Chapter 4 - MARCUS HALE
Daniel met him in the boardroom.
No lawyers at first.
No police.
Just history.
Marcus had treated Daniel's father through heart surgery.
He had delivered Claire after a complicated pregnancy.
He had stitched Daniel's forehead when he was eleven.
Daniel put the death certificate on the table.
Marcus did not touch it.
"Where did you get that?"
"Answer the question I'm about to ask."
Marcus folded his hands.
"Where is my sister?"
"I don't know."
"You signed this."
"Yes."
"Then you saw her body."
"I saw a patient."
"What does that mean?"
"It means I was called to a private residence after a fall."
"Whose residence?"
Marcus did not answer.
Daniel pushed the certificate closer.
"You declared Claire dead."
"Yes."
"And then sat on a board while someone used her identity."
"I did not know about that."
"Try harder."
"Your sister was involved in something dangerous."
"What?"
"Company records she should not have touched."
"She was CFO."
"Not those records."
Payments to officials.
Off-book medical settlements.
Construction deaths hidden through contractors.
Carter Meridian had not always been clean.
"Claire was going to expose it."
"Yes."
"So someone killed her."
"I said she fell."
"Where?"
Silence.
Detective Ortiz entered with a warrant.
Marcus's confidence vanished for half a second.
Ortiz seized his phone.
His laptop.
His office files.
As officers escorted him out, Marcus leaned toward Daniel.
"Your wife is not the person who started this."
"Who did?"
"Ask your father."
"My father is dead."
"That's what Claire believed too."
His father, Henry Carter, had died three years ago.
Public funeral.
Closed casket after a plane crash.
"What did you say?"
But Marcus was already moving.
A message had been sent six days earlier to a contact labeled H.C.
Vanessa is losing control. Daniel may find Claire.
H.C.
May you like
Henry Carter.
His dead father.
