Chapter 8 - PRESCOTT’S TRUTH
Every guard in the corridor drew a weapon.
Prescott stopped.
“Easy.”
Lawson stood between him and the twins’ room.
“Put it down.”
Prescott looked at the gun in his own hand as though he had forgotten it was there.
Then he slowly placed it on the floor.
A guard kicked it away.
Nora held Genevieve’s letter behind her back.
Prescott noticed.
“What did you find?”
Lawson’s expression told him.
Prescott closed his eyes.
“Genevieve.”
“You knew.”
“Yes.”
The word detonated inside Lawson more powerfully than any accusation.
He stepped forward.
“You knew she investigated Meridian.”
“Yes.”
“You knew she left evidence.”
“Some of it.”
“You knew your name was in that box.”
Prescott looked genuinely surprised.
“My name?”
Lawson shoved the letter into his chest.
Prescott read.
His face changed.
“That isn’t what you think.”
“Then start talking.”
Prescott looked toward the armed guards.
“Not here.”
Lawson laughed without humor.
“You lost the right to choose the room.”
“Lawson.”
“Talk.”
Prescott lowered his voice.
“Genevieve suspected me because I asked questions about Mercer Health Logistics.”
“Why?”
“Because I was investigating it too.”
“For whom?”
“Myself.”
Lawson’s eyes narrowed.
Prescott looked at Nora.
“My older brother worked for Mercer Health Logistics.”
Lawson had never heard this.
“Name?”
“Daniel Hale.”
Nora searched her memory.
The name was familiar.
“Warehouse supervisor,” she said.
Prescott looked at her sharply.
“You saw it in the files?”
“Yes.”
Prescott nodded.
“Daniel disappeared fourteen years ago.”
Lawson stared.
“You told me your brother died.”
“I said he was gone.”
“You let me assume—”
“I was twenty-eight and working private security. I believed your father had him killed.”
The corridor became silent.
Lawson’s father, Richard Mercer, had been dead nine years.
A brutal man.
Even Lawson would not pretend otherwise.
“So you came to work for me to investigate my family.”
Prescott nodded.
Nora almost laughed at the irony.
Lawson looked between them.
“Apparently everyone in my house came here to investigate me.”
Odessa raised a hand.
“I came because the wages were good.”
No one laughed.
Almost.
Prescott continued.
“I found Genevieve digging into the same company about eight years later. At first we didn’t trust each other.”
“But eventually?”
“We shared information.”
“Without me.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because you were becoming more powerful by the month, and neither of us knew whether you were connected.”
Lawson recoiled as if struck.
“You thought I was involved?”
“We needed to know.”
“For how long?”
“A year.”
“And after a year?”
“We knew you weren’t.”
Lawson’s anger became colder.
“And you still said nothing.”
“Genevieve made me promise.”
“Genevieve is dead.”
Prescott’s face twisted.
“I know.”
Lawson saw genuine grief there.
A different kind.
Prescott had loved Genevieve too.
Not romantically.
Like family.
Perhaps that hurt even more.
“Why is there blood on your shirt?”
“Because I found Danner’s contact.”
Lawson’s head lifted.
“Shepherd?”
“No. Someone below him.”
“Who?”
“A former Meridian courier named Walter Reese.”
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“Safe location.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because three people knew I was going to question him.”
“Names.”
“You. Me. And Malcolm Reeve.”
Lawson froze.
Nora had not heard that name.
“Who’s Malcolm?”
Lawson did not answer immediately.
Odessa did.
“Lawson’s uncle.”
Not biological.
Richard Mercer’s closest friend and business partner.
The man who had taught Lawson to drive.
The man who stood beside him at his wedding.
Godfather to the twins.
Malcolm Reeve was seventy now, officially retired from most business operations, but still sat on boards controlling several Mercer companies.
“He knew the old logistics business,” Prescott said.
“He helped my father build it,” Lawson replied.
