I told Brenda not to answer the phone.
“Don't touch it.”
“I already moved the suitcase.”
“That is fine. Just leave everything else where it is.”
The phone stopped ringing.
Then started again.
PIKE.
Same caller.
Jason stared at the photograph.
“Why would David have a second phone?”
“Because apparently one life wasn't enough.”
Rachel gave me a look.
Not judgment.
A reminder to stay focused.
She called Samuel, who arranged for the phone to be preserved without unlocking it. If it belonged to David, accessing it without proper authority could create problems.
I hated the restraint.
But after a morning full of people justifying boundary violations, I was not going to become one of them because the truth felt urgent.
The call stopped again.
Thirty seconds later, my own phone rang.
Unknown number.
I looked at Rachel.
She nodded.
“Answer. Don't promise anything.”
I picked up.
“Hello?”
A man said, “Sarah Carter?”
Older voice.
Rough.
“Who is this?”
“You know.”
“Leonard Pike?”
Silence.
Then, “I need to speak to you.”
“Why?”
“Because Evelyn was right.”
My mother’s name in his mouth made me sit straighter.
“About what?”
“That eventually everybody would start lying about who hired whom.”
“Then don't.”
He gave a dry laugh.
“You sound like her.”
“I keep hearing that today.”
“Probably because she was the only person in that family who knew how to ask a question without telling you the answer she wanted.”
Michael might have disagreed.
“Where are you?”
“Not somewhere I'm giving you.”
“Then why call?”
“David stopped answering.”
I looked at the photograph of his second phone.
“What did you want from him?”
“My money.”
“For what?”
“Work.”
“What work?”
Silence.
“Watching me?”
“Yes.”
The directness surprised me.
“For how long?”
“Seven months.”
My skin crawled.
“Where?”
“Public places.”
“That is not what I asked.”
“I never entered your home.”
“Did you follow me to Chicago?”
“Yes.”
“My mother’s hospital?”
“Yes.”
Anger sharpened everything.
“You watched me visit my dying mother.”
“I watched who met you.”
“Who paid you?”
He hesitated.
I almost laughed.
“Everyone keeps saying they want to tell me the truth right before refusing to say the one thing that matters.”
Pike exhaled.
“Peter Vance did not hire me.”
That eliminated the obvious answer.
“David?”
“No.”
“Jason?”
“No.”
“Who?”
“I want protection first.”
“From whom?”
“Peter.”
“You just said he didn't hire you.”
“He didn't.”
“Then why fear him?”
“Because he'll assume I know more than I do.”
Rachel wrote a note and turned it toward me.
MEETING. LAWYER PRESENT.
I said, “Meet me with counsel.”
“No police.”
“I didn't mention police.”
“No recording.”
“I won't promise that.”
He laughed again.
“Definitely Evelyn’s daughter.”
“Where?”
He named a diner thirty minutes away.
Rachel shook her head.
“No.”
I said, “Samuel’s office.”
“No.”
“Then a public place selected by my attorney.”
Silence.
“Fine.”
Rachel took over arrangements through a third party.
We left the motel with the drive secured.
Jason wanted to come.
I refused.
He looked offended.
Then tired.
“Sarah, I know I don't deserve trust.”
“No.”
“But Claire may contact me.”
“If she does, tell Rachel.”
He nodded.
I expected an argument.
There wasn't one.
Maybe consequences were finally doing what family lectures never had.
The meeting took place in a hotel conference lounge with cameras, security and two attorneys nearby.
Pike arrived fifteen minutes late.
He was in his late sixties, heavy through the shoulders, with white hair cropped close and a scar near his chin.
He looked at Emily first.
“Thomas’s girl.”
Emily’s face went cold.
“My name is Emily.”
He nodded.
“Fair.”
Then he looked at me.
“You look like Michael.”
That was the first person to say so.
I did not know how I felt about it.
“Who hired you?”
He sat.
