Chapter 2 - THE MAN IN DAVID’S STUDY
David did not ask his mother another question.
He stood.
Locked the sitting-room door.
Then took out his phone.
Caroline’s expression changed.
“David, don’t be dramatic.”
He looked at her.
“My mother is sitting on the floor with a bruised face and broken glasses.”
“She fell.”
David turned toward Margaret.
“Did you fall?”
His mother shook her head.
“No.”
Caroline exhaled sharply.
“Margaret has been confused all evening.”
David went very still.
His mother had beaten breast cancer at sixty-eight, survived a hip replacement at seventy, and still did the Sunday crossword in ink.
She was many things.
Confused was not one of them.
“Mom.”
Margaret looked at him.
“Who hurt you?”
She glanced toward Lucy.
David understood immediately.
“Lucy, come here.”
His daughter moved beside him.
“I want you downstairs.”
Lucy grabbed his arm.
“No.”
“Sweetheart—”
“No.”
Her voice cracked.
“If I go downstairs, he might be there.”
David felt the room change.
“Who?”
Lucy looked toward Caroline.
Caroline’s face went white.
“Lucy.”
David stepped between them.
“Who is ‘he’?”
Lucy swallowed.
“The man Caroline lets in when you’re gone.”
David stared at his fiancée.
Caroline laughed once.
It sounded wrong.
“There is no man.”
Margaret whispered:
“His name is Victor.”
Caroline snapped toward her.
“Shut up.”
David turned so slowly that Caroline immediately realized what she had done.
“What did you just say to my mother?”
Caroline’s breathing changed.
“David, please.”
Margaret tried to stand.
David helped her onto the couch.
“Victor who?”
“Victor Lang.”
The name meant something.
David searched his memory.
Then it came.
Victor Lang had worked for Mercer Development nearly six years earlier.
Senior project director.
Smart.
Aggressive.
Fired after an internal investigation discovered he had steered contracts toward a company owned by his brother.
David had not personally handled the termination.
His legal department had.
But he remembered the name because Victor had threatened to sue.
“What is Victor Lang doing in my house?”
Caroline said nothing.
Lucy answered.
“He comes at night.”
“How many times?”
“I don’t know.”
“Lucy.”
She stared at the floor.
“A lot.”
David’s stomach tightened.
“Does he ever talk to you?”
Lucy shook her head.
“He tells me to go upstairs.”
“Does he touch you?”
The question came out sharper than David intended.
Lucy looked startled.
“No.”
David exhaled.
“Has he ever scared you?”
She nodded.
“How?”
“He yells.”
“At you?”
“Mostly Caroline.”
That surprised him.
Margaret spoke.
“He’s downstairs now.”
David looked at her.
“What?”
“In your study.”
Caroline moved toward the door.
David blocked her.
“What is he doing there?”
“I don’t know.”
Margaret laughed weakly.
“Oh, yes, you do.”
Caroline’s face hardened.
“You had no right to come here tonight.”
Margaret stared at her.
“My granddaughter called me crying.”
David looked at Lucy.
“You called Grandma?”
Lucy nodded.
“From the house phone.”
“When?”
“After dinner.”
Caroline had taken her phone.
Her tablet.
Locked the pantry.
So Lucy had used a landline nobody remembered existed.
Margaret continued.
“Lucy said Caroline had put Emily’s things into trash bags.”
David looked at the black bags.
“I drove over.”
“And?”
“Caroline wouldn’t let me upstairs.”
Margaret touched her bruised cheek.
“I came anyway.”
David’s jaw tightened.
“Who hit you?”
Margaret looked toward Caroline.
“Victor.”
The room went silent.
Caroline immediately said:
“He did not hit her.”
Margaret turned.
“He shoved me into the bookcase.”
“You grabbed his jacket.”
“Because he had David’s safe open.”
David stopped breathing.
“My safe?”
Margaret nodded.
Caroline closed her eyes.
David looked toward the hallway.
His study was downstairs.
Inside the wall safe were corporate papers, jewelry Emily had left Lucy, and several backup access devices for Mercer accounts.
Nothing that should ever be in Victor Lang’s hands.
David took out his phone.
“I’m calling the police.”
Caroline rushed toward him.
“Don’t.”
He stepped back.
“Why?”
“Because this can be explained.”
“My mother was assaulted in my house.”
“It was an accident.”
“You said she fell.”
Caroline froze.
David watched the lie collapse.
Then Lucy whispered:
“Dad.”
He looked down.
“I took something.”
“What?”
“From your study.”
Caroline spun toward her.
“You what?”
Lucy backed against David.
He put one hand in front of her.
“What did you take?”
She reached into her cardigan pocket.
A small black USB drive.
David recognized it.
It was not his.
“Where did you get that?”
“Victor dropped it.”
“When?”
“Before Grandma came.”
Caroline lunged.
David caught her wrist before she got close.
“Don’t.”
Her face changed.
“You have no idea what’s on that.”
