Paul Mercer surrendered without resistance.<\/p>\n
The handgun was unloaded.<\/p>\n
That fact did not make Hart trust him.<\/p>\n
Neither did Cynthia's condition.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
A man working for her father had.<\/p>\n
"Name?" Hart asked.<\/p>\n
Cynthia sat beneath a hospital blanket.<\/p>\n
"Victor Hale."<\/p>\n
The description matched the heavyset bearded man Samuel had seen in the woods.<\/p>\n
The man who apparently shot him.<\/p>\n
"Occupation?"<\/p>\n
"My father's investigator."<\/p>\n
"Meaning?"<\/p>\n
"He fixes problems."<\/p>\n
Hart's expression remained flat.<\/p>\n
"What kind of problems?"<\/p>\n
Cynthia looked at the officer recording the interview.<\/p>\n
"Whatever my father calls a problem."<\/p>\n
Paul was questioned separately.<\/p>\n
Daniel was not permitted to attend.<\/p>\n
Neither was I.<\/p>\n
Hart later reconstructed the relevant parts for us.<\/p>\n
Paul admitted working for Robert Warren intermittently since he was nineteen.<\/p>\n
His first jobs were small.<\/p>\n
Delivering documents.<\/p>\n
Watching properties.<\/p>\n
Following people.<\/p>\n
Then came Karen.<\/p>\n
"Warren told me she had stolen records," Paul said.<\/p>\n
"Did he tell you to kill her?"<\/p>\n
"No."<\/p>\n
"Did he tell anyone?"<\/p>\n
"Not in front of me."<\/p>\n
"What were your instructions?"<\/p>\n
"Follow her."<\/p>\n
"Did you?"<\/p>\n
"Yes."<\/p>\n
Paul had followed Karen to Patricia's house.<\/p>\n
Then to Lake Aaron.<\/p>\n
Samuel followed too.<\/p>\n
Paul stayed farther back.<\/p>\n
"What happened when Karen left the cabin?"<\/p>\n
"I called Warren."<\/p>\n
"What did he say?"<\/p>\n
"Keep following."<\/p>\n
"Then?"<\/p>\n
"A black Lincoln passed me."<\/p>\n
"Warren's?"<\/p>\n
"Yes."<\/p>\n
"Who was driving?"<\/p>\n
Paul looked down.<\/p>\n
"Victor Hale."<\/p>\n
Hart stopped him.<\/p>\n
"Hale worked for Warren thirty years ago?"<\/p>\n
"Yes."<\/p>\n
That made Victor older than investigators initially estimated, but still plausible.<\/p>\n
"Passenger?"<\/p>\n
"Someone."<\/p>\n
"Who?"<\/p>\n
"I couldn't see."<\/p>\n
Paul followed at a distance.<\/p>\n
Several miles later he came upon Karen's wreck.<\/p>\n
The Lincoln was gone.<\/p>\n
Richard's truck was stopped near the shoulder.<\/p>\n
"Was Karen alive?"<\/p>\n
Paul's face tightened.<\/p>\n
"I don't know."<\/p>\n
"Did you stop?"<\/p>\n
"No."<\/p>\n
"Why?"<\/p>\n
"I was scared."<\/p>\n
"What did you do?"<\/p>\n
"I called Warren."<\/p>\n
"And?"<\/p>\n
"He told me to go to the cabin and destroy anything Karen might have left."<\/p>\n
That led to the attempted fire and Paul's confrontation with Richard.<\/p>\n
"Why did Richard let you go?"<\/p>\n
"Because I told him about the Lincoln."<\/p>\n
"Did you tell him Hale was driving?"<\/p>\n
"Yes."<\/p>\n
Patricia had omitted that.<\/p>\n
"Did you tell him who the passenger was?"<\/p>\n
Paul looked away.<\/p>\n
"Yes."<\/p>\n
Hart leaned forward.<\/p>\n
"Who?"<\/p>\n
Paul's answer was quiet.<\/p>\n
"Cynthia's mother."<\/p>\n
That name had barely entered the investigation.<\/p>\n
Elaine Warren.<\/p>\n
Robert's wife.<\/p>\n
She had died fifteen years earlier.<\/p>\n
"What was she doing with Hale?"<\/p>\n
