Chapter 9 - The Lake House File
Ruiz reopened the Mercer file immediately.
Old photographs showed Gregory in the background of the lake property.
He had supervised renovations.
Including the terrace.
Including the security cameras.
According to the original police report, the camera facing the terrace had malfunctioned that night.
Gregory signed the maintenance report.
I read it twice.
“So he did this before.”
Ruiz corrected me.
“We don’t know that.”
But we all thought it.
Lucas’s sister, Hannah Mercer, arrived the next day.
She had spent five years being told grief made her suspicious.
She walked into the Howard library carrying a box.
“I kept everything.”
Inside were Lucas’s financial records.
Letters.
Photographs.
One document mattered immediately.
A proposal to sell Mercer family land.
The buyer was an investment group.
The group was partially controlled by Gregory Vale.
Lucas had refused the sale.
Vanessa supported it.
Three weeks later, Lucas died.
The deal never closed.
Gregory disappeared from the Mercer company and started working full-time for the Howards.
Hannah looked at Adrian.
“You hired him six months after my brother died.”
Adrian looked sick.
“I didn’t know.”
“No one wanted to know.”
That sentence silenced the room.
Because that was the pattern again.
People preferred comfortable explanations.
Vanessa was grieving.
Gregory was professional.
Lucas was unstable.
Elena was emotional.
Every lie survived because the truth required somebody important to become inconvenient.
Then Hannah opened a sealed envelope.
“My brother mailed this to me two days before he died.”
Inside was a photograph.
Vanessa and Gregory standing near the terrace.
Gregory held a screwdriver.
Vanessa pointed toward the camera.
On the back, Lucas had written:
If she says the camera failed by accident, she’s lying.
No murder recorded.
No direct proof of a push.
But no innocent maintenance problem either.
Ruiz looked at Hannah.
“This may be enough for new warrants.”
Hannah began crying.
May you like
For five years, her brother had been the unstable man who fell.
Now, finally, he was becoming a witness in his own case.
