Chapter 5 - THE DEAD MAN'S NAME
Flora stared at Daniel Mercer's name until the letters blurred.
She had never met him.
She had never heard of him.
Yet Evan Pike had just pointed at the forged marriage certificate and claimed a dead man paid him to frame her.
Detective Warren took the certificate before anyone else could touch it.
"Nobody leaves this room."
Portia leaned against the doorframe.
"I thought you might say that."
Flora looked at her.
"Where did you get that?"
Portia's smile was thin.
"Public records."
"You searched for a marriage certificate under my name during my wedding?"
"I searched weeks ago."
Alonzo appeared in the doorway behind Portia.
He had heard enough to understand the question.
"Why?"
Portia turned toward him.
"Because someone in this family had to check who Flora really was."
Alonzo pushed past her.
"You hired investigators to dig through her life."
"I protected you."
"From what?"
Portia pointed at the certificate.
"Apparently from a wife who forgot her first husband."
Flora's face burned.
"It is fake."
Portia looked almost pitying.
"Of course you would say that."
Warren placed a hand on the folder.
"Mrs. Vale, stop arguing the evidence before we authenticate it."
Portia's eyes flashed at the use of Mrs. Vale.
She had been married to Cedric's late brother, not to Cedric, and she guarded the family name like a private title.
"It came directly from the county archive."
"Then we will confirm that."
Cedric entered the library last.
He saw the name on the certificate from several feet away.
His face emptied.
Alonzo noticed.
"You know him."
Cedric did not answer.
Flora turned toward him.
"Who was Daniel Mercer?"
Cedric walked to the desk and looked down at the certificate.
For a moment, the room seemed to disappear around him.
"He worked for us."
Portia's posture stiffened.
Alonzo moved closer to his father.
"Doing what?"
Cedric rubbed a hand over his mouth.
"He was a senior accountant for the Lenora Vale Foundation."
The name hit the room like another falling vase.
Flora looked at Portia.
Portia looked at Gideon.
Gideon looked nowhere at all.
Alonzo's voice became dangerously quiet.
"My mother's foundation."
Cedric nodded.
"Daniel handled grant transfers, endowment reports, and several family trusts."
Flora pointed at the forged certificate.
"Why is his name attached to mine?"
"I don't know."
Portia laughed.
"Convenient."
Cedric turned on her.
"Do not."
She stopped laughing.
Detective Ramirez opened her notebook again.
"When did Mr. Mercer die?"
Cedric hesitated.
"Six years ago."
Flora looked at the certificate.
The marriage date was seven years ago.
A year before Daniel supposedly died.
"Where?"
Cedric's eyes moved toward the fireplace.
"His car went off a mountain road outside Asheville."
Warren frowned.
"Was there a body?"
Portia answered too quickly.
"Yes."
Cedric looked at her.
The room changed.
Warren caught it.
"Mr. Vale?"
Cedric took a long breath.
"There were remains."
"Was the body positively identified?"
Gideon stepped forward.
"Detective, I do not see how a six-year-old traffic fatality relates to tonight's incident."
Warren looked at him.
"A witness just named the dead man as the person who paid him."
Gideon gave a restrained nod.
"A frightened witness who has already contradicted himself."
Evan Pike sank deeper into his chair.
Warren kept his eyes on Cedric.
"Was Daniel Mercer positively identified?"
Cedric swallowed.
"No."
Alonzo stared at him.
"What?"
Cedric's voice was barely audible.
"The vehicle burned."
Portia closed her eyes briefly.
Cedric continued.
"The remains were too damaged for visual identification."
Ramirez leaned forward.
"Dental records?"
"Inconclusive."
"DNA?"
"A partial match to a family sample."
Warren's expression tightened.
"Partial?"
Cedric nodded.
"That was what we were told."
Flora looked at Gideon.
"Who told you?"
Cedric did not answer.
Gideon did.
"The investigator handling the estate claim."
Alonzo's eyes narrowed.
"Which investigator?"
Gideon hesitated for half a second.
"One retained by my firm."
Flora felt the room tilt toward him.
"Your firm confirmed his death."
Gideon folded his hands.
"Our investigator assisted the family."
Portia stepped away from the door.
"This is absurd."
She pointed at Evan.
"That man is obviously confused."
Evan suddenly looked at her.
Flora saw terror cross his face.
Portia saw it too.
"Have we met?" Warren asked him.
Evan looked down again.
"No."
"Have you met Mrs. Vale?"
"No."
"Look at her."
Evan's jaw clenched.
"I said no."
Flora knew he was lying now.
Ramirez knew it too.
She stood and moved between Evan and Portia.
"Mr. Pike, we can talk privately."
Evan shook his head.
"I already told you everything."
"Then tell me why you cannot look at her."
"I can."
He forced himself to look up.
Portia smiled at him.
It was barely a smile.
Evan immediately looked away.
Warren turned to Portia.
"Where were you two months ago on March fourteenth?"
Portia blinked.
"I do not carry my calendar in my head."
Gideon stepped in.
"She is not required to answer random questions without counsel."