"I didn't know then."<\/p>\n
"What do you know now?"<\/p>\n
Paul looked toward the one-way glass.<\/p>\n
"She was trying to stop him."<\/p>\n
Hart frowned.<\/p>\n
"Stop Hale?"<\/p>\n
"Stop Robert."<\/p>\n
Paul explained that Elaine had discovered portions of her husband's fraud months earlier.<\/p>\n
She knew about Karen.<\/p>\n
She knew Warren wanted the documents recovered.<\/p>\n
According to Paul, Elaine secretly contacted Richard.<\/p>\n
"Richard's final witness," Hart said.<\/p>\n
Paul nodded.<\/p>\n
"Elaine saw enough."<\/p>\n
"What happened on the road?"<\/p>\n
"I don't know exactly."<\/p>\n
"You're asking us to believe Elaine was in the vehicle that struck Karen while supposedly trying to help her."<\/p>\n
"That's what happened."<\/p>\n
"Convenient."<\/p>\n
"Ask Cynthia."<\/p>\n
Hart did.<\/p>\n
Cynthia confirmed her mother had feared Robert for years.<\/p>\n
"I was a teenager," she said. "I didn't understand."<\/p>\n
"Did Elaine ever mention Karen?"<\/p>\n
"Once."<\/p>\n
Cynthia had overheard her parents arguing shortly after Karen died.<\/p>\n
Elaine screamed that Robert had "let Victor go too far."<\/p>\n
Robert told her to keep quiet if she wanted Cynthia safe.<\/p>\n
"Why didn't your mother go to police?"<\/p>\n
"Because my father controlled people there."<\/p>\n
"Did she tell Richard?"<\/p>\n
"I think so."<\/p>\n
"Evidence?"<\/p>\n
Cynthia shook her head.<\/p>\n
Then she remembered something.<\/p>\n
"My mother kept journals."<\/p>\n
Hart sat straighter.<\/p>\n
"Where?"<\/p>\n
"I don't know."<\/p>\n
"You expect us to believe that?"<\/p>\n
"She hid them."<\/p>\n
"Why?"<\/p>\n
"Because Dad searched everything."<\/p>\n
Cynthia's voice broke.<\/p>\n
"When she died, he cleared out her belongings before I could."<\/p>\n
"Cause of death?"<\/p>\n
"Stroke."<\/p>\n
Hart wrote it down.<\/p>\n
"Any reason to question that?"<\/p>\n
Cynthia stared at him.<\/p>\n
"I question everything now."<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, investigators examined the warehouse.<\/p>\n
Victor Hale was gone.<\/p>\n
They found restraints, two burner phones, ammunition, and a folder containing photographs of Samuel, Melissa, Ethan, Brian, Patricia, Daniel, and me.<\/p>\n
My photograph had been marked with a red circle.<\/p>\n
I stared at it when Hart showed me.<\/p>\n
"Why me?"<\/p>\n
Daniel answered before Hart could.<\/p>\n
"Richard's evidence."<\/p>\n
Someone knew the wedding chest had belonged to me.<\/p>\n
The photograph left at Patricia's house had been a warning.<\/p>\n
The break-in wasn't random.<\/p>\n
They were searching for what Richard had hidden.<\/p>\n
"But we already found it."<\/p>\n
Hart nodded.<\/p>\n
"And if Warren doesn't know police have everything, I'd like to keep it that way."<\/p>\n
The evidence packet from the wedding chest contained enough to prove financial crimes.<\/p>\n
Not yet murder.<\/p>\n
Not conclusively.<\/p>\n
One document stood out.<\/p>\n
A handwritten list from Richard.<\/p>\n
Three names.<\/p>\n
KAREN.<\/p>\n
ELAINE.<\/p>\n
MICHAEL.<\/p>\n
Daniel stared at the third.<\/p>\n
"My father."<\/p>\n
Michael Mercer.<\/p>\n
"What did Dad know?"<\/p>\n
Paul refused to answer until Daniel came.<\/p>\n
Hart resisted.<\/p>\n
