PART 4 — THE FILE THEY WERE WILLING TO KILL FOR
“Call building security.”
Kendra was already dialing.
I grabbed my coat.
Daniel stepped in front of me.
“No.”
“Move.”
“You are not going back there.”
“Those men are inside my company.”
“And one of them just smiled into a security camera before disabling it.”
“I noticed.”
“Then start acting like someone who noticed.”
Brittany stood beside me.
“Mom, Uncle Daniel is right.”
I looked at her.
Less than twenty-four hours earlier, she had stood on a ballroom stage and announced that she wanted me out of her life.
Now fear had erased every trace of that girl.
This was my daughter.
And someone had just threatened her over documents hidden inside my company.
“Kendra,” I said, “call the police.”
“I already am.”
Raymond stood abruptly.
“You can’t.”
Every face turned toward him.
“What did you say?” Daniel asked.
Raymond swallowed.
“If you send ordinary officers into that building without telling them what this is, Carson will know within minutes.”
Kendra lowered her phone slightly.
“How?”
Raymond’s face had the gray color of a man finally realizing that keeping secrets was no longer protecting him.
“Because Carson has people everywhere.”
“That’s convenient,” Daniel said bitterly.
“I’m serious.”
“So are we.”
Raymond looked at me.
“You need federal investigators.”
“Do you know any?”
“No.”
Kendra did.
She stared at me for half a second.
Then she opened her contacts.
“I know someone in financial crimes.”
“How well?”
“Well enough that if I tell him someone is breaking into evidence connected to a possible interstate fraud scheme, he’ll listen.”
“Call him.”
She stepped into the hallway.
I turned back to the dead security feed.
The camera remained black.
My building had eighteen floors leased to other companies.
Hundreds of people worked there during business hours.
But the archive floor was restricted.
Very few employees even knew what was stored there.
Which meant the men inside had not wandered in.
They had come for something specific.
The original River North file.
Brittany was staring at my phone.
“Why is that file so important?”
“I don’t know yet.”
“But Travis said they wanted it.”
“Yes.”
“And Martin said the seller didn’t exist.”
“Yes.”
She folded her arms tightly around herself.
“What exactly did you buy in 2019?”
“A mixed-use commercial block near River North. Three buildings, two parking structures, development rights.”
“How much?”
“Nineteen million.”
“And you paid a fake company?”
“Apparently.”
“But you own the buildings.”
“Yes.”
“Then how can the seller have been fake?”
That was the question.
I sat down again.
“When we purchased the property, title transferred correctly. The deeds were valid. The city records were valid. Everything looked legitimate.”
Raymond spoke from across the room.
“The property was real.”
I looked at him.
“The seller wasn’t.”
He nodded.
“Explain.”
“The actual ownership was moved through several companies before Mercer Holdings purchased it.”
Kendra returned before he could continue.
“I reached Agent Nathan Cole.”
“FBI?”
She nodded.
“He wants us to stay here.”
Daniel gave me a pointed look.
I ignored him.
“When will he arrive?”
“He didn’t say.”
Raymond shook his head.
“That’s not enough.”
Kendra rounded on him.
“You spent years ignoring forged documents, and now you want to tell me what’s enough?”
“I’m trying to keep us alive.”
The words shut everyone up.
Brittany whispered, “Alive?”
Raymond closed his eyes.
“I shouldn’t have said it that way.”
“No,” I said. “You should have said it that way earlier.”
I walked toward him.
“What are you afraid of?”
He stared at the flash drive on the table.
“The Carsons don’t think like normal businessmen.”
“Then how do they think?”
“They think everything has a price.”
“That sounds like every businessman I’ve ever met.”
Raymond looked up.
“People have prices too.”
The room went silent.
Daniel’s voice changed.
“Are you saying they’ve hurt people?”
“I’m saying people who caused problems stopped causing problems.”
“That means nothing.”
“It means exactly what you think it means.”
Brittany went pale.
I stepped between her and Raymond.
“No more vague answers.”
“I don’t have proof.”
“You have enough fear to nearly stop us from calling police.”
He rubbed both hands over his face.
“Seven years ago, a bookkeeper named Elena Morris worked for a Carson subcontractor.”
“Okay.”
“She discovered invoices moving through three companies that had no employees.”
“Shell companies.”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“She reported it internally.”
“And?”
“Three weeks later, her car went through a guardrail in Wisconsin.”
Brittany whispered, “Was she killed?”
“The official report said she fell asleep.”
