Chapter 3 - The Duplicate
The laboratory would need time.
Daniel did not.
By six that evening, Lily was asleep in the guest suite of a downtown hotel under private security arranged by Daniel’s attorney.
Rosa stayed with her.
Naomi refused to leave Daniel.
“I saw what I saw,” she said. “Mrs. Mercer knows I saw it.”
Daniel studied her from across the hotel sitting room.
“Then you should be somewhere safe.”
“That’s why I’m not going home alone.”
Fair point.
Police had not arrested Eleanor yet.
The evidence was suspicious but incomplete.
The duplicate vest showed three small penetrations, according to the preliminary inspection, but investigators still needed to establish who made them, when, and whether the damage could have caused a dangerous loss of buoyancy.
Daniel hated the legal language.
Potential loss of buoyancy.
To him, it meant his daughter sinking.
His attorney, Grace Hanley, arrived after sunset.
Grace was fifty-six, compact, sharp-eyed and almost impossible to intimidate.
She had represented Daniel personally since he became CEO.
She listened to everything.
Then she said, “Your mother’s criminal lawyer has already contacted the police.”
“Of course she has.”
“She’s also retained a separate crisis-management firm.”
Daniel looked up.
“That quickly?”
“She made the call before officers took her phone.”
Naomi folded her arms.
“She knew this might happen.”
Grace’s expression suggested she agreed.
Daniel poured coffee he didn’t want.
“What about Malcolm Reed?”
“Missing.”
“Missing?”
“His wife says he told her he had overnight security work in Savannah.”
“He didn’t.”
“No.”
Grace opened a leather folder.
“There is another problem.”
Daniel almost laughed.
“Only one?”
“Your mother has scheduled an emergency Mercer Hospitality board session tomorrow morning.”
Daniel stared.
“She’s under investigation.”
“That does not automatically remove her authority as chair.”
“For what purpose?”
Grace slid a printed notice across the table.
REMOVAL OF CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER FOR CAUSE.
Daniel read it twice.
The listed causes were shocking.
Misuse of company aircraft.
Unauthorized capital expenditures.
Failure to disclose conflicts of interest.
Improper transfer of company funds.
“These are fabricated.”
“I believe you.”
“There are signatures.”
“Yes.”
“From our CFO.”
Marcus Vale.
Daniel sat slowly.
Marcus had worked beside him for eight years.
Had attended his wedding.
Had held Lily at her christening.
“He signed this?”
Grace nodded.
“Affidavit attached.”
Daniel read the first page.
It claimed Daniel had directed $4.8 million through shell consulting contracts.
“That’s insane.”
Grace tapped the date.
The transactions began fourteen months ago.
Two months after Daniel’s wife, Claire, died from ovarian cancer.
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“Why now?”
“That,” Grace said, “is the question.”
Naomi had moved toward the window.
She turned.
“Mr. Daniel, Mrs. Claire used to ask questions about company money.”
Daniel looked at her.
“What questions?”
“Before she became very ill.”
Claire had been an accountant before leaving her career after Lily’s birth.
She had never officially worked for Mercer Hospitality.
“What did she ask you?”
“Not me. Your father’s old secretary.”
“Margaret Bell?”
Naomi nodded.
Daniel hadn’t heard that name in years.
Margaret had retired soon after Thomas’s death.
“She came to the house twice,” Naomi continued. “Mrs. Claire met her in the conservatory.”
“When?”
“Maybe two years ago.”
Daniel felt an old memory shift.
Claire sitting at the kitchen island late at night, laptop open.
Daniel asking what she was doing.
Her answer:
“Trying to understand why rich families need so many companies with boring names.”
He had laughed.
He wished he hadn’t.
Grace noticed the change in his face.
“What?”
Daniel told her.
Grace leaned back.
“Did Claire leave financial records?”
“I don’t know.”
“You need to find out.”
Daniel looked at his mother’s board notice again.
A murder investigation.
A missing security chief.
Fabricated financial misconduct.
A board coup.
They were not four problems.
They were one.
His phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
Daniel answered.
No one spoke.
Then he heard breathing.
“Who is this?”
Silence.
A man’s voice finally said, “If you want your daughter safe, stop looking at the pool.”
Daniel stood.
“What does that mean?”
“Look at the will.”
The call ended.
Grace was already reaching for her phone to document the number.
Daniel remained frozen.
“My father’s will?”
“Possibly.”
Daniel shook his head.
“I’ve read it.”
“Have you?”
“Yes.”
Grace’s gaze sharpened.
“You read the version distributed to the heirs.”
Daniel frowned.
“What other version is there?”
“A full trust instrument can contain schedules and amendments that heirs don’t always receive in the same packet.”
Daniel stared at her.
“You’re saying there may be clauses I’ve never seen?”
“I’m saying whoever called you thinks so.”
Naomi whispered, “Mrs. Mercer looked toward Mr. Thomas’s study when you called the police.”
Daniel slowly turned toward the dark window.
His father’s locked room.
The room Eleanor had forbidden anyone to enter.
May you like
Tomorrow morning, his mother planned to take away his company.
Tonight, Daniel decided he was going to take away one of her secrets.