Warren looked at him.
"You are counsel for the Vale estate."
"Tonight I am advising Portia."
Cedric's head snapped up.
"Since when?"
Gideon remained calm.
"Since she requested it."
"You represent my companies."
"My firm does."
"You personally represent me."
"Not in this matter."
Cedric stared at him.
The betrayal was no longer hidden behind legal language.
Alonzo looked at his father.
"How much did you trust this man?"
Cedric did not answer.
Portia did.
"Enough to let him sign things Cedric did not want to read."
Cedric went rigid.
Gideon looked at Portia with a flash of anger.
It vanished instantly.
Flora noticed.
"What things?"
Portia shrugged.
"Old documents."
"What documents?"
"Ask Cedric."
Alonzo turned to his father.
"Dad?"
Cedric sat down heavily.
"Daniel Mercer came to me eight months before his crash."
The room fell quiet.
"He said there were irregular transfers in your mother's foundation."
Alonzo did not blink.
"How much?"
Cedric stared at the desk.
"At first, two million."
Portia scoffed.
"He was wrong."
Cedric ignored her.
"Then he came back with a number closer to eighteen million."
Flora heard Ramirez stop writing.
Evan Pike's face became pale.
Alonzo looked at Portia.
"Eighteen million dollars."
"Your father is remembering grief as accounting."
Cedric stood.
"I remember the number."
"Then you also remember what Daniel wanted."
Cedric's eyes sharpened.
"He wanted an audit."
"He wanted money."
"That was your claim."
"Because it was true."
Flora stepped closer to Cedric.
"What did Lenora believe?"
Cedric's face tightened.
"She believed Daniel."
Portia looked away.
There it was.
The connection to the letter.
Lenora had not hidden that envelope over a family disagreement.
She had been preserving evidence.
Alonzo's voice became cold.
"And what did you believe?"
Cedric looked at his son.
"I believed I could handle it quietly."
"That is not an answer."
"I believed Daniel had found something."
"And you did what?"
Cedric's silence became the answer.
Alonzo stepped back as if his father had struck him.
"You buried it."
"I froze several accounts."
"Did you call the police?"
"No."
"Did you tell the board?"
"No."
"Did you tell me?"
"You were twenty-six."
Alonzo laughed once without humor.
"I was old enough to know my mother's foundation was missing eighteen million dollars."
Cedric's voice broke slightly.
"Your mother was dying."
That silenced Alonzo.
Cedric looked toward the two pages of Lenora's letter.
"I thought I could protect her from one more fight."
Flora felt sick.
"And then Daniel died."
Cedric nodded.
"And the audit disappeared with him."
Warren looked at Gideon.
"Who closed the investigation after his death?"
Gideon's face became unreadable.
"There was no formal criminal investigation."
"Who closed the internal review?"
Cedric answered.
"I did."
Portia smiled faintly.
Flora understood the smile.
Cedric had just admitted enough to make himself look complicit.
Then Evan Pike spoke from the corner.
"He isn't dead."
Everyone turned.
Evan was sweating again.
Warren moved toward him.
"Who?"
"Daniel."
Portia's head lifted.
Gideon went still.
Evan's voice shook.
"The man who paid me showed me his driver's license."
Flora could hear her own heartbeat.
"What did the license say?"
Evan looked directly at her.
"Daniel Mercer."
Cedric gripped the desk.
"What did he look like?"
Evan described a man in his late forties with graying hair, a narrow scar under his jaw, and a slight limp.
Cedric's face drained of color.
"That is Daniel."
Portia shook her head violently.
"No."
Warren turned toward her.
"You seem certain."
Portia realized her mistake.
"I mean Evan is lying."
Cedric stared at her.
"Why are you afraid he might be alive?"
Portia said nothing.
Flora looked at the forged marriage certificate again.
If Daniel Mercer was alive, then someone had connected her identity to him a full year before his supposed death.
That meant the plot against her had begun long before she met Alonzo.
The thought was impossible.
Unless the certificate had not been created seven years ago.
Ramirez seemed to reach the same conclusion.
"We need the filing metadata."
Warren nodded.
"Call the clerk."
Portia's phone vibrated in an evidence bag on the desk.
Everyone looked at it.
A second message appeared on the locked screen.
YOU SHOULD HAVE LET THE LETTER BURN.
The sender was the same unknown number.
The number that had been traced to Flora's bridal suite.
The prepaid phone from that room was now in police custody.
Yet somehow it had just sent another message.
Ramirez asked Evan to wait in a separate room before anyone continued.
As he passed Portia, his pace changed.
It was barely visible.
One step shortened.
His shoulders rose.
His eyes dropped.
Flora noticed because Maisie did the same thing whenever Portia entered a room.
Fear had habits.
People could lie with words, documents, and signatures.
Their bodies were less disciplined.
Ramirez noticed too.
She wrote something in her notebook.
Portia watched the pen move.
Then she asked Gideon, much too casually, how long police could keep a witness without charging him.
Gideon told her not to worry about Evan.
May you like
That answer worried Flora even more.
