Chapter 3 - The Dead ManDaniel had attended Richard Vale’s funeral.
Not because he didn’t understand it.
Because understanding it was impossible.
His father, Thomas Mercer, had died twenty-two years earlier after his car supposedly skidded off a mountain road outside Aspen.
The police called it an accident.
There had been no surviving witnesses.
Now a dead woman was claiming someone had tried to kill him.
“Give me that.”
Vanessa reached across the table.
Daniel pulled the letter away.
Her hand froze.
For six years, Vanessa Mercer had played the role of the perfect wife.
Beautiful.
Educated.
Elegant.
Always composed.
She hosted charity galas, remembered every board member’s spouse, bought expensive Christmas gifts for employees she barely knew and smiled through business dinners no matter how boring they became.
Daniel had trusted her more than almost anyone alive.
Now she was staring at a homeless child like she wanted him erased.
Daniel folded the letter.
“Eli stays with me.”
The boy looked startled.
Vanessa laughed bitterly.
“You cannot be serious.”
“I am.”
“He just accused me of poisoning you!”
“That’s exactly why he stays.”
Restaurant manager Leonard Shaw approached cautiously.
“Mr. Mercer?”
“What?”
“We’ve secured the plate.”
“And the surveillance footage?”
“We’re pulling everything from the dining room, hallway and kitchen.”
Vanessa’s expression changed.
Daniel noticed.
“Something wrong?”
“Nothing.”
“You don’t look like nothing is wrong.”
She picked up her purse.
“I refuse to sit here while you treat me like a criminal because some street kid tells a story.”
Eli’s shoulders tightened.
Daniel stood.
“Vanessa.”
She stopped.
“If you walk out before we know what was on that plate, don’t come home.”
Several nearby diners turned away quickly, pretending they hadn’t heard.
Vanessa stared at her husband.
“You’re choosing him over me?”
“I’m choosing the truth.”
Her eyes hardened.
“You may regret that.”
Daniel heard the threat.
So did Eli.
Vanessa apparently realized it because she immediately softened her voice.
“I mean you’ll regret embarrassing our marriage publicly.”
Daniel said nothing.
Twenty minutes later, two Chicago police officers arrived.
Daniel’s personal attorney, Marcus Hale, arrived shortly afterward.
Marcus had been Daniel’s friend since college and was one of the few people who could tell him when he was being an idiot.
Tonight, Marcus looked unusually serious.
“You didn’t eat anything?”
“Nothing.”
“Drink?”
“Water. Wine before the meal.”
“Any symptoms?”
“No.”
Marcus glanced toward Vanessa.
She was sitting ten feet away with her arms crossed.
“And she allegedly put something on the steak?”
“Eli saw her.”
Marcus looked down at the boy.
“Where were you exactly?”
Eli described the narrow alley beside the restaurant.
He had been collecting discarded cardboard near the dumpsters to build a shelter behind an abandoned laundromat.
Rain started.
He moved beneath an awning beside a service window.
That was when he saw Vanessa.
“She looked around first,” Eli said.
“Did she see you?” Marcus asked.
“No.”
“What did the bottle look like?”
“Small. Brown cap.”
“And you’re sure she poured something onto Mr. Mercer’s plate?”
“Yes.”
Vanessa scoffed.
“You’re leading him.”
Marcus turned.
“I haven’t asked you a question yet.”
“You’re obviously on Daniel’s side.”
“I’m on the side where my client stays alive.”
Her mouth closed.
A police officer returned from the manager’s office.
“We have a problem.”
Daniel’s stomach tightened.
“What problem?”
“The camera covering the hallway went offline at 8:14.”
Vanessa glanced down.
“For how long?”
“Six minutes.”
Daniel looked toward the kitchen clock.
His food had left the kitchen at approximately 8:17.
Marcus leaned closer.
“That’s convenient.”
Vanessa stood again.
“You’re all behaving like lunatics.”
The officer’s radio crackled.
Another voice.
Then the officer looked at Daniel.
“The lab tech is on the way. Until then, nobody touches the plate.”
Daniel nodded.
He turned back to Eli.
The boy had gone pale.
“What is it?”
Eli was staring through the restaurant’s front window.