“That seems like a reason I should keep it.”
“David.”
He released her and moved Lucy behind him.
“Sit with Grandma.”
Lucy obeyed.
David dialed emergency services.
Then he called his head of security.
“Samuel.”
“Mr. Mercer?”
“Are you at the gate?”
“Yes.”
“Lock it.”
A pause.
“Sir?”
“No vehicle leaves.”
Caroline stared at him.
David continued.
“There is an unauthorized person inside the residence. Victor Lang.”
Samuel’s voice changed.
“I’m coming in.”
“No. Wait for police and bring two guards to the front entrance. Nobody enters the house alone.”
David ended the call.
Caroline folded her arms.
“You’re turning this into a circus.”
David looked at Margaret’s face.
“No.”
He pointed toward her bruise.
“Victor did that.”
Then toward the laundry room downstairs.
“You did that.”
Caroline’s mouth tightened.
“I disciplined your daughter.”
“You isolated her.”
“She needed structure.”
“You told her I was too busy to speak to her.”
“You are too busy.”
That one landed because there was truth inside it.
David said nothing.
Caroline saw it.
She pressed.
“You’re gone constantly.”
“Yes.”
“She needed a woman in this house.”
“Yes.”
“You asked me to help.”
“Yes.”
Her confidence returned.
“You don’t get to disappear for two weeks at a time and then come home acting shocked that I had to make decisions.”
David felt the accusation.
Because part of it belonged to him.
He had asked Caroline to handle school pickups.
Dinner.
Household schedules.
He had relied on her.
But responsibility was not permission.
“You are right about one thing.”
Caroline looked surprised.
“I was gone too much.”
Lucy looked at him.
David continued.
“That is my mistake.”
Caroline opened her mouth.
“But starving my daughter is yours.”
“I did not starve her.”
“Locking food away from a nine-year-old?”
“She ate every day.”
“In a laundry room.”
“She was disrespectful.”
“For asking for water?”
Caroline’s jaw tightened.
“She deliberately challenged me.”
David looked at Lucy.
Nine years old.
Still holding the hem of her school cardigan.
“Then you were challenged by a child.”
Footsteps sounded downstairs.
Heavy.
Fast.
Caroline went pale.
Margaret whispered:
“He knows.”
David turned toward the door.
The handle moved.
Locked.
A man’s voice came from the hallway.
“Caroline?”
Victor.
Lucy grabbed Margaret’s hand.
David stepped toward the door.
Victor tried the handle again.
“Caroline, open the door.”
David said nothing.
Victor stopped.
Then:
“David?”
Silence.
For three seconds, nobody moved.
Then Victor ran.
David heard footsteps pounding toward the back staircase.
He called security again.
“He’s moving. Rear staircase.”
Samuel answered immediately.
“Police just arrived.”
A crash sounded downstairs.
Then shouting.
Lucy buried her face in Margaret’s shoulder.
David stayed between them and the door.
Thirty seconds later, Samuel called.
“We have him.”
David exhaled.
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
“Anyone hurt?”
“One guard got knocked down. He’s okay.”
Then Samuel lowered his voice.
“Sir, Victor had a bag.”
“What kind of bag?”
“Laptop. Documents.”
David looked at Caroline.
“And?”
Samuel hesitated.
“Mrs. Mercer’s jewelry.”
David closed his eyes.
Emily’s jewelry.
Caroline whispered:
“I didn’t know he took that.”
David stared at her.
“Then what did you know?”
She did not answer.
Police entered the upstairs hallway minutes later.
Margaret was examined by paramedics.
Lucy refused to leave David’s side.
Caroline was separated for questioning.
Victor was handcuffed in the foyer.
When David finally saw him, Victor smiled.
Actually smiled.
“Long time.”
David looked at the bag on the floor.
“You picked a strange way to visit.”
Victor’s expression changed.
“This isn’t what she told you.”
David glanced toward Caroline.
“What did she tell you?”
Victor laughed bitterly.
“That soon this house would basically be hers.”
Caroline shouted from across the foyer.
“He’s lying!”
Victor turned.
“You said he was going to marry you in June.”
“I am—”
“No,” David said.
Everybody stopped.
Caroline stared at him.
David removed the engagement ring from the chain of possibilities in one sentence.
“There is no wedding.”
Her face collapsed.
“David.”
He ignored her.
One officer approached.
“Mr. Mercer, we need to secure the study.”
David nodded.
Then Lucy tugged his sleeve.
“Dad?”
“Yes?”
She held out the USB drive.
“What if this is why Victor was looking in your safe?”
David stared at it.
He had almost forgotten.
He took the drive.
“What did he do when he lost it?”
Lucy swallowed.
“He told Caroline if they didn’t find it tonight, everything was over.”
David looked toward Victor.
Victor stopped smiling.
And for the first time since police entered the house—
May you like
Caroline looked less afraid of David than she did of whatever was stored on that tiny black drive.
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