Chapter 5 - What Daniel Had Been Hiding
I stared at the note until the handwriting blurred.
Rachel wanted to call the police immediately.
Katherine agreed.
For once, I didn’t argue.
Detective Luis Ortega arrived forty minutes later and placed the flash drive into an evidence bag.
“What do you think is on it?” he asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Your husband ever mention being threatened?”
“Soon-to-be ex-husband.”
Ortega nodded.
“Did he?”
“No.”
That answer bothered me.
Because Daniel had lied about nearly everything.
Why should danger have been different?
Police copied the drive before Katherine arranged for us to view the material.
The first folder contained financial records.
Northline Holdings wasn’t simply Mark’s struggling company.
It was a shell.
Money moved through Northline into consulting businesses, racing sponsorships, and offshore accounts.
One company appeared repeatedly.
Vantage Crown Sports.
I knew the name.
Everyone in motorsports did.
Vantage Crown controlled sponsorship contracts worth hundreds of millions.
And one of its executives was Richard Mercer.
Olivia’s father.
Suddenly the affair looked different.
Not less disgusting.
Just more complicated.
I called Olivia.
She arrived with her mother.
When Richard Mercer’s name appeared on the screen, she went silent.
“My father introduced Daniel to me.”
I turned.
“What?”
“At a charity dinner.”
Daniel had been doing financial work for Vantage Crown.
According to the files, he discovered that Mark was laundering money through sponsorship agreements tied to Richard’s division.
At first Daniel helped hide it.
Then he panicked.
He began copying records.
“Why didn’t he go to the police?” I asked.
Katherine answered.
“Because these documents suggest Daniel participated.”
My husband hadn’t merely protected his brother.
He had committed fraud.
Olivia stared at the screen.
“My father knew.”
No one answered.
Then Ortega opened another folder.
Audio recordings.
Daniel’s voice filled the room.
Mark, I’m done.
Another voice answered.
You don’t get to be done because your wife saw you kissing your girlfriend on television.
My stomach tightened.
The recording had been made after the race.
Daniel said he intended to cooperate with investigators.
Mark threatened him.
Then another man spoke.
Richard.
You have a child now. Think carefully about what happens to people who make their families vulnerable.
Olivia turned white.
“My father threatened Noah?”
The room went silent.
The final recording had been made the morning Daniel disappeared.
Richard again.
Meet me at the warehouse. Bring every copy.
Then Daniel.
If I do, Emily stays out of this.
My anger cracked.
He had used my name.
Ortega immediately contacted officers.
The warehouse was searched.
Empty.
But security footage showed Daniel entering.
Richard arrived eleven minutes later.
Mark arrived after him.
Only Richard and Mark left.
Daniel did not.
By midnight both men were being questioned.
Neither admitted knowing where he was.
At 2:13 a.m., my phone rang.
Unknown number.
I answered.
Silence.
Then breathing.
“Hello?”
“Em.”
I stood so quickly my chair fell backward.
Daniel.
“Where are you?”
“I don’t know.”
His voice was weak.
“Are you hurt?”
“Yes.”
I signaled Ortega.
He began tracing the call.
“Daniel, stay with me.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t.”
“I should’ve told you.”
“You should’ve told me a lot of things. We can discuss them after somebody finds you.”
A broken laugh.
That familiar laugh.
For one second, I remembered our first apartment, cheap pizza, Daniel dancing with me barefoot because the electricity had gone out.
Then reality returned.
“Can you see anything?”
“Metal walls.”
“Windows?”
“No.”
“Sounds?”
He became quiet.
“Trains.”
Ortega wrote something.
“Anything else?”
“Water.”
Train tracks near water.
Industrial property.
Police narrowed the possibilities.
Then Daniel whispered, “Emily?”
“I’m here.”
“I didn’t name Noah to replace our baby.”
I closed my eyes.
“Not now.”
“I need you to know.”
“Daniel.”
“I named him because I was a selfish idiot trying to keep one piece of the life I destroyed.”
Tears filled my eyes despite everything.
“You don’t get to make that romantic.”
“I know.”
“Good.”
Silence.
Then Daniel said, “Tell Noah I tried.”
My blood froze.
“You can tell him yourself.”
The line disconnected.
Police moved.
There were three industrial properties near freight lines and water within the likely cell-tower radius.
The first was empty.
The second belonged to a shipping company.
The third had been leased six months earlier.
To Northline Holdings.
Ortega left with the tactical team.
I waited.
One hour.
Then two.
At 5:46 a.m., my phone rang.
Ortega.
“We found him.”
I couldn’t speak.
“He’s alive.”
I sat down.
Across from me, Olivia began crying.
Daniel had been found handcuffed inside a storage room, dehydrated and badly beaten but conscious.
Mark was arrested before sunrise.
Richard Mercer disappeared.
And when police searched his house, they discovered something none of us expected.
Richard had purchased an airline ticket.
Not for himself.
For Olivia.
And another for Noah.
One-way.
May you like
To Switzerland.
The departure time was six hours away.
