Chapter 7 - Two Crashes on the Same Road
Daniel ordered the police called.
Owen stopped smiling.
Until that moment, perhaps he had believed Daniel would protect the family name.
Daniel didn’t.
He turned over the phone, the messages, the stolen-letter conspiracy, and the security-system sabotage.
Owen was taken away before sunrise.
But one sentence remained in everyone’s mind.
Two crashes.
The same mountain road.
Emily sat in the kitchen with a cup of coffee she never touched.
Daniel entered carrying two old accident reports.
“I had my office retrieve them.”
Emily looked at the first.
Robert Mercer.
Vehicle left roadway during rain.
Brake failure suspected but never proven.
The second involved Anna Reed.
Seven years earlier.
Vehicle found destroyed after falling into a ravine.
No body recovered.
Emily stared at the sentence.
No body recovered.
She had always known that.
But reading it beside Robert’s report changed its meaning.
Daniel sat opposite her.
“My father’s car was serviced three days before he died.”
Emily looked up.
“By whom?”
“A garage owned by a subsidiary.”
“Whose subsidiary?”
Daniel’s expression hardened.
“Vale Automotive Holdings.”
Charles Vale.
Emily pushed the report away.
“This is bigger than money.”
Daniel nodded.
Before he could say more, Margaret entered.
She looked exhausted.
“I need to tell you something.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“Please tell me we’re finally out of secrets.”
Margaret sat down.
“We aren’t.”
She told them that two weeks before Robert died, he came to her bedroom carrying a folder.
He said he had finally found Anna.
Margaret had been furious.
After all those years, hearing Anna’s name reopened everything she had tried to bury.
Robert told her he had proof Anna had been framed.
Then he said something Margaret had never forgotten.
Charles knows where she is too.
The next morning, Robert removed the folder from the house.
Two weeks later, he died.
Emily leaned forward.
“Did he tell you where my mother was?”
“No.”
“Did you ask?”
Margaret’s eyes filled with guilt.
“No.”
Emily stood.
“You had a chance to find the woman your family destroyed.”
“I was angry.”
“So you did nothing.”
“Yes.”
The admission was quiet.
Brutal.
Daniel closed his eyes.
Margaret reached into her pocket.
“There is one more thing.”
She placed an old hotel key card on the table.
Robert had left it inside his jacket the night before his death.
The hotel name had faded.
But the room number remained visible.
Room 614.
Daniel searched the code printed on the back.
The property had once been called the Hawthorne Hotel.
It closed twelve years ago.
The building still existed.
Emily looked at him.
“When did it close?”
May you like
Daniel read the answer.
“Three days after my father died.”
