Chapter 4 - The Recording
I called my mother from Daniel's office.
She answered cheerfully.
"Claire, sweetheart—"
"Who was Rebecca Hale?"
Silence.
Not confusion.
Recognition.
That frightened me more than any answer could have.
"Where did you hear that name?"
"Mom."
"Claire, where are you?"
"At my house."
"Is Daniel there?"
"No. He's been arrested."
Another silence.
"What happened?"
"He hit me."
My mother's breath caught.
"I'll come."
"No. Answer me first."
"Claire—"
"Rebecca wrote your name down before she died. She wrote my birthday beside it."
Evelyn sat across the room.
Megan watched me.
Officer Ruiz stood near the doorway.
My mother began crying.
I had never heard her cry like that.
Not even when my father died.
"Rebecca was my sister," she said.
The room seemed to tilt.
"You told me you were an only child."
"I lied."
"Why?"
"Because I was scared."
"Of Richard Mercer?"
She didn't answer.
"Mom."
"Yes."
I sat down.
Rebecca was my aunt.
Richard Mercer had known her.
Daniel's father.
My husband's father.
Two families tied together by a secret no one had told me.
"Did you know who Daniel was when I married him?"
"No. His surname meant nothing to me at first. Rebecca never called Richard by his real last name when she was alive. She called him Rick."
"But you met Daniel."
"Years later."
"And?"
"I recognized Evelyn at your wedding."
Evelyn went pale.
"You recognized me?" she whispered.
My mother heard her.
"She's there?"
"Yes."
The grief in my mother's voice hardened.
"Then ask her why she did nothing."
Evelyn began shaking.
"I didn't know Rebecca had a sister."
"You knew Richard hurt her."
"I suspected."
"You knew."
Officer Ruiz stepped forward.
"Mrs. Bennett, this may be relevant to an investigation. Would you be willing to provide a statement?"
My mother agreed.
Before ending the call, she said something I couldn't forget.
"Claire, don't trust anyone who tells you Richard's death was an accident."
I looked at Evelyn.
"What does that mean?"
But my mother had already disconnected.
Evelyn stood.
"I need to leave."
"No."
"Claire."
"You came here saying I needed the truth."
"I was wrong."
"Why?"
"Because this isn't about Daniel anymore."
"It became about Daniel when he kept Rebecca's statement locked in his desk."
Evelyn looked terrified.
"Please."
Officer Ruiz asked her to remain.
Evelyn sat again.
Piece by piece, the history emerged.
Richard Mercer had met Rebecca Hale while working on a property development project.
Rebecca was a bookkeeper.
Richard was married to Evelyn.
The relationship had begun as an affair.
Then Rebecca tried to end it.
Richard wouldn't let her.
"He became obsessed," Evelyn said.
"How did you know?"
"Because I found letters."
"Did you confront him?"
"Yes."
"And?"
"He told me Rebecca was unstable."
The same word Daniel had used about me.
I felt sick.
"What happened the night Rebecca died?"
Evelyn stared at her hands.
"Richard came home after midnight. There was blood on his cuff."
Officer Ruiz became very still.
"What did he say?"
"That he'd cut himself."
"And you believed him?"
"No."
"Did you report it?"
"No."
Megan whispered, "Jesus."
Evelyn accepted the judgment.
"I was afraid."
"Rebecca died that night?" I asked.
"Yes."
Her death had been ruled accidental.
A fall down an exterior staircase behind her apartment.
No witnesses.
No arrest.
My mother took me away from that town shortly afterward.
I had been nine.
I remembered moving.
I remembered my mother burning old photographs.
I had never known why.
"What about Richard's death?" I asked.
Evelyn's eyes lifted.
"He died in a car crash."
"Accident?"
"That's what everyone believed."
"But my mother doesn't."
"I don't know what Laura knows."
Officer Ruiz collected the documents.
Before leaving, she asked if I wanted to retrieve anything else.
My suitcase was already packed.
I took it.
Megan drove me to her apartment.
For the first time in four years, I slept somewhere Daniel couldn't enter.
I didn't sleep much.
At 2:17 a.m., my phone buzzed.
Daniel.
He had apparently been released pending further proceedings.
The protective order paperwork was underway, and I knew I shouldn't engage.
His message read:
YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU'VE DONE.
Another arrived.
MY FATHER'S BUSINESS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH US.
Then:
GIVE ME THE FOLDER.
I didn't answer.
A minute later:
CLAIRE, LISTEN TO ME. YOUR MOTHER IS LYING.
I showed Megan.
"Don't respond."
"I won't."
Then another message appeared.
It wasn't from Daniel.
Unknown number.
There was an attachment.
An audio file.
Underneath it were seven words.
YOUR HUSBAND ISN'T THE FIRST MERCER WHO LIED.
I pressed play.
Static filled the room.
Then a man's voice spoke.
I had heard that voice before.
Not Daniel's.
May you like
His father's.
And the first name Richard Mercer said was mine.
