Chapter 6 - THE NIGHT DANIEL FORGOT
For several seconds, nobody moved.
Daniel stared at the photograph in Grant's hand.
A nineteen-year-old version of himself stood in the background.
The young man looked frightened.
Confused.
And he was holding a gun.
Daniel shook his head.
“No.”
Grant watched him carefully.
“You recognize yourself.”
“I recognize the photograph.”
“Then you recognize the night.”
“No.”
Daniel's voice became sharper.
“I was at college.”
Grant smiled.
“That is what everyone told you.”
Lily looked between them.
“Mr. Mercer…”
Daniel raised a hand.
“Not now.”
His mind was racing.
There was something buried beneath the photograph.
Something he couldn't remember.
He remembered his father's funeral.
He remembered his mother's face.
He remembered standing beside the coffin.
But the night before?
Nothing.
Just darkness.
Grant placed the photograph on the desk.
“Your father wasn't the man you thought he was.”
Daniel stared at him.
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I expect you to remember.”
Grant walked toward the door.
Lily stepped forward.
“You're not leaving.”
Grant stopped.
“You don't understand what you're involved in.”
“I understand enough.”
“No.”
Grant looked at her.
“You know what your mother found. You don't know why she died.”
Lily's jaw tightened.
“Then tell me.”
Grant's eyes moved toward Daniel.
“Ask him.”
He left.
The door clicked shut.
Daniel remained frozen.
Lily whispered, “Do you remember anything?”
“No.”
“Nothing?”
Daniel closed his eyes.
A headache exploded behind his forehead.
Then—
A flash.
Rain.
Headlights.
His father's voice.
“Daniel, get out of the car.”
Another flash.
A woman's scream.
His mother crying.
A gunshot.
Daniel opened his eyes.
He was breathing hard.
Lily grabbed his arm.
“What happened?”
“I don't know.”
Then he saw something else.
A red scarf.
His mother's scarf.
And a man standing beside the car.
Daniel whispered one name.
“Thomas.”
Lily went still.
“Thomas Halloway?”
Daniel nodded.
“He was there.”
The next morning, Daniel hired a private investigator.
Her name was Evelyn Brooks.
She had spent twenty-five years investigating corporate fraud and organized financial crime.
Daniel gave her one instruction.
“Don't trust anyone connected to Mercer Market.”
Evelyn studied him.
“That includes you?”
Daniel looked at her.
“Especially me.”
She smiled faintly.
“I like that answer.”
Lily sat across the table.
Evelyn opened the photograph.
“This was taken before your father died?”
“Yes,” Lily said.
Evelyn enlarged it.
“There are three people in the foreground.”
She pointed.
“Your father.”
“Lily's mother.”
“And Daniel.”
Evelyn nodded.
“But there's another figure.”
Daniel leaned forward.
“Who?”
“Someone behind the tree.”
She enhanced the image.
A face emerged.
Daniel's stomach dropped.
It was Thomas Halloway.
But that wasn't the shocking part.
He wasn't looking at Daniel.
He was looking at Lily's mother.
And in his hand was a small black envelope.
Evelyn stared at the image.
“That envelope may be the entire case.”
Daniel asked, “Why?”
“Because whatever was inside it was important enough for four people to risk their lives.”
Lily looked at Daniel.
“Then we find it.”
Daniel nodded.
“We do.”
That afternoon, Evelyn called.
“I found something.”
“What?”
“Your father's old house.”
Daniel frowned.
“My father sold it.”
“No.”
Evelyn's voice was quiet.
“He never sold it.”
Daniel's blood ran cold.
“Then who owns it?”
There was a pause.
“Your mother.”
Daniel stopped breathing.
“My mother has been dead for eleven years.”
“I know.”
“Then how can she own it?”
May you like
Evelyn answered:
“She still does.”
