Chapter 3 - WHAT OWEN HEARD BEFORE THE FALL
By midnight, Natalie’s contractions had slowed.
The baby remained stable.
The doctors wanted her kept overnight for observation.
Ethan did not leave her room.
He barely left the chair beside her bed.
Every few minutes, his gaze returned to the fetal monitor.
Natalie noticed.
“You can stop staring at it.”
“No.”
“It’s going to beep if something changes.”
“Then I’ll stare until it beeps.”
A faint smile appeared on her face.
It lasted less than a second.
Then someone knocked.
Detective Laura Bennett entered.
She was in her early forties, with dark hair tied behind her neck and a calm expression that revealed almost nothing.
“Mr. and Mrs. Mercer?”
Ethan stood.
“Yes.”
“I’m Detective Bennett.”
Natalie shifted slightly.
“Is this about Logan?”
“And potentially other things.”
Ethan immediately thought about Harold.
The detective closed the door.
“Your brother’s phone is being processed.”
“Did you watch the video?”
“We watched the primary recording.”
Ethan waited.
“And?”
Detective Bennett looked at Natalie.
“It clearly shows Mr. Logan Mercer placing both hands on your back.”
Natalie’s fingers tightened around the blanket.
“It shows him pushing me?”
“It shows a forward movement consistent with a forceful push.”
Ethan exhaled slowly.
“And my father?”
“He is visible downstairs.”
“Laughing?”
“Yes.”
Ethan’s jaw clenched.
Detective Bennett continued.
“There is also audio.”
Natalie looked at her.
“Before the fall?”
“Yes.”
Ethan leaned forward.
“What did they say?”
“There are approximately seventeen minutes before the incident.”
His eyes widened.
“Seventeen?”
“The phone appears to have been positioned on an upstairs console table.”
Detective Bennett opened a notebook.
“Your nephew said Logan frequently records family arguments.”
“Owen is my cousin’s son.”
“Right.”
She corrected herself.
“He said Mr. Logan Mercer sometimes records conversations because he likes having what Owen called leverage.”
Natalie looked at Ethan.
That sounded exactly like Logan.
He had always treated family disputes like competitions.
He saved texts.
He took screenshots.
He remembered humiliating details from arguments years later.
Ethan had considered it childish.
Now it felt sinister.
“What was said?”
Detective Bennett glanced at her notes.
“The first several minutes concern business.”
Ethan’s stomach tightened.
“Mercer Development?”
“Yes.”
“What exactly?”
“We are still reviewing it.”
“Detective.”
“I cannot give you everything from an active investigation.”
“My father said I could go to prison because of whatever Natalie found.”
That got her attention.
“He told you that?”
Ethan showed her the call log.
“He called me from my house.”
“We know.”
“Did officers find him there?”
“Yes.”
“What was he doing?”
“He was in your study.”
Natalie closed her eyes.
“Was my laptop there?”
“Yes.”
“Had he touched it?”
“We don’t know yet.”
Detective Bennett paused.
“Your father claims you asked him to retrieve financial records from your home.”
Ethan stared at her.
“That is a lie.”
“We suspected you might say that.”
“He broke into my house.”
“He says he has a key.”
“I never gave him one.”
Natalie looked at Ethan.
“Your mother has one.”
He turned.
“What?”
“I gave Diane a spare when we traveled to Vermont.”
Ethan rubbed his forehead.
His mother.
Of course.
Detective Bennett asked another question.
“Mrs. Mercer, you told patrol officers at the house that you discovered financial discrepancies involving Mercer Development.”
“Yes.”
“What is your professional background?”
“Forensic accounting.”
“Were you working for the company?”
“No.”
“Then how did you access the records?”
Natalie hesitated.
Ethan noticed.
“Natalie?”
She looked at him.
“Your mother asked me.”
He stared.
“What?”
“Diane asked me to look.”
“Why?”
“She thought Harold was hiding money.”
Ethan felt another piece of his world shift.
“When did Mom ask you?”
“Three weeks ago.”
“And you didn’t tell me?”
“She begged me not to.”
“Natalie.”
“She said she needed proof before she confronted him.”
Ethan stood and walked toward the window.
He looked out over the dark parking lot.
Everything in him wanted to be angry at Natalie.
But every time he tried, he remembered her body tumbling down the staircase.
He remembered Logan’s hands against her back.
He remembered Harold laughing.
His anger changed direction.
“Did Mom know about the twelve million?”
“No.”
“How much did she suspect?”
“She thought maybe a few hundred thousand.”
“Why?”
“Harold had started moving money from one of their personal investment accounts.”
Detective Bennett was writing quickly.
“Did Mrs. Diane Mercer explain why that worried her?”
“She said he had become secretive.”
“Anything else?”
Natalie glanced at Ethan.
