Chapter 7 - REBECCA'S LAST MESSAGE
Rebecca Sloan had left behind a sister.
Her name was Hannah.
For nine years, Hannah had believed Rebecca's death was accidental.
Then Detective Torres showed her the evidence.
Hannah drove through the night to meet Claire.
She brought a laptop.
“My sister sent me something before she died.”
Claire stared.
“What?”
“I never understood it.”
Hannah opened an old email.
There was no message.
Only an audio file.
Rebecca's voice filled the room.
“If something happens to me, Daniel did it.”
Claire's skin prickled.
Rebecca continued.
“His mother knows.”
Hannah began crying.
The recording was only forty-eight seconds.
But the final sentence changed the investigation.
“Ask what happened to his father.”
Torres immediately began searching.
Daniel's father, Robert Mercer, had died seventeen years earlier.
Heart attack.
Age forty-nine.
Margaret had inherited everything.
Claire stared at the file.
“Was there an autopsy?”
“No.”
“Doctor?”
Torres looked at her screen.
Then froze.
Claire knew before she said it.
“Dr. Warren?”
Torres nodded.
The conspiracy hadn't begun with Daniel's wives.
It had begun inside Daniel's own family.
Margaret had taught him.
Maybe Daniel wasn't simply a predator.
Maybe he was an apprentice.
The investigation expanded.
Old financial records showed that after Robert's death, Margaret paid Dr. Warren $75,000 through a consulting company.
No explanation.
Hannah whispered, “Rebecca knew.”
Claire looked at her.
“And that's why she died.”
Torres held up a hand.
“We can't say that yet.”
Claire stared at the detective.
“Maybe you can't.”
That evening, Lily was drawing at the kitchen table.
Hannah sat beside her.
“You're very brave.”
Lily shrugged.
“I was scared.”
“Brave people are scared.”
Lily looked at her.
“Then what makes them brave?”
“They do the right thing anyway.”
Lily thought about that.
Then she reached for another crayon.
Suddenly she stopped.
“What?”
Claire asked.
Lily looked toward the window.
“Mom.”
Claire followed her gaze.
A black SUV was parked across the street.
Engine running.
Torres moved immediately.
Officers rushed outside.
The SUV accelerated away.
Police followed.
Twenty minutes later, they found it abandoned.
Inside was a phone.
Only one number had been called.
Claire's.
Then Claire's phone rang.
Unknown number.
Torres nodded for her to answer.
Claire put it on speaker.
“Hello?”
Silence.
Then Margaret's voice.
“You should've taught your daughter not to listen at doors.”
Claire felt rage burn through her.
“You should've taught your son not to hurt women.”
Margaret laughed softly.
“You think Daniel is the dangerous one?”
Claire froze.
“What does that mean?”
“You've understood almost nothing.”
“Then explain it.”
Margaret paused.
“The wedding wasn't Daniel's plan.”
Claire looked at Torres.
Margaret continued.
May you like
“It was mine.”
Then the call ended.