“But you don’t believe that.”
“I know she told a friend she was being followed.”
Daniel took a step toward Raymond.
“How do you know all this?”
“Because the friend was me.”
That landed hard.
Raymond sat down.
“Elena called me the night before she died.”
“What did she say?”
“She said she had copied everything.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
“She didn’t tell you?”
“She said she had insurance.”
I looked toward the flash drive.
“And you stayed involved with Carson after that?”
“I was already involved.”
“How?”
Raymond looked ashamed.
“I handled books for companies tied to them.”
“You laundered money.”
“I prepared statements.”
“Don’t play vocabulary games with me.”
His eyes dropped.
“I prepared statements I should have questioned.”
“Meaning yes.”
“Yes.”
Brittany stared at him.
“So everyone knew?”
“No.”
“You knew enough.”
Raymond had no answer.
Kendra sat beside him.
“What was River North?”
He hesitated.
Then finally began.
“Carson Development owned the property indirectly through two holding companies.”
“Why hide ownership?”
“Because they were under investigation over municipal contracts.”
I remembered the headlines.
Nothing criminal had ever been proven.
“There were restrictions on certain transactions,” Raymond continued. “If Carson sold directly, the deal would have drawn attention.”
“So they created another seller.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“They moved the buildings through layered entities.”
“And then sold them to me.”
“Yes.”
“For nineteen million.”
“Yes.”
“What was the property actually worth?”
“Closer to twelve at the time.”
Daniel swore.
“You overpaid by seven million.”
I kept looking at Raymond.
“Where did the difference go?”
“That is the part I never fully understood.”
“Try.”
“The transaction included consulting payments, debt releases, development fees, intermediary commissions.”
“To whom?”
“Companies controlled by people connected to Carson.”
“So my acquisition became a machine for distributing seven million dollars.”
“Yes.”
“Dirty money?”
“I don’t know if all of it was dirty.”
“But some?”
“I believe so.”
Brittany asked, “Why would Mom’s company agree?”
“Because she didn’t know.”
Raymond looked at me.
“Someone inside Mercer did.”
The room became quiet.
Daniel’s face tightened.
“Who?”
Raymond shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
“Martin Voss?”
“Maybe.”
I remembered Martin.
He had been gone from my company years before the River North purchase.
“How could Martin influence a deal after being fired?”
“He maintained relationships.”
“With whom?”
Raymond said nothing.
I stepped closer.
“With whom?”
“There was someone still inside.”
My stomach tightened.
“Who?”
“I never got the name.”
“That’s not believable.”
“I swear.”
“But you knew there was someone.”
“Yes.”
“What did Travis call them?”
Raymond froze.
That tiny reaction told me everything.
“He had a name.”
“A nickname.”
“What?”
Raymond looked toward the door as if expecting someone to enter.
“The Gardener.”
Daniel actually laughed.
“The Gardener?”
“That’s what they called the person.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
Kendra said, “Male or female?”
“No idea.”
“How senior?”
“Senior enough to access board papers.”
My mind began moving through years of employees.
Executives.
Finance officers.
Legal counsel.
Assistants.
Board members.
Someone inside my company had helped fabricate documents worth millions.
Someone who might still be there.
My phone buzzed.
The building security director.
I answered immediately.
“Jocelyn Mercer.”
“Ms. Mercer, this is Frank Delaney.”
“What’s happening?”
“We have police on the way.”
“Good.”
“There’s something else.”
I looked at Kendra.
“What?”
“The three men from the archive level are gone.”
“How?”
“We don’t know.”
“You have lobby cameras.”
“They didn’t leave through the lobby.”
“Parking garage?”
“No.”
“Service entrance?”
“No.”
“Then they’re still inside.”
A pause.
“That’s what we thought.”
“And?”
“Our maintenance supervisor found an emergency stairwell door open on twenty-two.”
“That leads where?”
“Into the neighboring building through a shared mechanical access corridor.”
I closed my eyes.
Of course.
“What did they take?”
“We haven’t entered the archive.”
“Why?”
“The lock was damaged.”
“Did the alarm activate?”
“Not until after the camera went offline.”
“What about staff?”
“No injuries reported.”
“Keep everyone away from the archive.”
“We are.”
Another voice spoke faintly near Frank.
Then Frank said, “Ms. Mercer?”
“Yes?”
“Police just arrived.”
“Good.”
“They’re asking whether anything dangerous is stored inside.”
“Paper.”
He hesitated.
