Gregory looked stronger than he had the previous night, but not by much.
A police officer stood outside his hospital room. Another investigator waited inside beside the window, recording equipment arranged on a tray.
Daniel entered with Lena and Richard.
Gregory saw the document tube in Daniel’s hand.
His face changed.
“You found it.”
Daniel stopped beside the bed.
“The amendment.”
Gregory nodded.
“Then they’re finished.”
“No.”
Gregory looked confused.
“Why?”
“Because I still don’t know who ‘they’ are.”
The investigator identified herself and confirmed Gregory had requested to make a voluntary statement.
Gregory nodded.
“I want everything recorded.”
Daniel remained standing.
“Start with Anna.”
Gregory looked at him.
“I’m sorry.”
“You keep saying that.”
“I know.”
“It hasn’t become useful yet.”
Gregory lowered his eyes.
Daniel felt Lena watching him, perhaps waiting for anger to interfere.
He forced himself to sit.
“Tell me what happened.”
Gregory took a breath.
“The operation was supposed to target you.”
“You already told me.”
“Adrian Rane wanted you removed.”
“Dead.”
“Yes.”
“Say it clearly.”
Gregory swallowed.
“He wanted you dead.”
Daniel felt nothing new. The shock had already happened.
“Did Adrian give the order?”
“Not directly.”
“Who did?”
“Charles Voss handled communication.”
“And Michael?”
“Logistics.”
“Who gave final authorization?”
Gregory closed his eyes.
“That’s where it changed.”
Daniel leaned forward.
“Changed how?”
“Rane’s people required confirmation from the legacy trust before acting.”
Richard frowned.
“Why?”
“Because if Daniel died and the succession failed, they needed assurance the old claim would be recognized.”
“But Elaine was dead.”
“Yes.”
“So whose confirmation?”
Gregory looked at Daniel.
“Someone was using her trust credentials.”
“Who?”
“I never knew.”
Daniel’s patience tightened.
“You were inside this for years.”
“I was inside one piece.”
“Then tell me your piece.”
Gregory nodded weakly.
“Three days before the crash, Charles told me the operation had been approved.”
“Against me.”
“Yes.”
“Did Anna know?”
“Not then.”
“When did she learn?”
“The afternoon she died.”
Daniel stopped breathing normally.
“How?”
“I told her.”
The room went still.
Daniel stood.
“You?”
Gregory’s eyes filled with shame.
“I couldn’t let them do it.”
“You waited until that afternoon?”
“I had been trying to stop it another way.”
“What way?”
“I delayed access. Changed schedules. Fed Michael bad information.”
Daniel thought of Margaret’s claim.
She had done the same.
“How many people were secretly disrupting the same murder?”
Gregory gave a bitter, exhausted laugh.
“More than were willing to stop it openly.”
Daniel wanted to hit him.
Instead he gripped the chair.
“What did you tell Anna?”
“That you were in danger.”
“Did you tell her about my car?”
“Yes.”
Daniel’s face went cold.
“Then why did she take it?”
Gregory closed his eyes.
“I don’t know.”
“That answer is not acceptable.”
“It’s the truth.”
Daniel leaned over the bed.
“You warned my wife someone planned to kill me using my car, and hours later she drove that car into the attack.”
Gregory’s monitor quickened.
Lena touched Daniel’s shoulder.
He pulled away but stepped back.
Gregory whispered, “She said she had a plan.”
Daniel stared.
“What plan?”
“She wouldn’t tell me.”
“Who did she contact?”
“I don’t know.”
“Margaret?”
“Possibly.”
“Thomas?”
“Maybe.”
“Voss?”
Gregory’s eyes opened.
“No.”
The certainty mattered.
“Why not?”
“Because by then Anna knew Charles was part of the operation.”
Daniel sat again.
“What did she know about Elaine’s credentials?”
Gregory hesitated.
“More than I did.”
“Explain.”
“She found that the authorization approving your removal came through a legacy trust authentication tied to Elaine.”
“Impossible.”
“She knew it was impossible.”
“Then someone forged it.”
“Yes.”
“Like my signature.”
“Yes.”
“Like Anna’s later.”
Gregory nodded.
A pattern.
Dead people could not deny signatures.
Dead people could not testify.
Dead people made useful authorities.
Richard asked, “How were the credentials generated?”
Gregory looked at him.
“Old Voss legal systems.”
“Charles?”
“His firm retained archived identity records from the original trust.”
Daniel remembered Robert’s warning.
Voss, Keene & Adler.
“Could Charles generate them?”
“Yes.”
“Michael?”
“Possibly.”
“Margaret?”
Gregory’s face changed.
Daniel saw it.
“What?”
Gregory looked toward the investigator.
“Margaret had access too.”
“How?”
“She broke into Voss’s archive years ago.”
Daniel almost laughed.
Of course.
Every side possessed enough stolen information to impersonate the others.
“Did Margaret authorize the attack?”
“I don’t know.”
“Could she?”
“Yes.”
That answer landed harder than Daniel expected.