Outside, across Michigan Avenue, a black SUV sat at the curb.
Its headlights were off.
“That car,” Eli whispered.
Daniel followed his gaze.
“You know it?”
“It was outside the shelter.”
“When?”
“The night my mom died.”
Daniel’s body went rigid.
A second later, the SUV pulled away.
“Marcus.”
“I saw it.”
Daniel moved toward the door.
Marcus grabbed his arm.
“Don’t.”
“They may be connected.”
“Which is exactly why you don’t run into traffic after them.”
Daniel hated that Marcus was right.
The police radioed the vehicle description.
Eli kept watching until the SUV disappeared.
Then he whispered, “They found me.”
Daniel crouched in front of him.
“Who?”
“I don’t know their names.”
“Tell me what happened.”
Eli rubbed his palms against his jeans.
“My mom got sick about three months ago.”
“Sick how?”
“Coughing. Weak. Sometimes she couldn’t breathe.”
“Was she in a hospital?”
Eli shook his head.
“She was scared of hospitals.”
“Why?”
“She said if she used her real name, people would find us.”
Daniel felt another chill.
“Did she ever talk about me?”
“Only near the end.”
“What did she say?”
Eli reached under his sweatshirt again.
This time he removed a small plastic keycard.
“Find Daniel Mercer. Give him the letter. Give him this.”
Daniel took the card.
No logo.
No words.
Only the number:
317.
Marcus examined it.
“Storage locker?”
“Hotel room?”
“Bank box?”
Daniel flipped it over.
Nothing.
Eli continued.
“She said you would know what to do.”
“I don’t.”
“Then she said something strange.”
“What?”
“She said, ‘Tell Daniel his father never made it to Aspen.’”
Daniel stopped.
His father’s car had gone over the guardrail outside Aspen.
Every newspaper had reported it.
Daniel’s mother identified Thomas’s wedding ring and watch.
The body had been badly burned.
Daniel had never seen it.
A uniformed officer approached.
“We’ve got preliminary field results.”
Everyone looked at him.
Vanessa’s face went blank.
The officer held a sealed evidence bag.
“We can’t identify the exact compound until the lab processes it, but the food tested positive for a chemical substance that should not be present.”
Marcus spoke first.
“Toxic?”
“Potentially.”
Daniel turned toward his wife.
Vanessa stared at him.
For several seconds neither moved.
Then Vanessa whispered, “Daniel, I can explain.”
The restaurant became so quiet that Daniel could hear the soft buzz of the overhead lights.
He took one step toward her.
“Then explain.”
“I didn’t intend to hurt you.”
Eli made a tiny sound behind him.
Daniel’s voice dropped.
“You put something in my food.”
“Yes.”
“And you didn’t intend to hurt me?”
“It wasn’t poison.”
“What was it?”
She hesitated.
That hesitation told him more than any answer could.
“What was it, Vanessa?”
“A sedative.”
Marcus swore under his breath.
Daniel stared at her.
“Why?”
Tears filled her eyes.
“I needed you unconscious.”
“For what?”
She looked toward Eli.
Then toward Daniel.
And said the words that shattered the remains of their marriage.
“Because by midnight, you were supposed to sign control of Mercer Development over to me.”
Daniel’s face hardened.
“How do you get my signature if I’m unconscious?”
Vanessa looked terrified now.
“I wasn’t going to.”
Daniel understood.
Someone else was.
Marcus did too.
“A forged transfer.”
Vanessa nodded.
“And if he woke up?”
She said nothing.
“Vanessa,” Daniel whispered.
“If Daniel woke up before morning, what were you supposed to do?”
Her silence answered.
Daniel looked at the woman he had shared a bed with for six years.
The woman he had planned to grow old beside.
The woman who had kissed him before dinner.
“Who are you working for?”
Vanessa began crying.
“I can’t tell you.”
“Why?”
“Because he’ll kill me.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“Who?”
She whispered the name.
“Richard Vale.”
Marcus went still.
Daniel almost laughed.
Not because it was funny.
Because it was impossible.
Richard Vale had been Daniel’s father’s business partner.
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And according to every record Daniel had ever seen—
Richard Vale had died twenty-one years ago.
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