“No coffee?”
“No.”
“Straight to business.”
“Yes.”
He placed both hands on the table.
“Seven months ago, I received a call from someone I had not spoken to in years.”
“Name.”
“Margaret Reed.”
Emily went perfectly still.
“My mother died two years ago.”
Pike looked at her.
“I know.”
“Then try again.”
He almost smiled.
“That is why I took the meeting.”
He explained that the caller identified herself as Margaret Reed but clearly was not.
The voice was younger.
The person knew details only someone with access to old Vance investigative records should know.
“Why use my mother's name?” Emily asked.
“To get my attention.”
“Did it?”
“Yes.”
“What did they want?”
Pike looked at me.
“Sarah monitored.”
“Why?”
“To know whether anyone from Michael’s side had contacted her.”
I frowned.
“Michael’s side?”
“Michael. Emily. Evelyn’s attorneys. Anyone connected to Thomas.”
“Who paid?”
“A shell company.”
“Meridian Recovery Group.”
“Yes.”
“The Delaware one.”
“Yes.”
“Who controlled it?”
“I didn't know initially.”
“And now?”
Pike looked toward Rachel.
“I traced part of the payment after Evelyn contacted me.”
“Why?”
“Because Evelyn thought David was behind it.”
“Was he?”
“No.”
The answer came immediately.
“Then why did he have your number on a second phone?”
“Because I contacted him.”
“When?”
“After Evelyn confronted me.”
“Why?”
“I wanted to know whether he knew who was using his company to move money.”
I stared.
“His company?”
“The payment trail started through Harrison Advisory Partners.”
My chest tightened.
“David’s account.”
“Yes.”
“But he wasn't the client?”
“Not according to him.”
“You believed him?”
“Not at first.”
“What changed?”
“He showed me his banking access logs.”
Rachel leaned forward.
“Explain.”
Someone had initiated transfers from Harrison Advisory Partners using credentials associated with a secondary administrator.
David claimed he did not recognize the access.
“Who was the administrator?”
Pike looked at me.
“Jason.”
Emily closed her eyes.
I felt tired beyond anger.
“Jason says he knows nothing about paying you.”
“He probably doesn't.”
“Why?”
“The administrator credentials were old. Hadn't been actively used in years.”
“So someone used Jason’s login.”
“Yes.”
“Who had it?”
“That is where things get interesting.”
Pike removed a paper from his jacket.
A printout.
Access logs.
The login came from an IP address associated with an office.
Vance Strategic Consulting.
Peter.
I almost laughed.
“So Peter did hire you.”
“No.”
“His office used Jason’s credentials to move money through David’s company into a shell company that paid you.”
“Yes.”
“That sounds remarkably like Peter.”
“It does.”
“But?”
“The instructions did not come from Peter.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I confronted him.”
“That seems to be everyone's preferred investigative method.”
Pike ignored the comment.
“Peter showed me internal access records. The person using the workstation was Claire Morrow.”
Emily and I looked at each other.
Claire again.
“Claire hired you?”
“No.”
“Then who told Claire?”
Pike leaned back.
“That is what Evelyn wanted me to discover.”
“And?”
“I discovered Claire was receiving instructions from an encrypted account.”
“Whose?”
“I traced recovery information.”
Rachel stiffened.
“How?”
Pike smiled slightly.
“Ways you won't like.”
She said, “Then don't describe them.”
Good.
I had no interest in acquiring illegally obtained evidence through details I did not need.
“Give me the conclusion.”
“The recovery phone belonged to someone in Brenda Harrison’s household.”
My stomach tightened.
“David?”
“No.”
“Brenda?”
“No.”
“Jason?”
“No.”
There were not many people left.
Then I remembered.
Brenda did not live alone.
Her sister had moved in after a divorce two years earlier.
But why would—
Pike shook his head.
“Not a resident. A frequent visitor.”
“Who?”
He looked directly at me.
