Chapter 18 - THE OTHER HEIR
Investigators searched the family records again.
Daniel had no brothers.
No known sons besides Samuel.
But the trust documents included descendants through Daniel’s grandfather.
One branch of the family had been erased from official records.
A daughter named Evelyn Mercer.
Lorraine’s older sister.
Evelyn disappeared at seventeen.
Family history claimed she drowned.
No body was recovered.
Officer Holloway found a letter inside the red book.
Evelyn wrote that she was pregnant.
She planned to run away.
She accused Lorraine of helping their father sell infants.
The final line read.
My child will never belong to this family.
DNA searches located Evelyn’s son.
He was fifty-two.
A mechanic named Thomas Reed.
The same Sheriff Reed who initially ignored earlier complaints against Daniel.
He was Daniel’s cousin.
And another potential heir.
Sheriff Reed had delayed investigations for years because Lorraine promised him control of the land if he protected the family.
He was arrested.
Records showed he had received calls about screaming at our rental house.
Deputies visited twice.
Both reports disappeared.
One neighbor had described seeing me tied to the porch.
Reed marked the complaint unfounded.
The network had been closer than anyone realized.
Thomas Reed agreed to testify.
He admitted warning Lorraine when police requests were filed.
He admitted contacting the private clinic after Samuel’s birth.
He denied knowing the baby would be kidnapped.
The prosecutor did not believe him.
Neither did I.
The trial resumed.
Reed’s testimony connected Daniel to the underground chamber.
It connected Lorraine to the adoption network.
It connected Paul Grayson to the false release order.
The defense collapsed.
But the oil trust remained.
Reed tried to claim it as Evelyn’s son.
Then Evelyn herself appeared.
She was alive.
Seventy years old.
Living under another name in New Mexico.
She entered court using a cane.
Lorraine stared at her as though seeing a ghost.
Evelyn testified that Lorraine helped their father take her baby after birth.
The baby was Thomas Reed.
Evelyn believed he had died.
Lorraine gave him to a deputy’s family and used his identity years later.
Evelyn did not want the land.
She wanted it condemned.
“The Mercer name has owned enough people.”
The jury began deliberating.
Six hours passed.
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Then twelve.
At midnight, the court announced they had reached a verdict.
