Nobody moved.
I held the phone against my ear.
“Say that again.”
Laura breathed softly.
“I think Mason is alive.”
Detective Vega stepped closer, signaling for me to keep her talking.
“Think?”
“I don’t know for certain.”
“That is different from what you just said.”
“I know.”
“Where is he?”
“I don’t know.”
“When did you last see him?”
Silence.
“Laura.”
“Eleven months ago.”
The answer hit harder than I expected.
Mason had been missing seventeen months.
Laura had seen him six months into that disappearance.
“You lied to me.”
“Yes.”
“You told me you didn’t know what happened to him.”
“I didn’t know what happened after that.”
“You let his family believe he vanished.”
“He asked me to.”
I looked toward Vega.
Her expression had gone flat with anger.
“Why?”
“Because he thought disappearing was the only way Stephen would stop looking at him.”
“So he staged it.”
“Partly.”
“What does partly mean?”
“He left the apartment deliberately. Passport, wallet, everything.”
“The cat.”
His cat had been left behind.
Laura’s voice cracked.
“That was the hardest part.”
I felt an unexpected flash of anger on behalf of an animal.
“He abandoned Walter to make it convincing?”
“He knew I would get Walter.”
“You seem to know a lot for someone who claimed not to.”
“I was trying to keep you alive.”
I almost laughed.
“By lying?”
“Yes.”
At least she did not pretend otherwise.
Vega motioned.
Ask location.
“Where are you now?”
“No.”
“Laura.”
“No. Stephen has people watching everyone.”
“Stephen is under investigation.”
“That doesn’t make him harmless.”
“Police can protect you.”
“I trusted police once.”
Vega’s jaw tightened.
I asked, “What happened?”
“Mason reported part of Juniper before he disappeared.”
“To whom?”
“I don’t know which detective.”
Vega wrote something.
“Then?”
“Stephen knew about it within a day.”
That explained Laura’s distrust.
Maybe.
Or gave her a convenient excuse.
“What did Mason do?”
“He realized somebody was leaking.”
“From police?”
“Or prosecutors. Or the bank. Or somewhere. He stopped trusting systems.”
“Then staged his disappearance.”
“Yes.”
“Where did he go?”
“He never told me.”
“But you saw him eleven months ago.”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“New Mexico.”
“City?”
“No.”
“Laura.”
“I promised.”
“He is a missing person.”
“I know.”
“His sister thinks he may be dead.”
“I know.”
“Do you understand what you did to her?”
Laura started crying quietly.
I did not soften.
“Do you?”
“Yes.”
“Then tell us.”
“I can’t.”
Vega shook her head.
She wrote:
KEEP HER TALKING.
I asked, “Why contact me now?”
“Because I heard Ethan surfaced.”
“How?”
“Rebecca.”
“Ethan’s wife?”
“Separated wife.”
“Why are you talking to her?”
“Because we have been trying to keep Ethan alive.”
Another hidden alliance.
“You and Rebecca.”
“Yes.”
“Since when?”
“About nine months.”
“Does Ethan know?”
“Not everything.”
I closed my eyes.
Everyone knew fragments.
Everyone hid fragments.
No wonder Stephen had been able to move between them.
“Did Rebecca send the photograph?”
“No.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
“Then who has Mason’s tablet?”
“I thought Mason.”
“Why?”
“Because he took it when he left.”
“You just said Ethan gave it to him.”
“Yes.”
“So someone sent a photograph stored on Mason’s tablet.”
“Yes.”
“Meaning either Mason sent it—”
“Or someone has Mason.”
The room chilled.
There was the other possibility.
“Why would Mason threaten me?”
“He wouldn’t.”
“The message said stop opening his files.”
“He might tell you that.”
“Why?”
“To keep you from reaching Phase IV.”
I looked at Jessica.
That made no sense.
“If I don’t know about Phase IV, I might sign Stephen’s documents.”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because Mason had a safeguard.”
“The book?”
“No.”
“What safeguard?”
“You.”
I nearly snapped.
“Everyone keeps calling me a safeguard, Stabilizer, endpoint, trustee. I am a person, Laura.”
“I know.”
“Then speak to me like one.”
Silence.
Then Laura said, “Mason arranged for you to be warned if his archive was opened.”
“How?”
“He had someone monitoring access.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
“Convenient.”
“I really don’t.”
“Was the threat automated?”
“No.”
“Then somebody is watching.”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
“Mason called them the Watchman.”
I looked at Vega.
She wrote the word.
“Real name?”
“I never knew.”
“What did this person do?”
“Kept copies of evidence. Watched Stephen. Watched Richard. Watched us.”
“And apparently watched my son.”
“I don’t think the photograph was taken because of Sam.”