Nora understood.
“And he has access to security schedules.”
“Yes.”
“And medical contracts?”
Lawson’s face changed.
“Yes.”
Malcolm had recommended Meridian.
Years ago.
Before the twins were diagnosed.
“He said they were reliable,” Lawson whispered.
Prescott nodded.
“Walter Reese says Shepherd has been running Meridian’s covert distribution network since before Crosby bought it.”
Lawson’s stomach turned.
“Malcolm sold it to him.”
“Possibly.”
“No.”
Lawson looked at Genevieve’s letter.
“Not possibly.”
The voice recorder remained in the blue box.
Nora picked it up.
“There might be more.”
They found fresh batteries.
The device clicked.
Static.
Then Genevieve’s voice filled the room.
Lawson nearly stopped breathing.
Seven years vanished.
“September fourteenth. If this recording is found, I need whoever hears it to understand that I have not told Lawson.”
Her voice was steady.
Warm.
Alive.
Blythe stirred in the next room.
Lawson pressed a hand against the wall.
Genevieve continued.
“I am not protecting him. I am protecting Jonah and Blythe from what he will become if Malcolm’s betrayal is true.”
Lawson closed his eyes.
Nora watched him.
“I followed a payment from Mercer Health Logistics to a shell company controlled by Malcolm Reeve. That company later financed Meridian’s first distribution center.”
Prescott swore quietly.
“Samuel Crane believes the network began as a way to move undeclared pharmaceuticals across state lines. Later, it became bigger.”
Paper rustled on the recording.
“I confronted Malcolm without telling anyone.”
Lawson’s eyes snapped open.
Genevieve continued.
“He denied everything. Then he said something I cannot forget.”
The recording paused.
When she spoke again, fear entered her voice.
“He told me Lawson inherited Richard’s empire because Malcolm allowed it. He said one day Lawson would understand that every king rules only because someone else keeps the doors locked.”
The recording ended.
Silence.
Then Blythe called weakly from the next room.
“Mommy?”
Lawson broke.
He turned away.
Nora walked into the children’s room.
Blythe was crying.
“Was that Mommy?”
Nora sat beside her.
“Yes.”
“Where is she?”
“That was an old recording.”
Blythe’s lip trembled.
“I forgot her voice.”
Lawson stood in the doorway.
His daughter looked at him.
“I forgot.”
He crossed the room.
“So did I.”
Blythe reached for him.
He sat on the bed and pulled her carefully against his chest.
Jonah woke.
“What happened?”
“Nothing,” Lawson said.
Nora gave him a look.
He corrected himself.
“Something happened. But you’re safe.”
Jonah watched him.
“You promise?”
Lawson took a long breath.
“No.”
Everyone in the room looked at him.
“I promise I’ll do everything I can.”
Jonah seemed to accept that more than the lie.
Outside, Prescott’s phone rang.
He answered quietly.
Then stepped into the doorway.
“Walter Reese is dead.”
Lawson looked up.
“How?”
“Someone reached the safe location.”
Prescott’s face was grim.
“Only one of our people knew the address besides me.”
“Who?”
Prescott hesitated.
Lawson already knew.
“Malcolm.”
“Yes.”
Then Nora’s phone rang.
Her cheap prepaid phone.
The number was unknown.
She answered.
“Hello?”
A man’s voice spoke.
Older.
Calm.
“Nora Bennett.”
Her skin went cold.
“Who is this?”
Lawson looked at her.
The voice continued.
“You’ve caused a remarkable amount of trouble for a woman who arrived with nothing.”
Nora’s eyes met Lawson’s.
Malcolm Reeve.
He chuckled softly.
“Tell Lawson I’m glad the children survived the tunnel.”
Nora’s stomach dropped.
Only someone directly involved would know.
Then Malcolm said:
May you like
“But if he wants them to survive tomorrow, he will bring Genevieve’s box to me tonight.”
The line went dead.
