Paul Mercer surrendered without resistance.
The handgun was unloaded.
That fact did not make Hart trust him.
Neither did Cynthia's condition.
She had bruising around both wrists, a cut above her eyebrow, and dehydration severe enough to require treatment. She told officers Paul had not tied her to the chair.
A man working for her father had.
"Name?" Hart asked.
Cynthia sat beneath a hospital blanket.
"Victor Hale."
The description matched the heavyset bearded man Samuel had seen in the woods.
The man who apparently shot him.
"Occupation?"
"My father's investigator."
"Meaning?"
"He fixes problems."
Hart's expression remained flat.
"What kind of problems?"
Cynthia looked at the officer recording the interview.
"Whatever my father calls a problem."
Paul was questioned separately.
Daniel was not permitted to attend.
Neither was I.
Hart later reconstructed the relevant parts for us.
Paul admitted working for Robert Warren intermittently since he was nineteen.
His first jobs were small.
Delivering documents.
Watching properties.
Following people.
Then came Karen.
"Warren told me she had stolen records," Paul said.
"Did he tell you to kill her?"
"No."
"Did he tell anyone?"
"Not in front of me."
"What were your instructions?"
"Follow her."
"Did you?"
"Yes."
Paul had followed Karen to Patricia's house.
Then to Lake Aaron.
Samuel followed too.
Paul stayed farther back.
"What happened when Karen left the cabin?"
"I called Warren."
"What did he say?"
"Keep following."
"Then?"
"A black Lincoln passed me."
"Warren's?"
"Yes."
"Who was driving?"
Paul looked down.
"Victor Hale."
Hart stopped him.
"Hale worked for Warren thirty years ago?"
"Yes."
That made Victor older than investigators initially estimated, but still plausible.
"Passenger?"
"Someone."
"Who?"
"I couldn't see."
Paul followed at a distance.
Several miles later he came upon Karen's wreck.
The Lincoln was gone.
Richard's truck was stopped near the shoulder.
"Was Karen alive?"
Paul's face tightened.
"I don't know."
"Did you stop?"
"No."
"Why?"
"I was scared."
"What did you do?"
"I called Warren."
"And?"
"He told me to go to the cabin and destroy anything Karen might have left."
That led to the attempted fire and Paul's confrontation with Richard.
"Why did Richard let you go?"
"Because I told him about the Lincoln."
"Did you tell him Hale was driving?"
"Yes."
Patricia had omitted that.
"Did you tell him who the passenger was?"
Paul looked away.
"Yes."
Hart leaned forward.
"Who?"
Paul's answer was quiet.
"Cynthia's mother."
That name had barely entered the investigation.
Elaine Warren.
Robert's wife.
She had died fifteen years earlier.
"What was she doing with Hale?"
"I didn't know then."
"What do you know now?"
Paul looked toward the one-way glass.
"She was trying to stop him."
Hart frowned.
"Stop Hale?"
"Stop Robert."
Paul explained that Elaine had discovered portions of her husband's fraud months earlier.
She knew about Karen.
She knew Warren wanted the documents recovered.
According to Paul, Elaine secretly contacted Richard.
"Richard's final witness," Hart said.
Paul nodded.
"Elaine saw enough."
"What happened on the road?"
"I don't know exactly."
"You're asking us to believe Elaine was in the vehicle that struck Karen while supposedly trying to help her."
"That's what happened."
"Convenient."
"Ask Cynthia."
Hart did.
Cynthia confirmed her mother had feared Robert for years.
"I was a teenager," she said. "I didn't understand."
"Did Elaine ever mention Karen?"
"Once."
Cynthia had overheard her parents arguing shortly after Karen died.
Elaine screamed that Robert had "let Victor go too far."
Robert told her to keep quiet if she wanted Cynthia safe.
"Why didn't your mother go to police?"
"Because my father controlled people there."
"Did she tell Richard?"
"I think so."
"Evidence?"
Cynthia shook her head.
Then she remembered something.
"My mother kept journals."
Hart sat straighter.
"Where?"
"I don't know."
"You expect us to believe that?"
"She hid them."
"Why?"
"Because Dad searched everything."
Cynthia's voice broke.
"When she died, he cleared out her belongings before I could."
"Cause of death?"
"Stroke."
Hart wrote it down.
"Any reason to question that?"
Cynthia stared at him.
"I question everything now."
Meanwhile, investigators examined the warehouse.
Victor Hale was gone.
They found restraints, two burner phones, ammunition, and a folder containing photographs of Samuel, Melissa, Ethan, Brian, Patricia, Daniel, and me.
My photograph had been marked with a red circle.
I stared at it when Hart showed me.
"Why me?"
Daniel answered before Hart could.
"Richard's evidence."
Someone knew the wedding chest had belonged to me.
The photograph left at Patricia's house had been a warning.
The break-in wasn't random.
They were searching for what Richard had hidden.
"But we already found it."
Hart nodded.
"And if Warren doesn't know police have everything, I'd like to keep it that way."
The evidence packet from the wedding chest contained enough to prove financial crimes.
Not yet murder.
Not conclusively.
One document stood out.
A handwritten list from Richard.
Three names.
KAREN.
ELAINE.
MICHAEL.
Daniel stared at the third.
"My father."
Michael Mercer.
"What did Dad know?"