“And a safe.”
“What safe?”
“The archive room has a floor safe.”
I knew that.
“What about it?”
“It’s open.”
My stomach dropped.
“They opened it?”
“We can see it from the doorway.”
“What was inside?”
“That’s what we need you to tell us.”
I turned toward Kendra.
“The original file was in the safe.”
Her face hardened.
Frank continued, “There’s also something on the floor.”
“What?”
“An envelope.”
“With what?”
“Your name.”
Everyone heard that.
“Do not touch it.”
“We haven’t.”
“Wait for federal investigators.”
I ended the call.
Brittany said, “They got the file.”
“Maybe.”
“You said it was in the safe.”
“Yes.”
“Then it’s gone.”
“Maybe.”
She looked confused.
Daniel did too.
Kendra did not.
She knew me too well.
“You moved it,” she said.
I looked at her.
“When?”
“Three years ago.”
Daniel stared at me.
“Why?”
“Because I don’t keep original acquisition documents in an archive room after they become legally critical.”
“Where are they?”
“Off-site storage.”
Kendra frowned.
“I reviewed Mercer’s document policy. River North wasn’t listed as off-site.”
“It wasn’t company storage.”
“Jocelyn.”
“Personal.”
Daniel shook his head.
“You personally hid a nineteen-million-dollar closing file?”
“I secured it.”
“Where?”
I looked at Brittany.
“No.”
Daniel stared at me.
“What do you mean, no?”
“If Carson has someone inside my company, I’m not saying the location in this room.”
Kendra nodded.
“Good.”
Raymond looked almost relieved.
“Then they didn’t get it.”
“They got something.”
“What?”
“A copy.”
I had kept an official copy in the safe because that was what anyone searching our records would expect to find.
The original was elsewhere.
Brittany asked, “Why did you move it three years ago?”
I hesitated.
Because until that moment, I had not connected the reason to any of this.
“I received a letter.”
Kendra narrowed her eyes.
“What letter?”
“Anonymous.”
“When?”
“September 2023.”
“What did it say?”
I remembered every word.
“River North was never yours to buy. Keep the originals somewhere only you can reach.”
Daniel stared at me.
“And you never told anyone?”
“I thought it was a disgruntled former employee.”
“But you still moved the file.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because paranoia is cheaper than litigation.”
Even Brittany almost smiled.
Kendra did not.
“Do you still have the letter?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“With the file.”
Raymond whispered, “Elena.”
I turned.
“What?”
“The letter.”
“What about it?”
“Elena used that phrase.”
My skin prickled.
“What phrase?”
“Somewhere only you can reach.”
I stared at him.
“She said it when she told me she copied the records.”
“Exact words?”
“Almost exactly.”
Kendra leaned forward.
“Could Elena have sent Jocelyn the letter?”
“She died in 2019.”
My letter arrived four years later.
“No,” Raymond said. “But someone who had her files could have.”
A cold thought moved through me.
“Maybe Elena’s insurance survived her.”
No one answered.
My phone rang again.
Kendra’s contact.
Agent Nathan Cole.
She answered.
“Yes?”
She listened for several seconds.
“We’re at my office.”
Another pause.
“All right.”
She ended the call.
“He wants us moved.”
“Where?”
“He’s sending agents.”
Raymond stood.
“I’m not going anywhere.”
“You’re exactly the reason we are.”
“I mean I’m not going into federal custody.”
Kendra stared at him.
“No one said custody.”
“They’ll charge me.”
“Maybe.”
“You said cooperating would help.”
“I said cooperating is better than continuing to lie.”
He grabbed his briefcase.
Daniel stepped toward the door.
“Sit down.”
“Don’t touch me.”
“Then stop moving.”
Brittany backed away.
I watched Raymond.
His fear had changed.
This was not fear of Carson.
This was fear of what investigators might find.
“What haven’t you told us?”
“Nothing.”
“Raymond.”
“I told you everything.”
“No, you told us everything that made Travis and Carson look guilty.”
His face changed.
Kendra understood too.
“What did you do?”
He shook his head.
“What did you do, Raymond?”
“I didn’t create the companies.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
He looked toward the exit.
Daniel blocked it.
Raymond’s shoulders sagged.
“I signed certifications.”
“We know.”
“More than certifications.”
Kendra’s voice went cold.
“What?”
“I notarized documents.”
“Knowing signatures were false?”
“At first, no.”
“And later?”
He closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
Brittany stared at him.
“My signatures?”
“Some.”
