond Allen Mercer.
Date of birth: the same as Grant’s father.
Place of birth: the same hospital.
Parents: the same names.
Elena stared.
“Twins?”
Grant shook his head.
“My father was an only child.”
“According to your family,” Voss said.
Grant looked at Sloan.
“Is this certified?”
“We’re checking.”
Voss continued.
“Your grandfather had twin sons. One was raised as Raymond James Mercer. The other disappeared from family records before age two.”
“That’s absurd.”
“Is it?”
Voss leaned back.
“Families with money have been changing inconvenient records for generations. Harbor did not invent the idea.”
There it was.
Harbor.
The word Audrey had used.
Voss realized his mistake immediately.
Grant smiled without warmth.
“You know the name.”
Voss said nothing.
Sloan leaned forward.
“What is Harbor?”
“A marina in Maine.”
“Try again.”
“My client is Celeste, not a mysterious organization.”
Grant stood.
“We’re done.”
Voss looked surprised.
Grant turned toward Sloan.
“Charge Celeste with attempted murder.”
“That’s the prosecutor’s call.”
“Then tell them I will cooperate fully.”
Voss smiled.
“You should read the trust first.”
Grant stopped.
“Why?”
“Because if Noah dies, you don’t lose money.”
Voss’s eyes moved toward Elena.
“You lose the company.”
Grant turned back.
“To whom?”
“Audrey’s legal estate.”
“She’s alive.”
“Can you prove that?”
“Soon.”
“Until then, the executor controls the shares.”
Grant already knew the answer.
“Who is executor?”
Voss smiled.
“Me.”
Elena felt the entire room change.
Celeste had tried to kill Noah.
Voss would gain control of a company whose security systems Harbor used to protect false identities.
The motive was no longer hidden.
Grant’s voice became dangerously quiet.
“You ordered it.”
“No.”
“You needed Noah dead.”
“Actually, I need Noah alive.”
That stopped everyone.
Voss tapped the trust.
“If I wanted control of the company, killing Noah would be the least efficient method.”
“Then why did Celeste do it?”
“Ask her.”
Sloan exchanged a glance with Grant.
Then led them to the adjacent interview room.
Celeste sat in handcuffs.
The green dress had been replaced by hospital scrubs after police confiscated her clothing as evidence. Without makeup and performance, she looked younger.
Smaller.
Grant remained standing.
“Who told you to push the stroller?”
Celeste looked at Voss through the glass wall behind Sloan.
“No one.”
“Don’t.”
“I did it.”
“Why?”
Her eyes filled.
“Because they have my sister.”
Grant’s anger did not disappear.
But it shifted.
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
“Harbor?”
She flinched.
“You know the name.”
“Who has your sister?”
“They send me videos.”
“Since when?”
“Eight months.”
“Before you met me.”
“Yes.”
“So getting close to me was part of it.”
Celeste cried silently.
“Yes.”
Elena asked, “Why Noah?”
Celeste looked at her with an expression that contained shame and resentment.
“They told me the pool sensor would trigger an emergency protocol Audrey created.”
Grant frowned.
“What protocol?”
“The archive would unlock for seven minutes.”
Elena thought of the nursery wall.
“That’s why the cameras went off at 2:14.”
Celeste nodded.
“I had to disable them first. Then push the stroller. When the pool sensor detected immersion, the system unlocked Audrey’s archive.”
“But you didn’t go upstairs.”
“I was supposed to.”
“You stood there and accused Elena.”
“I panicked.”
“You said she was never supposed to save Noah.”
Celeste closed her eyes.
“They told me if Noah survived, they would kill my sister.”
Elena’s anger rose again.
“So you decided his life was worth less?”
“I was terrified.”
“So was he.”
Celeste cried harder.
Grant remained cold.
“Who gave you the camera override code?”
“I already had the guest code.”
“That cannot erase logs.”
“I didn’t erase them.”
“Who did?”
“I don’t know.”
Grant believed her.
Not because he trusted her.
Because fear like hers was hard to fake once the performance broke.
Elena asked, “What were you supposed to take from the archive?”
Celeste looked toward Voss again.
“A black notebook.”
Grant had it.
It was locked in Felix’s safe back at the estate.
“What’s in it?”
“I don’t know.”
“Who told you to take it?”
“A voice.”
“Man or woman?”
“Man.”
“Voss?”
“No.”
“Felix?”
“No.”
Grant stared.
“Did you ever see him?”
“Once.”
“When?”
“Last week.”
“Where?”
Celeste swallowed.
“In your father’s old office.”
Grant went completely still.
“My father’s office was sealed after he died.”
“I know.”
“Who was the man?”
Celeste whispered, “He said his name was Raymond.”
Grant remained silent long enough that Celeste began speaking again.
“He wore an old Mercer signet ring. Gold, black stone. You have one in the portrait downstairs.”
Grant knew the ring. His grandfather had commissioned two identical pieces after his father was born. Grant had inherited one. The second had supposedly been lost decades ago.
“What did he want from you in the office?” Grant asked.
“To prove I could reach Noah.”
Elena’s stomach tightened.
“Was the pool always the plan?”
“No. At first they only wanted photographs of the nursery, then access codes, then the archive. The pool instruction came this morning.”
“From Raymond?”
“A distorted voice. But after meeting him, I knew.”
Celeste looked ashamed.
“He told me families like yours survive because someone else pays the price.”
Grant’s face went hard.
“And you believed him?”
“No.”
She looked toward the floor.
“I was just afraid he was right.”
Elena felt cold.
Grant’s eyes moved toward the birth certificate on the other table.
Raymond Allen Mercer.
The twin no one had ever mentioned.
Sloan asked, “What did he look like?”
Celeste looked at Grant.
“Like him.”
Grant’s face drained of color.
“Like who?”
“Like your father.”
The door behind them opened.
A uniformed officer rushed in.
“Detective.”
Sloan turned.
“What?”
“We have a security breach at the Mercer residence.”
Grant grabbed his phone.
“What kind?”
“Your head of security called it in thirty seconds ago.”
Grant stared.
“Felix is here with Noah.”
Everyone went silent.
Felix was supposed to be at the estate.
Grant looked through the glass.
Voss had vanished from the adjoining room.
His chair was empty.
The uniformed officer’s radio crackled.
Then Felix’s voice came through.
Weak.
Breathing hard.
“Grant… don’t come home.”
Grant snatched the radio.
“Felix, where are you?”
Static.
Then three words.
“He’s in here.”
May you like
A gunshot sounded through the radio.
And the line went dead.