“That sentence doesn’t make it better.”
“I know.”
“Why was it taken?”
“To document a surveillance vehicle.”
I remembered the photograph.
Sam at my sister’s table.
I had focused entirely on him.
“What surveillance vehicle?”
“In the reflection.”
Daniel was already pulling up the archived image.
He enlarged it.
There.
In the window behind Sam, barely visible, a dark reflection from the street.
A black SUV.
Not the gray Mercer sedan we had been tracking.
Daniel enhanced the relevant area without altering the underlying file.
Partial plate.
Vega stared.
“We missed that.”
“We all did,” Jessica said.
Because the photograph had done exactly what it was designed to do.
It made us look at Sam.
Not behind him.
“When was it taken?” I asked Laura.
“About fourteen months ago.”
“Why was Sam at my sister’s house?”
“You and David went to Chicago.”
I remembered.
A two-day trip.
David had received an industry award.
We had still been married.
Still pretending the distance between us was temporary.
Sam stayed with Megan.
“Who was watching him?”
“Not Sam.”
“Then who?”
“You.”
“I wasn’t there.”
“The vehicle followed you to Megan’s house before you left for the airport.”
I felt cold.
“Stephen had me followed fourteen months ago?”
“Longer.”
“Why?”
“Because Mason had started asking questions about your signatures.”
“So Stephen wanted to know whether Mason contacted me.”
“Yes.”
“He hadn’t.”
“I know.”
“Did Stephen?”
“Not personally.”
“Who was in the SUV?”
“I don’t know.”
Vega motioned for the plate.
Laura gave what she remembered.
Daniel compared it with the enhanced image.
Close.
Vega sent it for tracing.
I asked the question that mattered most.
“If Mason is alive, why hasn’t he contacted me?”
“I don’t know.”
“When did you last hear his voice?”
“Eleven months ago.”
“Any messages since?”
“One.”
“When?”
“Six months ago.”
“What did it say?”
“Don’t look for me. Keep Claire out.”
My chest tightened.
“And you did the opposite.”
“I tried.”
“You gave me his files.”
“Because Stephen started Phase IV.”
“So why not go to police?”
“I didn’t know who was safe.”
“Why me?”
“Because the transfer needs you.”
“And because you thought I could stop it.”
“Yes.”
“Then why hide that from me?”
“Because if you knew how important you were, you might do exactly what you’re doing.”
“What am I doing?”
“Walking toward Stephen.”
I looked at the post-divorce documents on the table.
She was right.
Partly.
“I’m not walking toward him.”
“You’re going to meet him.”
“No.”
“You will.”
“How do you know?”
“Because that is what you do.”
That irritated me.
“What exactly do I do?”
“You need to see the person who hurt you understand that you see them.”
The observation was too accurate.
I said nothing.
Laura continued.
“That is why you took David’s settlement instead of fighting. You wanted him to understand too late.”
David heard every word.
His face remained unreadable.
“You don’t know me.”
“I watched you for years.”
“That is not the defense you think it is.”
“No.”
Vega gestured again.
Location.
“Laura, come in.”
“No.”
“If Mason is alive, police need to know.”
“He wanted to stay missing.”
“He may no longer have that choice.”
“Why?”
“Because someone has his tablet.”
Silence.
That finally reached her.
“If it isn’t him…”
“Exactly.”
I lowered my voice.
“Help us find him.”
“I can’t.”
“Can’t or won’t?”
“Both.”
“Then give me something.”
She breathed.
“Ask Emily about Santa Fe.”
“Mason’s sister?”
“Yes.”
“What about Santa Fe?”
“She’ll know.”
The call ended.
Vega immediately initiated a trace.
It failed.
Burner phone.
No surprise.
“Can you subpoena Rebecca Pike’s records?” I asked.
“We can investigate appropriately.”
Which meant yes, but she was not discussing procedure with me.
Daniel searched the plate from the black SUV.
The registration came back quickly.
Orchard North Foundation.
We all stared.
The supposedly independent foundation had owned the vehicle following me fourteen months earlier.
“Stephen controlled Orchard North then,” I said.
“Or someone using its vehicle,” Vega corrected.
Always distinctions.
Always proof.
David stood by the window.
“Why would Orchard North surveil Claire before Phase IV?”
Jessica answered.
“To make sure she wasn’t talking to Mason.”
“Or to establish her routine.”
I looked at him.
He regretted saying it.
Good.
I wanted us all uncomfortable enough to see every possibility.
Vega called Emily Hale.
This time she put the call on speaker.
Emily sounded exhausted by our sudden excavation of her brother’s life.
“What about Santa Fe?”
Vega asked.
Emily went quiet.
“Who told you?”
“Laura Bennett.”
Another pause.
