Chapter 3 - The Woman Who Knew Rebecca
The Mercer estate became a fortress before noon.
Every gate was closed.
Every vehicle was inspected.
Every employee was searched on the way in and again on the way out.
Marcus replaced the regular security rotation with men Claire had never seen before.
They moved quietly through the mansion in dark suits and spoke into hidden earpieces.
Lily hated them immediately.
"Why are there strangers in the hallway?"
Claire sat beside her on the playroom floor.
"Your dad is being extra careful today."
"Because of the window?"
Claire hated that Lily had heard enough to ask.
"Yes."
Lily picked at the ear of her stuffed rabbit.
"Is somebody mad at Daddy?"
Claire did not answer quickly enough.
Lily looked up.
"Somebody is always mad at Daddy."
The casual way she said it hurt more than panic would have.
Claire reached for her hand.
"You are safe here."
Lily's eyes dropped.
"Mommy used to say that."
Claire's chest tightened.
Before she could respond, Adrian appeared in the doorway.
He had changed into a charcoal sweater and dark trousers, but nothing about him looked relaxed.
"Bug, Mrs. Callahan made pancakes."
Lily looked suspicious.
"At lunch?"
"Apparently pancakes recognize no clock."
That earned the smallest smile.
Lily stood and carried her rabbit toward the hall.
She stopped beside Adrian.
"Are you mad?"
He crouched.
"Not at you."
"At Claire?"
Claire nearly choked.
Adrian looked past his daughter at her.
"No."
Lily studied him as if she did not completely believe him.
"You make the same face."
Then she left.
Claire waited until her footsteps disappeared.
"She's observant."
"Unfortunately."
Adrian entered the room.
"Marcus found tracks outside the east wall."
Claire stood.
"Human?"
"Yes."
"How did they get over it?"
"They didn't."
Claire frowned.
Adrian continued.
"The tracks began inside the property."
A chill moved through her.
"So whoever wrote on the window was already inside."
"Yes."
"One of your employees?"
"Possibly."
"Or one of your security people?"
His silence gave her the answer.
Claire looked toward the hallway.
"Then adding more strangers isn't exactly comforting."
"They're Marcus's people."
"And the others weren't?"
Adrian's expression tightened.
"I understand your point."
"Do you?"
"Claire."
"I'm not trying to be difficult."
"You are very talented at it without trying."
Her mouth opened.
Then she realized he was almost teasing her.
Almost.
She looked away before he could see the effect it had.
A radio cracked from the hallway.
Marcus's voice followed.
"Adrian. Front gate."
The tone changed everything.
Adrian left immediately.
Claire stayed with Lily for the next fifteen minutes, but the tension crawling through the house made sitting still impossible.
When Mrs. Callahan came to take Lily to lunch, Claire went downstairs.
Adrian and Marcus were standing in the entrance hall.
A woman waited between two security guards near the front door.
She appeared to be in her late fifties.
Silver-blond hair framed a narrow face.
A camel-colored coat reached her knees.
She carried no purse.
Only a white envelope.
"Who is she?" Claire asked.
The woman looked at her.
Her eyes widened.
Then she whispered, "Thomas's daughter."
Claire stopped walking.
Adrian turned sharply.
Marcus's hand moved toward the inside of his jacket.
Claire felt the floor tilt beneath her.
"What did you say?"
The woman took one step forward.
Both guards blocked her.
"Claire Bennett."
Claire's pulse jumped.
"How do you know my name?"
The woman looked at Adrian.
"Because Rebecca knew it."
Adrian's face went completely still.
"Who are you?"
"Evelyn Shaw."
Marcus swore quietly.
Claire looked between them.
"You know her?"
Adrian did not take his eyes off Evelyn.
"She worked for my wife."
Evelyn gave a humorless smile.
"That's one way to say it."
"You disappeared after the funeral."
"I was told to."
"By whom?"
"Rebecca."
Adrian moved closer.
"Rebecca was dead."
"She gave me instructions before she died."
The sentence landed hard.
Claire saw Adrian's throat move.
Evelyn lifted the white envelope.
"She told me I would know when to come back."
Marcus said, "And what exactly was the signal?"
Evelyn looked at Claire again.
"Her."
Claire felt a cold pressure spread across her ribs.
"I never met Rebecca."
"No."
"Then why would she know me?"
Evelyn's eyes softened.
"She didn't know you personally."
"That doesn't answer the question."
"She knew your father."
Claire's anger arrived before grief.