“She thought Logan was involved.”
Ethan turned from the window.
“Why Logan?”
“Because she saw Harold give him access to documents he normally keeps locked away.”
Ethan sat again.
The detective looked between them.
“I need to tell you something about the video.”
Ethan’s focus sharpened.
“What?”
“There is a conversation roughly nine minutes before the fall.”
Natalie’s face became tense.
Detective Bennett read from her notes.
“Your father says, ‘She’s been looking where she shouldn’t.’”
Ethan said nothing.
“Logan responds, ‘Then tell Ethan to control her.’”
Natalie closed her eyes.
Detective Bennett continued.
“Your father says, ‘Ethan won’t listen anymore.’”
Ethan’s hand curled into a fist.
“Then Logan says?”
The detective hesitated.
“‘I can scare her.’”
The room became completely still.
Ethan stared at the detective.
“And my father?”
“He says, ‘No bruises, no scene, nothing that comes back on us.’”
Natalie’s eyes opened.
Ethan felt sick.
Detective Bennett continued.
“Logan laughs.”
“What does he say?”
“‘Relax, Dad, I know how to make people look crazy.’”
Ethan pushed away from the chair.
He paced once across the room.
Natalie watched him.
“Ethan.”
He turned.
“I should have seen this.”
“This isn’t your fault.”
“I grew up with him.”
“With both of them.”
“I defended them.”
Natalie said nothing.
“I told you Logan was immature.”
“He is.”
“I told you Dad was difficult.”
“He is.”
Ethan’s eyes were full of fury.
“I never imagined this.”
Neither had Natalie.
That was why the fall hurt in a way the bruises never could.
She had known Logan disliked her.
She had known Harold distrusted her.
But she had never imagined one would put his hands on her pregnant body while the other watched.
Detective Bennett closed her notebook.
“There is something else.”
Ethan stopped pacing.
“The recording continues after the fall.”
Natalie frowned.
“After Owen picked up the phone?”
“For approximately forty-three seconds.”
Ethan waited.
“Owen never stopped it.”
“What did it capture?”
The detective looked at him.
“It captured your father speaking quietly to Logan.”
Ethan’s voice became cold.
“What did he say?”
Detective Bennett answered.
“He told Logan not to say another word.”
“That isn’t unusual if he knew police were coming.”
“There’s more.”
She glanced down.
“He said, ‘If she talks about the account, deny everything.’”
Natalie stared at her.
Ethan’s face drained of color.
“And Logan?”
“He said, ‘You told me this would be gone before she found it.’”
Nobody moved.
Detective Bennett continued.
“Your father then said, ‘It should have been.’”
The fetal monitor continued beeping.
The sound suddenly seemed too loud.
Ethan looked at Natalie.
“Twelve million.”
She nodded.
The detective asked quietly.
“Do you know what he meant by ‘gone’?”
Natalie shook her head.
“No.”
“Could he have been referring to records?”
“Possibly.”
Ethan’s phone vibrated.
He ignored it.
Then it vibrated again.
And again.
Finally he looked.
Thirty-seven unread messages.
Most came from relatives who had been at the house.
Several came from Mercer Development executives.
Three came from Logan.
One came from Harold.
Ethan opened Harold’s message first.
DO NOT DISCUSS COMPANY FINANCES WITH POLICE.
Another message arrived.
YOU WILL DESTROY EVERYTHING YOUR GRANDFATHER BUILT.
Then a third.
COME TO THE OFFICE AT 7 A.M. ALONE.
Natalie saw his expression.
“What?”
He showed her.
Detective Bennett read the messages.
“Do not go alone.”
Ethan almost smiled.
“I wasn’t planning to.”
The detective stood.
“One more thing.”
“What?”
“We found something on Logan’s phone besides the video.”
Ethan felt his pulse quicken.
“A deleted message thread.”
“With Dad?”
“No.”
She looked at Natalie.
“With someone saved under the name ‘M.’”
Natalie frowned.
“Who is M?”
“We don’t know yet.”
“What does the thread say?”
“We recovered only fragments.”
Detective Bennett opened her notes again.
“One message from Logan says, ‘She found Ethan’s account.’”
Ethan’s stomach tightened.
“What did M respond?”
The detective looked directly at him.
“‘Then the staircase problem needs to happen tonight.’”
Natalie stopped breathing for a second.
Ethan’s face changed completely.
“That was planned.”
Detective Bennett did not answer.
She did not need to.
Ethan looked at Natalie.
For the first time, the possibility became impossible to avoid.
Logan may not have lost his temper.
Harold may not have simply encouraged him to frighten her.
May you like
Someone had called what happened a staircase problem before Natalie ever reached the stairs.
And according to the timestamp, that message had been sent four hours before the family dinner began.
