Chương 13
A second message followed with a location pin.
Adrian sent it to Ruiz immediately.
“Got it,” she said.
“We’ll have a unit there within minutes.”
Nora’s next message arrived before he could respond.
LILY SAYS THE MAN CALLED ELENA “ELLIE.”
Adrian looked at Daniel.
Daniel frowned.
“What?”
“Did you ever call Elena Ellie?”
“No.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yes.”
Adrian searched his memory.
Elena hated nicknames.
He had once called her Lena and been told, with great seriousness, that four syllables were not an unreasonable burden.
Daniel leaned forward.
“Julian called her Ellie.”
Adrian stared.
“How do you know that?”
“Because I heard him once.”
“When?”
Daniel’s face changed.
The answer had trapped him before he spoke it.
Adrian stepped closer.
“When, Daniel?”
“Years ago.”
“Before I met Elena?”
“Yes.”
Ruiz’s voice came through the speaker.
“Mr. Mercer, I strongly recommend you stop talking until an officer is present.”
Daniel rubbed both hands over his face.
Adrian felt something colder than anger settling into him.
“You knew Elena before I did.”
Daniel looked up.
“I knew of her.”
“That isn’t what you just said.”
“I heard Julian mention her.”
“When?”
Daniel said nothing.
Adrian’s patience broke.
“When?”
“After Thomas died.”
“Where?”
“Bellevue.”
“Why were you meeting Julian Vance?”
“I wasn’t.”
“Then why did you hear him?”
Daniel swallowed.
“I was meeting Thomas’s estate attorney.”
Adrian stared at him.
Daniel continued quickly.
“Thomas left material he wanted delivered to your mother.”
“She was already dead.”
“Yes.”
“So who received it?”
“I did.”
Adrian’s chest tightened.
“What material?”
“Records from Vance.”
“What kind?”
“Financial restructurings, shell entities, side agreements.”
“Evidence of what?”
Daniel looked down.
“That Julian had been siphoning money through acquisition vehicles for years.”
Adrian felt the floor of the story shift again.
“And you buried it.”
“No.”
“You never showed me.”
“Because Thomas had obtained some of it illegally.”
“You buried it.”
“I preserved it.”
“Where?”
“The external vault.”
Adrian laughed once.
“Of course.”
Daniel’s voice rose.
“Your mother asked me to protect you from using tainted evidence recklessly.”
“My mother was dead.”
“She gave instructions before she died.”
“And you interpreted them however you wanted.”
“Yes.”
The admission stopped Adrian.
Daniel looked suddenly exhausted.
“Yes, Adrian.”
“I made decisions.”
“I made judgment calls.”
“I decided what you could handle.”
“I decided what would destroy three companies, trigger criminal investigations across two countries, and expose Thomas’s family.”
Adrian’s voice went quiet.
“You decided for everyone.”
Daniel looked at him.
“Someone always does.”
The sentence landed with such ordinary arrogance that Adrian finally understood why his mother had trusted Daniel and feared him at the same time.
Ruiz said, “Officer entering the office now.”
A knock came immediately.
Adrian opened the door.
Two officers stepped inside.
Daniel stood without argument.
One officer asked him to keep his hands visible.
Daniel gave Adrian a tired look.
“I didn’t take Elena.”
“Then help prove it.”
“I was trying to.”
“No.”
Adrian shook his head.
“You were trying to control what I learned.”
Daniel did not answer.
They escorted him out.
Adrian remained in the doorway.
The house beyond was nearly empty now.
Workers dismantled flowers in the ballroom.
Someone wheeled away cases of untouched champagne.
The celebration disappeared piece by piece.
Ruiz called again twenty minutes later.
“We have Nora and Lily.”
Adrian sat down.
“Safe?”
“Yes.”
He closed his eyes.
“And Daniel?”
“Detained for questioning, not charged.”
“Lily?”
“She gave a brief statement with her mother present.”
“Was it Daniel?”
“No.”
Adrian opened his eyes.
Ruiz continued.
“She said the voice sounded like Daniel because of the way he said one word.”
“What word?”
“Ellie.”
Adrian stood.
“And?”
“Daniel apparently says Elena, not Ellie.”
“Yes.”
“Lily heard the man today say Ellie.”
“So Julian.”
“Possibly.”
Adrian gripped the phone.
“What changed her mind?”
“She heard Daniel speaking downstairs before she left.”
“She told her mother it wasn’t him?”
“Yes.”
Adrian let out a slow breath.
Ruiz continued.
“We also recovered audio from the recorder.”
“What’s on it?”
“The Tuesday file contains Elena and another man.”
Adrian waited.
“The man is Julian Vance.”
Daniel had been wrong about one thing.
The child had not misheard a stranger.
She had recognized a cadence.
Ruiz went on.
“In the recording, Elena argues with him.”
“About what?”
“She says she won’t let him hurt you.”
Adrian sat back down.
For several seconds, he could not speak.
Ruiz said, “There’s more.”
He looked at the dark recorder-shaped rectangle Evan had left on the desk mat.
“Tell me.”
“Elena says she’ll swap the annex but only so she can get proof of who receives it afterward.”
Adrian frowned.
“She was working against him.”
“Seems that way.”
“Why not tell me?”
“She says on the recording that she didn’t think you’d believe her once you knew why she met you.”
Adrian looked toward the ballroom doors.
Three years of love could survive many things.
It could also be built on an original lie and become real anyway.
That truth was more uncomfortable than betrayal.
“Where is she?”
“We have a lead.”
“What lead?”
“Mason.”
Adrian stood again.
Ruiz continued.
“He turned himself in five minutes ago.”
“Where?”
“South precinct.”
“Is Elena with him?”
“No.”
“What happened?”
“Mason says he discovered someone had tampered with the camera system and confronted Elena after hearing part of a phone call.”
“He thought she was in danger.”
“Yes.”
“He drove her out.”
“Yes.”
“Why steal Simon’s credential?”
“He says his own had been disabled remotely.”
“That tracks.”
“Maybe.”
Adrian almost smiled at the word.
Ruiz continued.
“Mason says Elena asked him to take her to Pioneer Square because Julian had given her instructions to meet there.”
“And Mason let her go?”
“He says she insisted.”
“Why?”
“She told him she needed Julian to believe she was still cooperating.”
Adrian closed his eyes briefly.
Of course she had.
Stubborn enough to mistake danger for strategy.
Ruiz said, “Mason followed from a distance.”
“What happened?”
“He lost her in a parking structure.”
May you like
“Julian?”
“He saw Elena enter another vehicle.”