“Mark Ellison.”
Jason’s friend.
The same Mark Brenda had called to sit with her.
My pulse slowed.
“Who is Mark?”
“Ask Jason.”
I called him.
He answered immediately.
“Who is Mark Ellison?”
Silence.
“Jason?”
“My business partner.”
That was new.
“Which business?”
“The first one.”
“Carterline Systems.”
I remembered the name from the forensic report.
One of Jason’s earliest failed companies.
“What happened to Mark?”
“We fell out.”
“Why is he at Brenda’s house?”
“He helps Mom sometimes.”
“That is not what I asked.”
Jason sighed.
“Mark lost money because of me. A lot.”
“How much?”
“About nine hundred thousand.”
“Why would he still help your mother?”
“He never blamed her.”
“Does he blame you?”
“Yes.”
“David?”
“More.”
“Why?”
“David pushed him out during the restructuring.”
The pattern sharpened.
“What does Mark know about Peter?”
“Everything.”
My stomach dropped.
“How?”
“He introduced us.”
The room went silent.
“You told me Peter came through financing contacts.”
“He did.”
“You never said Mark was the contact.”
“I didn't think it mattered.”
“Everything you decide doesn't matter eventually matters.”
I ended the call.
Pike watched me.
“Mark introduced Jason to Peter. Later, someone using Mark’s recovery phone instructed Claire to route money through Harrison Advisory Partners to pay me to watch you.”
“Why?”
“I think Mark wanted to know whether Michael would contact you.”
“Why would Mark care about Michael?”
Pike looked toward Emily.
“Because Mark Ellison isn't his full name.”
Emily went pale before I understood.
“What is it?”
“Mark Daniel Ellison Vance.”
The surname hit me.
“Vance?”
Pike nodded.
“Daniel Vance had another son.”
Peter’s half brother.
Jason’s longtime friend.
The man currently sitting in Brenda’s house.
My phone was already in my hand.
I called her.
No answer.
Again.
No answer.
Jason called Mark.
Straight to voicemail.
I stood.
“Get police to the house.”
Rachel was already moving.
Then my phone rang.
Brenda.
I answered.
“Brenda?”
Her voice was trembling.
“Sarah, Mark wants to speak to you.”
A man took the phone.
Calm voice.
Familiar only from family gatherings.
“Sarah.”
I gripped the table.
“Where is Brenda?”
“Right here. She's fine.”
“Put her back on.”
“In a minute.”
“What do you want?”
“The same thing everyone wants.”
“If you say Thomas Reed’s ledger, I'm hanging up.”
He laughed softly.
“No.”
“Then what?”
“The truth about my father.”
“Daniel Vance.”
Silence.
So Pike was right.
Mark said, “Peter spent our whole lives telling me Daniel was robbed by the Carters.”
“And you believed him.”
“I did.”
“Past tense?”
Another silence.
“I found something this morning.”
“What?”
“David’s papers.”
My pulse quickened.
“What papers?”
“Records Peter never showed me.”
“What do they say?”
“That Peter may have known for years that Daniel altered CMH-17.”
Emily stood beside me.
Mark continued.
“If that is true, then my brother used me exactly the way David used Jason.”
His voice cracked on Jason’s name.
For the first time, he sounded less like a threat and more like a man watching his history collapse.
“What do you want from me?”
“I want to see Thomas Reed’s notebooks.”
Emily shook her head violently.
“No.”
I said, “You are not getting them.”
“Then you will never know what Peter has been trying to hide.”
“What is he hiding?”
Mark lowered his voice.
“Why Thomas Reed died.”
Click here to continue reading: PART 19: Mark Vance Knew Why Thomas Reed Died, but the Evidence Pointed Toward a Cover-Up Nobody Had Expected
Before Sunrise, My Mother-in-Law Came for My Mother’s Fortune—and My Husband Was Already Waiting for Her
Part 18 of 26