Paul insisted.<\/p>\n
Eventually the brothers were allowed to meet under supervision.<\/p>\n
Daniel entered the interview room first.<\/p>\n
Paul stood.<\/p>\n
For a moment they simply looked at each other.<\/p>\n
"You look old," Paul said.<\/p>\n
Daniel almost smiled.<\/p>\n
"So do you."<\/p>\n
Then his face hardened.<\/p>\n
"Why was Dad's name in Richard Brooks's evidence?"<\/p>\n
Paul sat.<\/p>\n
"Because Dad helped Richard."<\/p>\n
"With what?"<\/p>\n
"Building compartments."<\/p>\n
Daniel frowned.<\/p>\n
"Compartments?"<\/p>\n
"Storage spaces. False walls. Floor panels."<\/p>\n
The wedding chest.<\/p>\n
R-17.<\/p>\n
Richard had relied on a carpenter he trusted.<\/p>\n
Michael Mercer.<\/p>\n
"Our father knew?"<\/p>\n
"He knew Richard was hiding records."<\/p>\n
"Did he know why?"<\/p>\n
"Eventually."<\/p>\n
Daniel leaned forward.<\/p>\n
"Why didn't he tell anyone?"<\/p>\n
"He was afraid for us."<\/p>\n
That explanation had become nauseatingly familiar.<\/p>\n
Every adult had claimed fear for family while passing danger to someone else.<\/p>\n
Paul continued.<\/p>\n
"After Karen died, Richard gave Dad copies."<\/p>\n
"Where?"<\/p>\n
"I don't know."<\/p>\n
"You expect me to believe that?"<\/p>\n
"Dad never told me."<\/p>\n
"You worked for Warren."<\/p>\n
"That's why he didn't tell me."<\/p>\n
Daniel recoiled.<\/p>\n
Paul's eyes filled.<\/p>\n
"He knew what I was."<\/p>\n
"Did Mom know?"<\/p>\n
"Some."<\/p>\n
Daniel stared at his brother.<\/p>\n
"Our whole childhood\u2014"<\/p>\n
"I know."<\/p>\n
"No, you don't."<\/p>\n
Daniel stood.<\/p>\n
"I became a lawyer because Dad told me paperwork protects people."<\/p>\n
Paul laughed sadly.<\/p>\n
"That's because he watched paperwork destroy them."<\/p>\n
Daniel turned toward the door.<\/p>\n
Paul stopped him.<\/p>\n
"Danny."<\/p>\n
Daniel froze.<\/p>\n
Nobody called him that.<\/p>\n
"Dad left you something."<\/p>\n
Daniel looked back.<\/p>\n
"What?"<\/p>\n
"I don't know what it is."<\/p>\n
"Then how do you know?"<\/p>\n
"Before he died, he told me Warren would eventually come looking. He said if that happened, you had the answer."<\/p>\n
Daniel stared.<\/p>\n
"I don't have anything."<\/p>\n
"Maybe you don't know you do."<\/p>\n
That echoed Patricia's description of Richard choosing me.<\/p>\n
The older generation had hidden evidence with people who didn't know they possessed it.<\/p>\n
Because ignorance made them believable.<\/p>\n
Hart searched Michael Mercer's surviving property records.<\/p>\n
Daniel's childhood home had been sold years earlier.<\/p>\n
His father's workshop was demolished.<\/p>\n
Tools dispersed.<\/p>\n
Furniture inherited.<\/p>\n
"What did you get when he died?" I asked Daniel.<\/p>\n
"Books. His desk. Some tools."<\/p>\n
"Where's the desk?"<\/p>\n
"My office."<\/p>\n
Hart looked at him.<\/p>\n
We all did.<\/p>\n
Daniel sighed.<\/p>\n
"Of course."<\/p>\n
Police searched it that evening.<\/p>\n
Nothing.<\/p>\n
No hidden drawer.<\/p>\n
No false bottom.<\/p>\n
No documents.<\/p>\n
Daniel sat in his office surrounded by removed drawers.<\/p>\n
"I told you."<\/p>\n
Then I noticed the old framed photograph on his wall.<\/p>\n
Daniel with his father beside a fishing boat.<\/p>\n
