Chapter 5 - Vanessa MercerDaniel called at 1:14 in the morning.

Robert answered before the second ring.

"Dad."

"Where are you?"

A pause.

"Vanessa's."

"Can you leave safely?"

Another pause.

"No."

Robert stood.

Carol woke on the sofa.

"Is she in the room?" Robert asked.

"No."

"Can she hear you?"

"I don't think so."

"Don't guess."

Daniel breathed shallowly.

"She went downstairs."

Robert moved toward his study.

"What happened?"

"She knows."

"Knows what?"

"That I copied the drive."

Robert closed his eyes.

"How?"

"She checked the cabinet."

"Did she threaten you?"

"Not exactly."

"Daniel."

"She said if anything from her apartment ends up with police, I lose my job."

Robert's grip tightened.

"How?"

"There are files on my work account."

"What files?"

"Payments."

"Real?"

"No."

"Can you prove that?"

"I don't know."

Robert heard a floorboard creak through the phone.

Daniel whispered, "She's coming."

"Hang up."

"Dad—"

"Now."

The line died.

Carol stood in the doorway.

"What happened?"

Robert grabbed his keys.

"We're going."

Carol blocked him.

"Going where?"

"Daniel's."

"No."

"Move."

"Donna literally wrote that you would do this."

"My son just told me he can't leave safely."

"Then call police."

Robert stopped.

She was right.

That irritated him more than it should have.

He called 911 and reported a possible coercive-control situation involving financial threats and potential unauthorized computer access.

The dispatcher asked whether Daniel had been assaulted.

Robert did not know.

Whether Vanessa had a weapon.

He did not know.

Whether Daniel had asked officers to come.

He had not.

Those gaps mattered.

Police could conduct a welfare check.

They could not become Robert's private tactical team.

Robert and Carol drove separately, following at a distance until two patrol cars arrived outside Vanessa's upscale apartment complex in Scottsdale.

Robert remained across the street.

Ten minutes later Daniel came outside.

Vanessa followed.

She wore a beige coat over pajamas.

She looked wounded.

Confused.

Harmless.

Daniel spoke with the officers.

Vanessa spoke too.

Eventually Daniel crossed the street toward Robert.

Vanessa stayed behind.

Her eyes found Robert immediately.

Daniel got into the passenger seat.

"Drive."

Robert drove.

Only when they reached the freeway did he speak.

"Did she touch you?"

"No."

"Threaten you?"

"She said my life would collapse if I betrayed her."

"That's a threat."

"I know."

"Why didn't you tell me sooner?"

Daniel stared through the windshield.

"Because you'd do this."

"Do what?"

"Turn into Detective Callahan."

"My son was in danger."

"Your son is twenty-eight."

"Then act twenty-eight and tell me when somebody is blackmailing you."

Daniel flinched.

Robert regretted it instantly.

"That was wrong."

Daniel said nothing.

Robert lowered his voice.

"When did it start?"

"Months ago."

"Controlling you?"

Daniel nodded.

"At first it was small."

"What does small mean?"

"She hated one of my friends. Said he disrespected her. So I stopped seeing him."

Robert waited.

"Then she said my apartment was unsafe, so I stayed with her more. Then she wanted my location on all the time. She said couples with nothing to hide don't need privacy."

"Your passwords?"

"Eventually."

"Banking?"

Daniel nodded again.

Robert kept his eyes on the road.

"Did you ever tell her no?"

"Yes."

"What happened?"

"She cried. Or she'd disappear. Or tell me I was becoming like you."

Robert glanced over.

"Like me?"

"Controlling."

That hurt because Robert knew enough about himself to know the accusation was not entirely absurd.

He had been overprotective.

He had interrogated Daniel's teenage friends.

Tracked his first car.

Warned him about drugs, scams, violence, predators, bad neighborhoods, and almost every form of danger imaginable.

He had taught Daniel how to recognize threats.

He had not taught him how to admit vulnerability without shame.

"What did you find in her cabinet?" Robert asked.

"Everything on the drive."

"Anything else?"

Daniel looked at him.

"A birth certificate."

Robert's pulse changed.

"What name?"

"Vanessa Elaine Mercer."

Robert stared ahead.

"Mother?"

"Evelyn Mercer."

The desert highway lights passed in steady intervals.

"Father?"

"Blank."

Robert's mind returned to a thirty-two-year-old woman from seventeen years earlier.

Evelyn Mercer.

Intelligent.

Aggressive.

Terrified near the end.

Vanessa would have been sixteen when Evelyn died.

"Morfield isn't her real name," Daniel said.

"No."

"She told me both her parents died in a car accident."

"Her mother died in a fire."

Daniel looked sick.

Robert continued.

"At least that's what we believed."

They reached Robert's house before dawn.

Carol hugged Daniel without asking.

Robert went straight to the kitchen.

The Thanksgiving table remained half-cleared.

The upside-down signal haunted him.

He picked up the chipped mug.

Daniel entered.

"Dad."

Robert turned.

Daniel said, "Vanessa told me something before the police came."

"What?"

"She said you murdered her mother."

Robert's face hardened.

"That's not true."

"I know."

"Do you?"

Daniel hesitated.

Robert felt the answer.

"You don't."

"I found your report."

"Which report?"

"The warehouse fire."

Daniel swallowed.

"You were there before the fire department."

Robert went still.

Only six people had known that.

May you like

92 The Girl They Called Broke Was a Billionaire’s Daughter—But Her Fathe...

91 A Cruel Hotel Manager Fired a Receptionist for Defending a Poor Old G...

90 On Christmas Eve, My Daughter-in-Law Stole $12,000 From My Card—Then...

Daniel continued.

"And according to your report, Evelyn Mercer was still alive when you arrived."