“How many?”
“I don’t know.”
“You put your stamp on fake documents using a fourteen-year-old girl’s name?”
Raymond whispered, “Yes.”
Her face hardened.
“Then you weren’t just scared.”
“No.”
“You helped him.”
“Yes.”
It was the first time he said it without excuses.
Brittany turned away.
I asked, “Did you notarize anything under my name?”
“No.”
“Daniel’s?”
“No.”
“Who did?”
“I don’t know.”
“Who was the other notary?”
“Someone Carson used.”
“Name?”
“Patricia Shaw.”
Kendra stopped breathing for half a second.
I saw it.
“You know her.”
She looked at me.
“Patricia Shaw was a paralegal at Mercer Holdings.”
My blood went cold.
“When?”
“Until 2021.”
I remembered her.
Quiet.
Efficient.
Worked in legal operations.
Handled corporate records.
“Why did she leave?”
“She resigned.”
“Where is she now?”
Kendra grabbed her laptop.
A few seconds later she stared at the screen.
“What?”
“She died.”
“When?”
“March 2024.”
“How?”
“House fire.”
Raymond sat down heavily.
Daniel said what everyone was thinking.
“Another accident?”
Kendra looked up.
“Officially.”
Brittany whispered, “How many people have to die before something stops being an accident?”
No one answered.
A knock came at the conference-room door.
Everyone froze.
Kendra looked at her phone.
“They’re early.”
Daniel moved toward the door.
“Wait.”
The knock came again.
Three slow knocks.
Then silence.
Kendra called the receptionist.
No answer.
“Don’t open it,” I said.
Another knock.
Then a man’s voice.
“Ms. Lawson? Federal agents.”
Kendra looked through the side window.
Two men stood outside in plain clothes.
Badges visible.
“Names?” she called.
“Nathan Cole and Marcus Reyes.”
Kendra relaxed slightly.
“Nathan is the one I called.”
She opened the door.
Agent Cole entered first.
Mid-forties.
Dark suit.
Calm eyes.
Reyes followed him.
They identified themselves properly.
Cole looked around the room.
“Who is Brittany Hale?”
Brittany raised a hand slightly.
“I am.”
“Are you physically safe?”
“Yes.”
“Has anyone threatened you directly?”
“Her father left a voicemail saying people might come for her,” I said.
Cole looked at me.
“Jocelyn Mercer?”
“Yes.”
“I need the recording.”
“You’ll have it.”
He looked at Raymond.
“And you are?”
Raymond swallowed.
“Raymond Ellis.”
Cole’s expression changed.
Not dramatically.
But enough.
“You know him?” I asked.
Cole looked at Raymond.
“We know the name.”
Raymond went white.
“What does that mean?”
Cole ignored him.
“We need everyone’s phones preserved. Nobody deletes anything. Nobody contacts Travis Hale, Martin Voss, or anyone connected to Carson Development.”
“What happened at my building?” I asked.
“Chicago police secured the archive floor.”
“Did they recover fingerprints?”
“We’re not discussing evidence yet.”
“Was the envelope safe?”
“Yes.”
“What’s inside?”
Cole looked at me.
“You should see it.”
He opened a clear evidence sleeve.
Inside was a white envelope.
JOCELYN MERCER was printed across the front.
Inside was one sheet of paper.
Cole turned it toward me.
There were only six words.
YOU KEPT THE WRONG ORIGINAL FILE.
I stared at it.
Daniel said, “What does that mean?”
I didn’t know.
Cole watched my face.
“Ms. Mercer, where is the original River North file?”
“Secure.”
“Where?”
“I will tell you privately.”
“Good.”
He sat across from me.
“There may be a problem.”
“What problem?”
“The documents stolen today appear to have been planted.”
“Planted by whom?”
“That’s what we need to determine.”
“What makes you think they were planted?”
“The archive copy contains inconsistencies.”
“What inconsistencies?”
“Dates.”
Kendra moved closer.
“What dates?”
Cole opened a tablet.
“The supposed River North closing set stored in your archive shows notarization dates from May 2019.”
“That sounds right.”
“But one of the notary seals belongs to Patricia Shaw.”
My stomach tightened.
“So?”
“Employment records indicate she wasn’t commissioned as a notary until July 2019.”
Silence.
“That’s impossible.”
“Yes.”
“So the archive file was fake.”
“Possibly.”
I shook my head.
“No. I personally reviewed those papers in 2019.”