"What about the frame?"<\/p>\n
He looked at it.<\/p>\n
"My dad made it."<\/p>\n
Hart removed the photograph.<\/p>\n
Behind it was ordinary backing paper.<\/p>\n
Nothing else.<\/p>\n
Daniel laughed tiredly.<\/p>\n
"Not everything has a secret compartment."<\/p>\n
He was right.<\/p>\n
Then the forensic technician examined the wooden frame.<\/p>\n
One side was thicker.<\/p>\n
Inside was a microcassette.<\/p>\n
Michael Mercer's voice emerged after thirty years.<\/p>\n
"If Daniel is hearing this, Robert found Paul."<\/p>\n
Daniel closed his eyes.<\/p>\n
Michael described the night Karen died.<\/p>\n
He had not witnessed the crash.<\/p>\n
But Elaine Warren came to him afterward.<\/p>\n
She was terrified.<\/p>\n
She told him Victor Hale had rammed Karen's car under Robert's orders.<\/p>\n
Then came the sentence that changed the case.<\/p>\n
"Elaine says Karen survived the first impact."<\/p>\n
Melissa covered her mouth.<\/p>\n
Michael continued.<\/p>\n
Richard reached Karen first.<\/p>\n
She was alive.<\/p>\n
Victor and Elaine arrived moments later.<\/p>\n
Elaine tried to stop Victor.<\/p>\n
There was a struggle.<\/p>\n
Michael did not know exactly what followed.<\/p>\n
But Elaine told him Karen was still breathing when Victor pulled her from the vehicle.<\/p>\n
"What?" Melissa whispered.<\/p>\n
The official report said Karen died inside the burned car.<\/p>\n
Michael's recording continued.<\/p>\n
"Richard told everyone Karen was dead because Robert threatened Melissa."<\/p>\n
Brian stared at the recorder.<\/p>\n
Melissa stood.<\/p>\n
"My mother survived?"<\/p>\n
Hart raised a hand.<\/p>\n
"We don't know how long."<\/p>\n
But Michael's final statement made all of us stop.<\/p>\n
"Richard said Victor took Karen away before the car burned. The body police found wasn't hers."<\/p>\n
Nobody breathed.<\/p>\n
Melissa shook her head.<\/p>\n
"No."<\/p>\n
Hart immediately ordered the old autopsy file retrieved.<\/p>\n
The body had been severely burned.<\/p>\n
Identification had been based primarily on vehicle ownership, personal effects, dental comparison, and Richard's statement.<\/p>\n
Modern DNA testing had never been performed.<\/p>\n
An exhumation order would be required.<\/p>\n
Melissa sat down.<\/p>\n
For twenty-four years she had visited a grave bearing her mother's name.<\/p>\n
Now there was a possibility Karen wasn't inside it.<\/p>\n
Before Hart could begin the legal process, his phone rang.<\/p>\n
He listened.<\/p>\n
Then looked at Melissa.<\/p>\n
"We found Victor Hale."<\/p>\n
"Where?"<\/p>\n
"Airport."<\/p>\n
"Was he leaving?"<\/p>\n
"Trying to."<\/p>\n
"Did he say anything?"<\/p>\n
Hart hesitated.<\/p>\n
"He asked whether Karen was still alive."<\/p>\n
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 … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9958,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-insightdrama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9972"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9972\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9992,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9972\/revisions\/9992"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}