Chapter 15 - The Poisoned Chalice
The Mercer ancestral home in Lake Geneva stood like a Gothic fortress shrouded in misty rain.
Evelyn walked through the cavernous library, the scent of aged cedar and damp leather filling the air.
Richard followed her, carrying an electronic sensor that mapped structural hollows beneath the wood paneling.
Suddenly, Evelyn’s secure phone vibrated in her coat pocket.
She answered, pressing the phone to her ear without breaking her stride.
"Speak."
"Evelyn... please! Please don't hang up!"
Vanessa Quinn’s voice was hysterical, choked with ragged sobs and the sound of howling highway wind.
Evelyn stopped in front of the massive stone fireplace.
"Vanessa?" Evelyn’s tone was as cold as mountain ice.
"You are violating the non-disclosure and settlement order."
"If your voice reaches my ears again, I will have the federal court seize your mother’s house."
"They’re going to kill me, Evelyn!" Vanessa shrieked through the line.
"The Vances! Julian Vance’s sister, Helena!"
"They forced me into an SUV!"
"They know about the flash drives Dominic gave me!"
Evelyn’s eyes narrowed into slits of lethal concentration.
"What flash drives?"
"Dominic had copies of Arthur’s old files!" Vanessa cried.
"Before his father died, Arthur kept ledgers showing that the Vance family forged maritime contracts thirty years ago!"
"Dominic was going to blackmail Julian Vance with them once he took over your company!"
"He never told me until the night before the gala!"
"Where are you right now?" Evelyn commanded, her voice cutting through Vanessa’s panic like a scalpel.
"On Interstate 35, heading north toward Oklahoma!"
"Helena has two bodyguards in the front seats!"
"They don't know my phone is connected to my car bluetooth in my bag!"
Richard stepped close to Evelyn, listening to the call, and immediately dialed Mercer Global Intelligence on his secondary device.
"Keep your connection live, Vanessa," Evelyn said calmly.
"If you hang up, you die in an unmarked ditch."
"If you stay on the line, my private tactical team will intercept that vehicle before it crosses the state border."
"Why... why would you save me?" Vanessa wept.
"After everything I did to you?"
Evelyn looked up at the oil portrait of her father hanging above the mantle.
May you like
"Because you are a witness to a conspiracy against my bloodline."
"And because, unlike Dominic, I do not abandon pawns until I have used them to checkmate the king."