“Could pages have been replaced?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“That archive has been accessible to legal staff for years.”
Cole nodded.
“Which brings us back to the originals you moved.”
Kendra looked at me.
“If those were already altered before Jocelyn moved them—”
“Then we don’t have originals,” I finished.
Exactly.
Someone had warned me to protect the wrong thing.
Or maybe they had warned me too late.
Cole asked, “Who prepared your River North closing binder?”
I thought back seven years.
Our CFO managed financing.
Legal reviewed contracts.
Outside counsel handled title.
Corporate records staff assembled the final binder.
The name came slowly.
“Patricia Shaw.”
Nobody moved.
The dead paralegal.
The woman whose notary seal appeared before she legally had one.
Cole asked, “Who supervised her?”
My mind went blank for a second.
Then the answer hit me.
“Evelyn Price.”
Daniel looked at me.
“Your chief legal officer?”
“Former chief legal officer.”
“Where is she now?”
“Retired.”
“When?”
“Two years ago.”
Kendra was already searching.
Cole stopped her.
“We know where Ms. Price is.”
That tone made my stomach tighten.
“Where?”
“She disappeared eleven days ago.”
Brittany whispered, “Disappeared?”
“Her daughter reported her missing.”
“Where from?”
“Naples, Florida.”
Cole turned the tablet.
There was a photograph.
Evelyn Price.
Sixty-eight.
Silver hair.
Sharp eyes.
A woman who had worked beside me for fifteen years.
A woman I had trusted with some of the most sensitive documents in my company.
And someone had been inside my building looking for a file connected to a deal she supervised.
Cole said, “Before she vanished, Ms. Price mailed a package.”
“To whom?”
He looked directly at me.
“You.”
I stared at him.
“I haven’t received anything.”
“According to the tracking information, it was delivered.”
“When?”
“This morning.”
“To where?”
Cole hesitated.
“Your home.”
My blood went cold.
There had been no package when I left.
“What time?”
“8:17 a.m.”
I looked at Kendra.
At 8:17, we had been dealing with Travis and Brittany.
My house had been empty.
“Who signed for it?”
Cole turned the tablet toward me.
The signature was a scribble.
But the name typed beneath it was clear.
BRITTANY HALE.
Brittany stared at the screen.
“That wasn’t me.”
“I know.”
“Someone signed my name?”
“Yes.”
“Again?”
Cole nodded.
“Security footage from your neighborhood shows a delivery van stopping outside your residence.”
“What happened to the package?”
“That’s the problem.”
“What?”
“Eleven minutes after delivery, another vehicle arrived.”
“What vehicle?”
“A black SUV.”
My heart hammered.
Cole swiped to another image.
The photograph was grainy.
But I recognized the vehicle.
So did Brittany.
Her face went white.
“That’s Vanessa’s SUV.”
No one spoke.
Brittany looked at me.
“Vanessa was at Dad’s house this morning.”
“Maybe afterward.”
Cole said, “The vehicle plate matches one registered to Vanessa Hale.”
“Did she take the package?”
“We believe someone from the SUV did.”
Brittany shook her head.
“No. Vanessa wouldn’t even know about River North.”
Raymond whispered, “Unless Travis told her.”
My phone buzzed.
A text from an unknown number.
One photograph.
Nothing else.
I opened it.
My kitchen.
Someone was standing inside my house.
Vanessa.
She was holding a padded brown envelope.
Brittany gasped.
“Mom…”
A second message arrived.
Another photograph.
Vanessa again.
This time she was pulling documents from the envelope.
A third message.
Close-up.
The first page showed Evelyn Price’s handwriting.
I enlarged the image.
At the top:
JOCELYN — IF YOU ARE READING THIS, MARTIN FOUND OUT.
My pulse thundered.
Cole leaned over.
“Do not respond.”
Another message came.
THIS IS BIGGER THAN TRAVIS.
Then:
ASK YOUR DAUGHTER WHAT VANESSA GAVE HER LAST CHRISTMAS.
Everyone turned toward Brittany.
She looked confused.
“What?”
I read the message aloud.
Brittany shook her head.
“She gave me perfume. Clothes. A bracelet.”
“Anything else?”
“No.”
“Think.”
“I am.”
Her expression suddenly changed.
“Wait.”
“What?”
“A journal.”
“What journal?”
“Red leather.”
Raymond stood so quickly his chair fell backward.
“What color?”
“Red.”
“What was inside?”
“Nothing. It was blank.”
Raymond looked terrified.