Margaret claimed she tried to save him.
She might also have possessed the credentials that authorized his death.
“Did Anna suspect her?”
Gregory looked at Daniel.
“Yes.”
“When?”
“That day.”
“What did she do?”
“She called someone.”
“Who?”
“I never found out.”
“Did you hear the conversation?”
“Part of it.”
“What did she say?”
Gregory closed his eyes, remembering.
“She said, ‘If you want me to believe you’re protecting Daniel, prove it. Stop the car.’”
Daniel’s throat tightened.
“Stop what car?”
“I assumed she meant Michael’s team.”
“Did they stop?”
“No.”
“Then whoever she called either couldn’t or wouldn’t.”
Gregory nodded.
Daniel thought of Margaret.
She had admitted knowing the attack was coming.
She claimed she delayed surveillance.
Had Anna called her?
“Anything else?”
Gregory hesitated.
“She said she had copied the ownership file.”
“The Rane Trust?”
“Yes.”
“Did she say where?”
“No.”
Daniel thought of the storage locker.
Some of the materials there were genuine.
Some planted later.
Anna’s original copy might still be somewhere else.
Gregory continued.
“After the crash, Charles ordered me to clean up Bellmont’s records.”
Daniel stared.
“You altered the accident file.”
“Yes.”
“You removed Lena’s report.”
“Yes.”
“You authorized destruction of my car.”
Gregory’s voice broke.
“Yes.”
Daniel stood again.
Richard moved slightly, ready to intervene.
Daniel did nothing.
He simply looked at Gregory.
“My wife was dead.”
“I know.”
“You knew the brakes had been damaged.”
“Yes.”
“And you destroyed the car.”
“I thought if the investigation continued, they would go after Sophie.”
Daniel’s voice became almost inaudible.
“So you buried Anna to protect Sophie.”
Gregory began crying.
“Yes.”
Daniel turned away.
The room blurred for one dangerous second.
He focused on the window frame.
On the rain outside.
On anything except Gregory’s face.
Lena asked the next question.
“Who told you Sophie would be targeted?”
Gregory wiped his eyes.
“Anonymous message.”
Daniel turned back.
“Margaret?”
“I don’t know.”
“What did it say?”
“If police pursue the vehicle, the child becomes the next accident.”
Daniel’s stomach twisted.
“Did Charles know about the message?”
“No.”
“Rane?”
“No.”
“How can you be sure?”
“Because I asked Charles to leave Sophie alone.”
“What did he say?”
Gregory looked at Daniel.
“He didn’t know what I was talking about.”
The room went quiet.
Daniel felt the pieces rearranging.
Someone outside Charles’s operation had threatened Sophie to make Gregory suppress evidence.
Margaret had the information.
Margaret had a history of controlling people through selective threats.
But so could someone using her methods.
“Did you save the message?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“My personal phone.”
“The one missing at the airport.”
Gregory’s face changed.
“Missing?”
Daniel nodded.
Gregory looked genuinely frightened.
“That phone has everything.”
“What everything?”
“Messages. Names. Payment instructions. Photographs.”
“Why carry it while fleeing?”
“I was going to give it to someone.”
“Who?”
Gregory hesitated.
“Eleanor.”
Daniel stared.
“You knew where she was?”
“Yes.”
“For how long?”
“Years.”
“And you left her alone?”
“I owed her that.”
Daniel thought of Eleanor hiding in Vermont while Gregory participated in the company that had driven her there.
“Why Eleanor?”
“Because she was the only protector still independent.”
“You knew about Robert’s nomination?”
“Yes.”
“Richard?”
Gregory looked at him.
“I recommended him to Bellmont because Robert asked me to.”
Richard went still.
“My father?”
“Yes.”
“He died before I joined Bellmont.”
“He gave me instructions years earlier.”
Richard looked stunned.
“What instructions?”
“If Samuel’s succession dispute ever resurfaced, I was supposed to help you become someone Daniel could trust.”
The anonymous message had been partly true.
Richard had been placed beside Daniel.
But not by Margaret.
By Robert.
Daniel watched Richard absorb that.
“Did Margaret know?” Daniel asked.
“Eventually.”
“Did she influence it?”
“Not at first.”
“What does that mean?”
“She tried to recruit Richard without him knowing.”
Richard’s face hardened.
“How?”
“Clients. introductions. career opportunities.”
Richard stared.
Daniel asked, “Did any succeed?”
Gregory shook his head.
“Robert designed the path carefully. He wanted Richard’s relationship with Daniel to develop naturally.”
Richard looked away.
For the first time since the investigation began, Daniel saw relief in him.
Not because manipulation had not occurred.
Because his friendship with Daniel might still have been real.
The investigator asked Gregory to return to the crash.
“After Mrs. Mercer died, what happened?”
“Charles panicked.”
“Why?”
“Because Anna wasn’t the target.”
“Was Michael blamed?”
“Yes.”
“By whom?”
“Adrian.”
“Did Adrian know Anna had been investigating?”