"My father died seven years ago."
"I know."
"How?"
Evelyn looked toward the guards.
"Not in the front hall."
Adrian nodded once.
"Study."
Claire followed them without asking permission.
Inside, Marcus searched Evelyn's coat and the envelope before allowing her to sit.
Evelyn seemed unsurprised.
"Still charming, Marcus."
"Still alive, Evelyn."
"Barely."
Adrian remained standing.
"Start talking."
Evelyn placed the envelope on the desk.
"I was Rebecca's personal assistant for eight years."
Claire knew that much from household stories.
"Six months before her diagnosis became terminal, she began reviewing old Mercer records."
Adrian's eyes narrowed.
"Why?"
"Because she found payments she didn't understand."
"What payments?"
"Small ones at first."
Evelyn looked at Marcus.
"Consulting invoices. Freight adjustments. Legal retainers."
Marcus said, "Shell vendors."
"Exactly."
Adrian's jaw tightened.
"I shut those down years ago."
"You shut down the ones you knew about."
Evelyn turned to Claire.
"Your father was an independent safety auditor at Pier Nine."
Claire's chest tightened.
"He worked industrial inspections."
"Yes."
"What does that have to do with Rebecca?"
Evelyn paused.
"He found something."
Claire laughed once without humor.
"Everyone says dead people found something right before they died."
Evelyn did not flinch.
"Your father found freight containers entering Pier Nine under valid Mercer documents and leaving without ever being logged into the central system."
Adrian looked at Marcus.
Marcus's face had changed.
"Which year?"
"Seven years ago."
Claire stared at him.
"The year my father died."
No one answered.
Her hands began to shake.
She pressed them together.
"His truck went off an icy overpass."
Evelyn's voice was gentle.
"That's what the report said."
Claire stood so quickly the chair struck the wall.
"Do not do that."
Evelyn blinked.
"Do what?"
"Turn my father's death into some dramatic mystery because it fits whatever story you're telling."
Adrian stepped toward her.
"Claire."
"No."
She pointed at Evelyn.
"If you have proof, show me."
Evelyn pushed the envelope across the desk.
Claire stared at it.
"What is that?"
"A copy of a letter your father sent Rebecca."
Claire did not move.
Adrian reached for the envelope.
"Don't."
He stopped.
Claire picked it up herself.
The paper inside was old and creased.
Her father's handwriting appeared at the top.
She recognized it instantly.
Thomas Bennett had written grocery lists in block letters because his cursive was almost impossible to read.
Claire's vision blurred.
She forced herself to focus.
Rebecca,
If something happens before we meet, do not take this to Adrian until you know who around him can be trusted.
The sentence beneath it was underlined twice.
Someone inside Mercer Holdings is protecting the route.
Claire stopped reading.
Her hands went cold.
Adrian took a slow breath.
"Why didn't Rebecca show me this?"
Evelyn looked at him with something close to pity.
"Because by the time she received it, Thomas Bennett was dead."
"That still doesn't answer me."
"She was afraid the person responsible was close enough to you to see everything you saw."
Marcus's face hardened.
Adrian's voice dropped.
"She thought it was Marcus."
Evelyn shook her head.
"She didn't know."
Claire looked back at the letter.
There was one final line.
If my daughter ever gets pulled into this, keep her away from the Mercer family.
Claire's stomach turned.
She lifted her eyes to Adrian.
He had read the line over her shoulder.
Neither of them spoke.
Then Evelyn pushed the envelope farther toward Claire.
"There's more."
Claire looked inside.
A small brass key rested at the bottom.
Stamped into the metal were three numbers.
314.
Evelyn whispered, "Rebecca said you would know what it opened."
Claire stared at the key.
"I don't."
Evelyn looked genuinely frightened for the first time.
"Then somebody reached you before they were supposed to."
Adrian's eyes sharpened.
"What does that mean?"
Evelyn looked toward the study door.
"It means the message wasn't meant to bring me here."
Marcus stepped closer.
"Then what was it meant to do?"
Evelyn answered quietly.
"Flush me out."
At that exact moment, a gunshot cracked outside the window.
The glass shattered.
Adrian grabbed Claire and drove both of them to the floor.
Marcus pulled Evelyn behind the desk.
A second shot tore through the wall.
Security alarms exploded through the mansion.
Lily screamed upstairs.
May you like
And beneath Adrian's arm, Claire realized the person hunting them had just proved something worse than access to the property.
They knew exactly who Rebecca had trusted.
