Chapter 5 - HENRY'S LAST NIGHT
Sloan's storage unit held copies of Henry Mercer's medical charts, a private toxicology report, and a handwritten confession.
I helped Charles Vance conceal the first attempt to seize Mercer. Years later, Adrian approached me. I believed I could control him. I was wrong.
Sloan wrote that Henry discovered he had been leaking estate strategies to Vance interests.
Henry planned to fire him.
The night before Henry's fatal stroke, Sloan gave Dr. Samuel Crane access to Henry's medication list.
Crane was not Henry's physician.
He was Adrian's mentor.
Brooks pulled old charity photographs.
Adrian had attended Mercer events a year before Henry died, always near Sloan, never introduced to Claire.
"He was studying us," Claire whispered.
The toxicology report showed an anticoagulant level high enough to worsen a cerebral bleed.
Then Rachel found a transcript of Henry's last voicemail to Sloan.
Robert, tell Vance's boy the answer is no. My daughter is not a route into my company.
Henry had rejected Adrian before Claire even knew his name.
A planned courtship followed his death.
Lily returned to Henry's study and found a silver cufflink behind the blue-box panel.
Initials: S.C.
Samuel Crane had been inside Henry's hidden compartment.
Beside it was a tiny strip of paper in Henry's handwriting:
SLOAN IS COMPROMISED. CRANE IS THE HAND. VANCE IS THE REASON.
Then Claire's phone buzzed with a security alert.
Someone had entered Henry's mausoleum.
The camera showed Dr. Crane carrying a shovel.
Police reached him before he opened the coffin.
In his bag were a drill, bleach, and evidence bags.
Brooks looked at Claire.
"Whatever happened to your father, Crane believes the body can still prove it."
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Claire signed the exhumation order.
And for the first time, Henry Mercer's death became a homicide investigation.
