Chapter 10: Derek
The call came at two in the afternoon.
Claire was at the kitchen table with the estate documents spread out in front of her when her phone rang — a number she didn't recognize, but a local area code, not the same prefix as the threatening texts.
She answered.
"Is this Claire?" A man's voice.
Careful.
Quiet.
"Who is this?"
A pause.
"My name is Derek Mercer."
She said nothing.
Across the table, Marcus looked up.
"I'm not calling to threaten you," Derek said.
"I want you to know that before you hang up.
I'm calling because I witnessed a document I shouldn't have witnessed, and I've been awake since last night thinking about it."
"You should be talking to a lawyer, not to me."
"I have a lawyer.
She told me not to call you." Another pause.
"I'm calling anyway."
Claire put the phone on speaker and set it on the table between her and Marcus.
"Say what you need to say."
"Julian told me the loan documents were standard.
He said you'd reviewed everything and that he just needed a witness for the formality.
I signed without reading the addendum." His voice was flat, as if he'd rehearsed this and was trying to keep the rehearsal out of it.
"That was wrong.
I should have read it."
"Yes," Claire said.
"You should have."
"The transfer document — the forged one.
I didn't know about that.
I want you to know I had no part in that."
"How do I know that's true?"
"You don't," Derek said.
"But I'm willing to give a statement to the police confirming what I witnessed and what I didn't.
I'm willing to tell them exactly what Julian told me when he asked me to sign." He stopped.
"He's my brother.
But what he did to you — what he did to your daughter—" His voice changed slightly.
"I have a daughter.
She's nine."
The kitchen was very quiet.
"If you give a statement," Marcus said, "you expose yourself to liability on the loan document."
"I know."
"Your attorney told you that."
"Yes."
"And you're still calling."
"Yes."
Claire looked at Marcus.
He gave a small, careful nod.
"Call Officer Davis," she said.
"His number is on the station's main line.
Tell him you want to give a voluntary statement.
Tell him I said you called." She paused.
"And Derek — if anything you tell him contradicts what you just told me, it will make everything worse for you.
Not better."
"I understand," Derek said.
"I'm sorry, Ms.
Claire.
For my part in it.
I'm genuinely sorry."
He ended the call.
Claire sat back.
She looked at the estate documents, then at the phone, then at her brother.
"Do you believe him?" Marcus asked.
"I think he's scared," Claire said.
"And I think scared people sometimes do the right thing." She picked up the estate documents and started looking through them again.
"Let's see what Julian did with my mother's account."
She found it on the fourth page.
A change-of-beneficiary form, dated fourteen months ago.
Her mother's investment account — sixty-eight thousand dollars — had been redirected.
The new beneficiary was a holding company.
The same holding company number that appeared on the loan addendum.
"He was going to take everything," Claire said.
"Not just the house.
Everything my mother left me."
May you like
Marcus picked up his phone.
"I'm calling Davis right now."