“Where is it?”
“My room at Dad’s house.”
Cole said, “Nobody goes there.”
Raymond ignored him.
“Did it have a metal clasp?”
Brittany stared.
“Yes.”
“And a small gold flower stamped on the back?”
She nodded slowly.
Raymond whispered, “That wasn’t a journal.”
“What was it?”
He looked at me.
“Elena Morris had one exactly like it.”
The dead bookkeeper.
My skin turned cold.
Brittany whispered, “Why would Vanessa give me something that belonged to a dead woman?”
Raymond’s answer came barely above a whisper.
“Because Elena didn’t hide her evidence on a flash drive.”
He looked at the phone in my hand.
“She hid it inside the journal.”
Cole stepped closer.
“How?”
“The spine was hollow.”
Brittany covered her mouth.
The room exploded into movement.
Cole called another team.
Reyes started giving an address.
Kendra grabbed Brittany’s arm when she instinctively moved toward the door.
“You are staying here.”
“But that journal is in my room.”
“Agents will retrieve it.”
“What if Dad already took it?”
Raymond shook his head.
“He didn’t know.”
“How do you know?”
“Because if Travis knew what was inside, he never would have let Vanessa give it to you.”
“Why did Vanessa have it?”
Raymond looked toward the photograph of Vanessa standing in my kitchen.
“That is the question.”
My phone buzzed again.
Unknown number.
A video this time.
Cole told everyone to stay silent.
I pressed play.
Vanessa appeared on screen.
She was sitting inside a car.
Her mascara was smeared.
She looked terrified.
“Jocelyn, I don’t know if you’ll believe me.”
Brittany stepped closer.
Vanessa continued.
“Travis told me the package was his. He told me to take it before you got home.”
She looked over her shoulder.
“He lied.”
Her voice shook.
“He has been lying to me for years.”
Brittany whispered, “Vanessa…”
The recording continued.
“I read Evelyn’s letter.”
Vanessa began crying.
“Jocelyn, River North wasn’t the first deal.”
My heart stopped.
“There were others.”
She held up several pages.
“Evelyn listed them.”
Kendra whispered, “Oh my God.”
Vanessa looked directly into the camera.
“Carson didn’t infiltrate Mercer Holdings.”
A pause.
“They built part of it.”
I stared at the screen.
“No.”
Vanessa continued.
“There is someone inside your company who has been working with them since before you became CEO.”
Daniel looked at me.
I could barely hear the rest.
“Evelyn called that person the Gardener.”
Raymond went rigid.
Vanessa swallowed.
“And she wrote the real name.”
Every person in the room stopped moving.
Vanessa glanced behind her again.
Fear crossed her face.
“I’m sending you the page.”
The video ended.
We waited.
Five seconds.
Ten.
Nothing.
Twenty.
Then Brittany’s phone rang.
Not mine.
Hers.
Unknown number.
Cole shook his head.
“Do not answer.”
The call stopped.
A message appeared.
Brittany read it.
Her face drained of color.
“What?”
She turned the screen toward us.
It was from Vanessa.
One sentence.
YOUR MOTHER NEEDS TO KNOW THE GARDENER IS DANIEL.
No one moved.
I looked at my brother.
Daniel stared at the phone.
“That’s a lie.”
My mind refused to process the words.
Daniel had been beside me through everything.
He had arrived at three in the morning with coffee.
He had defended me.
Protected Brittany.
Blocked Raymond from running.
“No,” I whispered.
Daniel looked at me.
“Jocelyn, you know me.”
I did.
Or I thought I did.
Cole stepped between us.
“Mr. Mercer, keep your hands where I can see them.”
Daniel’s face changed.
“You’re kidding.”
“I’m not.”
“Jocelyn.”
I could not answer.
Then Raymond whispered:
“Daniel.”
Everyone looked at him.
He was staring at my brother as if seeing a ghost.
“What?” Daniel snapped.
Raymond backed away.
“I knew I recognized your voice.”
Daniel went still.
Kendra stared at Raymond.
“From where?”
“The recordings.”
“What recordings?”
Raymond pointed toward the flash drive.
“One of the Carson meetings.”
His voice shook.
“I never saw the Gardener.”
He stared directly at Daniel.
“But I heard him.”
Daniel’s face became completely unreadable.
Brittany moved behind me.
And then Raymond said the words that shattered the last piece of certainty I had left.
“The Gardener sounded exactly like your brother.”…………
TO BE CONTINUED IN LAST PART…
