Chapter 7: The Message
Marcus read it over her shoulder.
He held out his hand.
"Give me the phone."
"No." Claire took a screenshot, then forwarded it to her own email.
"Evidence first."
She set the phone face-up on the desk and looked at it.
Another message arrived thirty seconds later, same number.
*You don't know what I have on you.
Walk away while you still can.*
"He's already talking," Marcus said.
"He hasn't even reached his attorney yet and he's already threatening you."
"Or someone is doing it for him."
"Who?"
Claire thought.
"His brother, Derek.
Julian always said Derek was the one who handled problems.
I never met him.
Julian kept that part of his life separate." She paused.
"I thought that was normal.
I thought everyone had parts of their life they kept private."
"Did you ever see Derek's name on any of the documents?"
She moved back to the filing cabinet.
She pulled the loan folder again and turned to the last page of the addendum.
At the bottom, beneath the signature lines, was a witness signature.
*D.
Mercer.*
"Derek Mercer," Marcus said.
"Julian's last name is Mercer," Claire said.
"I knew that.
I just never connected it." She set the folder down.
"Derek witnessed the loan documents.
He knew about all of it from the beginning."
Marcus was already dialing.
He raised the phone to his ear.
"Davis.
It's Marcus.
I need you to know that Claire just received two threatening text messages from an unknown number.
I'm going to send you the screenshots right now." A pause.
"Yes.
And there's something else — a name.
Derek Mercer.
Julian's brother.
He witnessed the original loan documents.
He may be involved." Another pause.
"Thank you."
He ended the call.
"Davis wants us at the station tomorrow morning.
Both of us.
He says don't respond to the messages."
Claire was looking at the phone.
A third message had arrived.
*Last warning.*
She turned the phone face-down.
"He thinks I'm alone," she said.
"He's been watching me for eighteen months and the one thing he never accounted for was that I'd stop being afraid." She looked at Marcus.
"He locked me in a basement.
He forged my signature.
He took money from my business account.
He had his brother threaten me twenty minutes after being walked out by a police officer." She picked up the loan folder.
"And he left all of this in a filing cabinet he never bothered to open."
Marcus said nothing.
He just watched her.
"He underestimated me," Claire said.
"He's still underestimating me."
Lily appeared in the doorway in her pajamas, rabbit under one arm.
"Are you coming to bed soon, Mommy?"
"Soon," Claire said.
"Go pick a book.
I'll be there in ten minutes."
Lily looked at Marcus.
"Are you staying tonight, Uncle Marcus?"
"Yes," he said.
"I'm staying."
Lily nodded, satisfied, and disappeared down the hall.
Claire looked at the folder in her hands, then at the laptop, then at her brother.
"I need to know everything he touched," she said.
"Every account.
Every document.
Every signature.
Before tomorrow morning."
"Then let's start," Marcus said.
He pulled a chair up to the desk.
Claire sat down beside him.
Outside, the house was quiet.
The basement door was still open at the end of the hall, the broken chain on the floor, the padlock lying where Officer Davis had left it.
May you like
Neither of them looked at it.
They had work to do.
