Chapter 10 - THE LIE ABOUT DANIEL
Julia laughed once.
It was not humor.
It was disbelief turning sharp.
“Daniel searched for Thomas until he died.”
“I know,” Ortiz said.
“Then Pike is lying.”
“Maybe.”
Julia went to the station anyway.
Raymond Pike sat behind glass with a split lip from his arrest.
He smiled when Julia entered.
“Mrs. Mercer.”
“You say my husband ordered my son taken.”
“I say his signature is on the transfer.”
He slid a photocopy toward the glass.
Daniel Mercer.
The signature looked real.
Julia stared at it.
Pike leaned closer.
“Your husband was not the saint you remember.”
Julia looked at Ortiz.
Ortiz said nothing.
Julia studied the date.
Then she noticed the time.
2:14 a.m.
She remembered exactly where Daniel had been at 2:14 a.m.
Beside her hospital bed.
Holding her hand while she hemorrhaged.
He had never left the room.
“You forged this.”
Pike shrugged.
“I didn’t.”
“Then Grant did.”
“No.”
Pike’s smile disappeared.
“Evelyn did.”
“She had access to Daniel’s digital signature through the family legal office.”
“Why blame Daniel now?”
Pike looked toward the camera in the corner.
“Because the man paying me wants you angry at a dead person.”
“Who is paying you?”
Pike hesitated.
Then Ortiz entered the room and placed a photo on the table.
Grant Mercer.
Pike looked at it.
“No.”
Julia frowned.
“Then who?”
Pike whispered, “Victor Hale.”
Julia felt a chill.
Dr. Victor Hale had delivered Thomas.
He had also signed the hospital report saying Thomas died.
“But Hale died ten years ago.”
Pike laughed quietly.
“That’s what the Mercers do best.”
May you like
He looked at her.
“They make people dead on paper.”
