Chapter 9 - Malcolm Reed Comes Back
Malcolm Reed returned forty-eight hours after disappearing.
He walked into a sheriff’s office outside Savannah and asked for a lawyer.
Daniel learned through Grace.
“He says he’ll cooperate if he receives protection.”
“From my mother?”
“He won’t say.”
“Can I talk to him?”
“Not yet.”
Malcolm’s attorney arranged a proffer meeting with state investigators.
By evening, Daniel knew only fragments.
Malcolm admitted disabling the pool security cameras.
He denied damaging the vest.
He admitted Eleanor instructed him to create the blackout.
He claimed he did not know why.
Daniel did not believe him.
Naomi didn’t either.
“He asked whether Lily was swimming,” she reminded Daniel.
The next morning, prosecutors allowed Daniel to provide information through investigators but not directly confront Malcolm.
Grace warned him that criminal cases moved slower than family panic.
“You need to let evidence develop.”
Daniel hated that sentence.
Evidence developed slowly.
Children could die quickly.
He moved Lily to a guarded rental house whose address was known only to Grace, Rosa, Naomi and police.
Daniel slept in the room beside hers.
At four in the morning, he woke to find Lily standing by his bed holding her rabbit.
“Daddy?”
He sat up.
“Hey, Bug.”
“Grandma mad?”
Daniel’s chest tightened.
“Why do you ask?”
“She looked mad.”
“At the pool?”
Lily nodded.
Daniel lifted her beside him.
“Grandma has grown-up problems.”
“Is she coming?”
“No.”
“Okay.”
That simple trust almost broke him.
Lily curled against his side.
“Daddy?”
“Yes?”
“Don’t go work.”
He swallowed.
“I won’t.”
When she fell asleep, Daniel stared at the ceiling and wondered how many nights Claire had done this alone while he attended investor dinners and hotel openings.
At eight, Grace called.
Malcolm had provided a location.
The Harbor Ledger was supposedly inside an old Mercer-owned warehouse near the city marina.
Police obtained a warrant before anyone entered.
Daniel waited outside.
The warehouse had been unused for eleven years.
Thomas once stored architectural salvage there.
Two hours into the search, detectives emerged carrying a metal cashbox.
Inside were ledgers.
Original foundation disbursement logs.
Handwritten annotations.
Copies of canceled checks.
Payments linked to shell companies.
And one column labeled E.M. AUTH.
Grace reviewed photographed pages with Daniel later.
“This is extremely bad for your mother.”
“How bad?”
“Potential fraud, tax violations, campaign-finance issues, breach of fiduciary duty. Possibly bribery depending on what the payments represent.”
Daniel pointed to initials appearing repeatedly beside certain transfers.
M.V.
Marcus Vale.
“How long?”
“Eleven years.”
Daniel leaned back.
Marcus had not been recruited by Daniel.
His father hired Marcus.
Which meant Marcus’s involvement predated Thomas’s death.
“Why did Malcolm know where this was?”
Grace had asked investigators the same thing.
The answer came that afternoon.
Thomas had ordered Malcolm to move the ledger from Mercer House shortly before his fatal stroke.
“Why keep it instead of turning it over?”
“Thomas apparently intended to confront Eleanor privately first.”
Daniel shook his head.
“My father kept trying to solve crimes like family disagreements.”
Grace said nothing.
They both knew it was true.
A second revelation followed.
Malcolm confessed that Eleanor had been paying him off-book for years.
Not to commit violence.
To report Daniel’s schedules.
Claire’s meetings.
Caroline’s financial troubles.
Staff conversations.
Eleanor had built an information network inside her own family.
Daniel felt violated in a way money could not describe.
“She monitored Claire?”
“Yes.”
“Did Malcolm tell Eleanor about Claire meeting Margaret?”
“Yes.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“Did Eleanor know about Claire’s notebook?”
“Malcolm believes she knew Claire was keeping records. He doesn’t know where.”
“And the pool?”
Grace hesitated.
“Malcolm says Eleanor told him the security system needed to be dark for twenty minutes because she planned to ‘teach Daniel a lesson about trust.’”
“What does that mean?”
“He says he didn’t ask.”
“That’s convenient.”
“Yes.”
Daniel stood.
“Why did he run?”
“Because after Naomi called you, your mother called Malcolm.”
Daniel turned.
“What did she say?”
Grace looked at her notes.
“According to Malcolm: ‘You failed to control the staff. Leave before Daniel arrives.’”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“That sounds like he was part of it.”
“It sounds suspicious.”
“What else?”
“Malcolm says he panicked because he knew the camera blackout made him look complicit.”
Daniel walked toward the window.
“Is he lying?”
“Probably about something.”
Daniel turned.
Grace’s phone buzzed.
She read the message.
Her expression changed.
“What?”
“Police searched Malcolm’s Savannah hotel room.”
“And?”
“They found fifty thousand dollars in cash.”
Daniel stared.
May you like
Grace continued.
“Wrapped in bands from a bank branch used by the Mercer Family Foundation.”
