Chapter 16 - DANIEL'S LAST LIE
Daniel Price met federal investigators in a windowless conference room at the courthouse.
Leo was allowed to attend only because the crimes involved his family trust and his wife's identity records.
Naomi sat beside him.
Celeste sat across the room under separate counsel.
Daniel looked twenty years older than he had two days earlier.
His perfect suit was wrinkled.
His hands shook when he lifted a cup of water.
A federal agent named Rebecca Sloan began the interview.
“Mr. Price, who instructed you to alter the identification records after the mountain crash?”
Daniel looked at Leo.
Then at Celeste.
Finally he spoke.
“Victor Mercer.”
Leo stared at him.
“My father had been dead for two years.”
Daniel swallowed.
“I know.”
Naomi frowned.
“Then explain yourself.”
Daniel slid a file across the table.
Inside were letters bearing Victor Mercer's signature.
They created an emergency legal protocol to protect any family member cooperating with federal investigators against threats tied to the trust.
The protocol allowed counsel to establish aliases, separate residences, and sealed medical identities.
Leo read the date.
His father had signed it months before his own death.
Daniel continued.
“Elena discovered the protocol while tracing the offshore fund.”
“She invoked it before the crash.”
Leo looked up.
“So she authorized her own disappearance?”
“No.”
“She authorized emergency identity protection if she was attacked.”
“After the crash, I used the protocol.”
“Then Grant found out.”
Daniel's voice cracked.
“He threatened to expose everything, including the federal inquiry.”
“He also threatened my family.”
“So I changed more than the protocol required.”
“You falsified Elena's death.”
“Yes.”
“You let me bury the wrong woman.”
Daniel could not look at him.
“Yes.”
Leo's hands curled around the file.
Elena's warning echoed again.
They need you angry.
He forced his fingers open.
“Who was in the coffin?”
“Rachel Ames.”
“Did her family know?”
“Federal authorities later corrected her identity privately.”
“The grave was kept under Elena's name because exposing the correction would have exposed the surviving witness.”
Leo felt sick at the scale of it.
Naomi leaned forward.
“Then why did you work with Grant now?”
Daniel looked miserable.
“Because three months ago, Grant learned Elena's location.”
“He said if I did not help remove Leo from company control, he would release evidence making it appear that I had invented the entire protection protocol to cover embezzlement.”
“You still forged filings.”
“Yes.”
“You still submitted false evidence.”
“Yes.”
Daniel's voice dropped.
“I am not asking to be forgiven.”
“I am asking to keep my children safe while I testify.”
Agent Sloan slid a second document forward.
“Where is Elena Mercer now?”
Daniel looked at Grant's recent communication logs.
“I don't know.”
“Who would?”
“Grant.”
“He had Thomas tracking her.”
“Thomas denies moving her.”
Daniel nodded.
“I believe him.”
Leo stared at him.
“Why?”
“Because Grant never trusted Thomas with the final location.”
“Who did he trust?”
Daniel looked at Celeste.
Not because he suspected her.
Because the answer was connected to her.
“Her driver.”
Celeste went still.
“Michael?”
Daniel nodded.
Michael Crane had driven Celeste for nine years.
He had taken Mia to school.
He had driven Leo to Elena's funeral.
He had waited outside family dinners, medical appointments, and court hearings.
No one had ever considered him important enough to question.
Agent Sloan immediately sent officers to find him.
Michael's apartment was empty.
His phone was off.
His last vehicle ping placed him near Mercer House six hours earlier.
Leo's stomach dropped.
“Mia.”
Naomi was already calling Rosa.
Rosa answered.
“Mia is with me.”
Leo exhaled.
“Lock the house down.”
“We are already locked down.”
“Where is Michael?”
“He came by an hour ago.”
Leo stood so fast the chair scraped the floor.
“You let him in?”
“No.”
“He left something at the gate.”
“What?”
“A package for you.”
Agent Sloan told Rosa not to touch it.
Rosa answered, “Too late.”
Leo closed his eyes.
“What was inside?”
“A white dress shirt.”
Leo froze.
Rosa continued.
“And a note.”
“What does it say?”
Rosa read it aloud.
MAKE THE HEART BIG ENOUGH FOR THE CAMERA.
Leo looked at Naomi.
The sentence was not a threat.
It was an instruction.
More important, it sounded like Elena's private humor.
Big one, Mercer.
Always the big one.
Leo asked, “Anything else?”
“Yes.”
“There is a train ticket in the pocket.”
“To where?”
Rosa named a small town on the Hudson River.
Leo recognized it immediately.
May you like
It was where he and Elena had spent their first anniversary.
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