Paul refused to answer until Daniel came.
Hart resisted.
Paul insisted.
Eventually the brothers were allowed to meet under supervision.
Daniel entered the interview room first.
Paul stood.
For a moment they simply looked at each other.
"You look old," Paul said.
Daniel almost smiled.
"So do you."
Then his face hardened.
"Why was Dad's name in Richard Brooks's evidence?"
Paul sat.
"Because Dad helped Richard."
"With what?"
"Building compartments."
Daniel frowned.
"Compartments?"
"Storage spaces. False walls. Floor panels."
The wedding chest.
R-17.
Richard had relied on a carpenter he trusted.
Michael Mercer.
"Our father knew?"
"He knew Richard was hiding records."
"Did he know why?"
"Eventually."
Daniel leaned forward.
"Why didn't he tell anyone?"
"He was afraid for us."
That explanation had become nauseatingly familiar.
Every adult had claimed fear for family while passing danger to someone else.
Paul continued.
"After Karen died, Richard gave Dad copies."
"Where?"
"I don't know."
"You expect me to believe that?"
"Dad never told me."
"You worked for Warren."
"That's why he didn't tell me."
Daniel recoiled.
Paul's eyes filled.
"He knew what I was."
"Did Mom know?"
"Some."
Daniel stared at his brother.
"Our whole childhood—"
"I know."
"No, you don't."
Daniel stood.
"I became a lawyer because Dad told me paperwork protects people."
Paul laughed sadly.
"That's because he watched paperwork destroy them."
Daniel turned toward the door.
Paul stopped him.
"Danny."
Daniel froze.
Nobody called him that.
"Dad left you something."
Daniel looked back.
"What?"
"I don't know what it is."
"Then how do you know?"
"Before he died, he told me Warren would eventually come looking. He said if that happened, you had the answer."
Daniel stared.
"I don't have anything."
"Maybe you don't know you do."
That echoed Patricia's description of Richard choosing me.
The older generation had hidden evidence with people who didn't know they possessed it.
Because ignorance made them believable.
Hart searched Michael Mercer's surviving property records.
Daniel's childhood home had been sold years earlier.
His father's workshop was demolished.
Tools dispersed.
Furniture inherited.
"What did you get when he died?" I asked Daniel.
"Books. His desk. Some tools."
"Where's the desk?"
"My office."
Hart looked at him.
We all did.
Daniel sighed.
"Of course."
Police searched it that evening.
Nothing.
No hidden drawer.
No false bottom.
No documents.
Daniel sat in his office surrounded by removed drawers.
"I told you."
Then I noticed the old framed photograph on his wall.
Daniel with his father beside a fishing boat.
"What about the frame?"
He looked at it.
"My dad made it."
Hart removed the photograph.
Behind it was ordinary backing paper.
Nothing else.
Daniel laughed tiredly.
"Not everything has a secret compartment."
He was right.
Then the forensic technician examined the wooden frame.
One side was thicker.
Inside was a microcassette.
Michael Mercer's voice emerged after thirty years.
"If Daniel is hearing this, Robert found Paul."
Daniel closed his eyes.
Michael described the night Karen died.
He had not witnessed the crash.
But Elaine Warren came to him afterward.
She was terrified.
She told him Victor Hale had rammed Karen's car under Robert's orders.
Then came the sentence that changed the case.
"Elaine says Karen survived the first impact."
Melissa covered her mouth.
Michael continued.
Richard reached Karen first.
She was alive.
Victor and Elaine arrived moments later.
Elaine tried to stop Victor.
There was a struggle.
Michael did not know exactly what followed.
But Elaine told him Karen was still breathing when Victor pulled her from the vehicle.
"What?" Melissa whispered.
The official report said Karen died inside the burned car.
Michael's recording continued.
"Richard told everyone Karen was dead because Robert threatened Melissa."
Brian stared at the recorder.
Melissa stood.
"My mother survived?"
Hart raised a hand.
"We don't know how long."
But Michael's final statement made all of us stop.
"Richard said Victor took Karen away before the car burned. The body police found wasn't hers."
Nobody breathed.
Melissa shook her head.
"No."
Hart immediately ordered the old autopsy file retrieved.
The body had been severely burned.
Identification had been based primarily on vehicle ownership, personal effects, dental comparison, and Richard's statement.
Modern DNA testing had never been performed.
An exhumation order would be required.
Melissa sat down.
For twenty-four years she had visited a grave bearing her mother's name.
Now there was a possibility Karen wasn't inside it.
Before Hart could begin the legal process, his phone rang.
He listened.
Then looked at Melissa.
"We found Victor Hale."
"Where?"
"Airport."
"Was he leaving?"
"Trying to."
"Did he say anything?"
Hart hesitated.
"He asked whether Karen was still alive."
Click here to continue reading: PART 15: The Grave Beneath Karen’s Name Held Someone Else, and Victor Hale Revealed Why Warren Had Feared Melissa’s Mother for Twenty-Four Years
Sixty-One Thousand Dollars Vanished From Our Savings, and My Husband Decided the Only Possible Thief Was Me
Part 14 of 20
One Comment on “PART 14 – Cynthia Warren Accused Her Own Father of Ordering Karen’s Death, but Paul’s Account Revealed Richard Had Hidden One Final Witness”