“My brother used to take me there when we were kids.”
“Where?”
“Our grandfather had a cabin north of the city.”
“Address?”
“The family sold it years ago.”
“Who bought it?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did Mason ever return?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“A few times.”
“Recently?”
“Before he disappeared, yes.”
“Why?”
“He said he was writing.”
“What?”
“He didn’t say.”
“Did he have access after the sale?”
“The buyer let him use it.”
“Who bought it?”
“I told you, I don’t know.”
Then she stopped.
“Wait.”
We waited.
“There was a company.”
“What company?”
“Something with North.”
My skin prickled.
“Orchard North?”
“No.”
“Northlight?”
“Yes. That’s it.”
Daniel looked up.
Northlight Media Group.
The company owned by Mason’s brother Andrew.
“Andrew bought the family cabin?”
Emily sounded confused.
“Andrew?”
Daniel checked property records.
Not directly.
Northlight purchased it four years earlier.
Andrew controlled Northlight.
Emily apparently had not known.
“Why would your brother buy the cabin through his company and not tell you?” Vega asked.
“I don’t know.”
Another Hale secret.
The address came from property records.
Federal agents closer to New Mexico were contacted.
No one wanted us anywhere near it.
That suited me.
For once.
While we waited, David asked me quietly, “Do you really think Laura is right?”
“About what?”
“That you need people to know you see them.”
I looked at him.
“Does it matter?”
“It explains the settlement.”
“You’re still trying to explain how I beat you.”
“No.”
He glanced at the table.
“I’m trying to understand why I never understood you.”
The sentence landed softly.
I did not have room for it.
“Wrong week, David.”
“I know.”
Two hours later, Vega received the first report from New Mexico.
The cabin appeared empty.
Dust.
Locked doors.
No vehicle.
No recent food.
But someone had been there within the last few months.
A bedroom contained clothing matching Mason’s approximate size.
A desk held notebooks.
No computer.
No phone.
No Mason.
Then the agents found something beneath a loose floorboard.
A sealed envelope.
Written on the front:
FOR CLAIRE MERCER ONLY.
My name had been waiting in a cabin I had never visited.
Vega arranged for the contents to be photographed and transmitted.
Inside was one handwritten page.
Mason’s handwriting.
The date was ten months after his disappearance.
Proof Laura had told at least part of the truth.
He had been alive.
The letter began:
Claire—
If you are reading this, Laura broke her promise or Stephen reached Phase IV. Either way, you need to know why I stayed gone.
I read faster.
Mason said his disappearance had begun voluntarily.
Then something changed.
Someone discovered the cabin.
Someone who should not have known about it.
He fled again.
Before leaving, he learned the identity of the person who had leaked his first report to Stephen.
Not police.
Not prosecutors.
Not Richard.
He wrote:
The leak was inside Mercer.
I looked at David.
He looked stunned.
Mason’s next sentence was worse.
It wasn’t Ethan.
Daniel read the final lines aloud.
If you need to know who Stephen has been using inside David’s company, look at the person who could authorize legal access without appearing in finance records.
Jessica whispered, “General counsel.”
David’s face went pale.
Martin Ellis.
The man who had called Carrow & Vale to Mercer headquarters that morning.
The man who had allowed Benjamin Cross near the archive.
The man who had worked beside David for eleven years.
Vega was already reaching for her phone.
David stopped her.
“Wait.”
She glared.
“What?”
“Martin didn’t work for Mercer eleven years.”
“You just said he did.”
“I thought he did.”
“What does that mean?”
“He came through an acquisition.”
“Which acquisition?”
David looked at the succession diagram.
“Cedar Bridge placed him.”
The room fell silent.
Before Vega could call anyone, her phone rang.
She answered.
Listened.
Her expression changed.
“What?”
She ended the call.
“Martin Ellis left Mercer headquarters twenty minutes ago.”
“Where is he?”
“No one knows.”
Daniel checked the building-access feed investigators had obtained.
Martin had exited carrying nothing.
But six minutes before leaving, he had accessed the legal records server.
“What did he open?”
Daniel traced the logs.
One file.
The unsigned domestic separation acknowledgment bearing my name.
Then Martin sent a copy outside Mercer.
“To whom?” I asked.
Daniel followed the destination.
Carrow & Vale.
Stephen’s firm.
Stephen now knew we had not signed.
And Martin Ellis, the hidden man inside David’s company, had disappeared.
Click here to continue reading: PART 19: Martin Ellis Had Been Stephen’s Eyes Inside Mercer for Years, and the Files He Left Behind Revealed Why Laura Was Chosen
My Husband Asked for Everything We Owned, but the One Thing He Rejected Changed How I Saw Our Marriage
Part 18 of 35