“Afterward.”
“What did he do?”
“He wanted everything she collected destroyed.”
“Did Charles comply?”
“Partly.”
Daniel caught the word.
“Partly?”
“Charles realized Anna’s evidence could protect him from Adrian.”
Again.
Leverage.
“So he kept some.”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
“What about Michael?”
“Michael blamed Adrian for putting him in the position.”
“Did that create the split?”
“It widened it.”
Daniel looked at Lena.
The factions had fractured further after Anna’s death.
Her death had not solved their problem.
It had destabilized the entire network.
Gregory coughed.
The nurse checked his monitor but allowed the interview to continue.
Daniel asked, “What happened the morning after Anna died?”
Gregory’s expression changed.
“Margaret contacted me.”
There it was.
“What did she say?”
“She knew the wrong person had died.”
“How?”
“I asked.”
“And?”
“She said she had been watching Michael.”
Daniel’s pulse sharpened.
“Did she know before the crash that Anna had my car?”
Gregory shook his head.
“She claimed she didn’t.”
“Did you believe her?”
“No.”
Daniel felt cold.
“Why not?”
“Because Margaret knew things before anyone should have known them.”
Exactly what Thomas said.
“What did you do?”
“I accused her of letting Anna die.”
“And?”
Gregory looked toward Daniel.
“She told me Anna made her own choice.”
Daniel’s breathing stopped for a second.
“What choice?”
“She wouldn’t explain.”
Daniel leaned closer.
“Exact words.”
Gregory swallowed.
“She said, ‘Anna understood the price of changing the target.’”
Silence.
Daniel stared.
Changing the target.
Not accidentally taking his car.
Not unknowingly stepping into an attack.
Changing the target.
“No.”
Gregory closed his eyes.
“That’s what she said.”
Daniel felt nauseated.
Anna had known.
She had taken his car deliberately.
Richard whispered, “She saved you.”
Daniel turned on him.
“No.”
But the word lacked force.
The memories returned.
Sophie sick.
Daniel planning to return to headquarters.
Anna insisting she would handle an errand.
Her taking his keys.
Her last text.
Stay with Sophie. I’ll be home soon.
Daniel had read it for three years as an ordinary message.
Now it sounded like goodbye.
“She knew,” he whispered.
Nobody answered.
Daniel looked at Gregory.
“Why would she do that?”
Gregory’s eyes filled again.
“Because they were going to kill you.”
“She could have called police.”
“She didn’t trust police channels.”
“She could have told me.”
“You would have stopped her.”
“Yes.”
“That may be why she didn’t.”
Daniel stood.
He could not remain beside the bed.
He walked into the hallway.
Richard followed but kept his distance.
Daniel pressed both hands against the wall.
Anna had not simply died because she borrowed his car.
She may have chosen the car because she knew someone was waiting for him.
The idea was unbearable.
Not noble.
Not comforting.
It made him furious with her.
She had left Sophie.
She had left him.
She had decided alone.
Again, protection through secrecy.
Again, someone believing love gave them the right to make an irreversible choice for another person.
Lena came out several minutes later.
“There’s more.”
Daniel laughed bitterly.
“There’s always more.”
“Gregory remembered where Anna said she was going before the crash.”
Daniel turned.
“Where?”
“She told him she had to meet someone who could prove who forged Elaine’s authorization.”
“Who?”
“He doesn’t know.”
“Where was the meeting?”
Lena handed him a note.
An address.
Daniel recognized the neighborhood but not the building.
Richard searched.
The address had belonged to a small private office complex.
One tenant occupied the relevant suite three years earlier.
Vale Strategic Intelligence.
Daniel stared.
“Margaret.”
Lena nodded.
“Anna was going to meet Margaret the night she died.”
Daniel felt anger return.
Margaret had omitted that.
She had spoken to him as though she were an observer.
She had been waiting for Anna.
“Call her.”
The anonymous number did not answer.
Daniel tried again.
Nothing.
Then a message arrived.
I wondered when Gregory would tell you.
Daniel typed for the first time.
Did Anna choose my car knowing about the attack?
The response took nearly a minute.
Yes.
Daniel closed his eyes.
Another message.
But not for the reason Gregory thinks.
Daniel typed.
Then tell me.
The reply appeared.
Come alone.
An address followed.
Richard read it.
“No.”
Daniel looked at him.
“She knows what Anna did.”
“She also spent decades manipulating everyone around your family.”
“She knows.”
“That is exactly why you don’t go alone.”
Daniel stared at the address.
An abandoned rail depot outside the city.
Margaret had finally stopped hiding behind anonymous calls.
Whatever happened there, Daniel intended to hear the truth from the woman Anna had been trying to reach.
Click here to continue reading: PART 15: Margaret Finally Faces Daniel and Reveals Anna’s Last Plan, but One Detail Proves the Night of the Crash Is Still Being Misread
A Quiet Dinner With His Daughter Turns Into the Exact Kind of Test Daniel Mercer Came to Investigate
Part 14 of 47
