Chapter 6 - The Man Nathan Trusted More Than Blood
Cal Rourke arrived at the cabin the next afternoon.
Nathan did not greet him warmly.
Cal noticed.
“You look like you're deciding whether to shoot me.”
Clara, standing in the kitchen, froze.
Nathan said, “I'm deciding whether I ever knew you.”
Cal closed the door.
“What happened?”
Nathan placed the recorder on the table.
“Sit.”
Cal did.
Nathan played the final section.
Patrick's voice.
Tell Malcolm the boy has to die before Nathan finds out.
Then static.
Nathan paused.
“There was someone else in that room.”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
Cal stared.
“I don't know.”
“You were working security for Patrick then.”
“I was twenty-nine.”
“You were assigned Warehouse Nine that week.”
Cal's eyes narrowed.
“You checked.”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
Nathan leaned forward.
“Where were you the night Owen died?”
Cal's jaw tightened.
“I already answered this ten years ago.”
“Answer again.”
“At your father's old hotel.”
“Why?”
“Patrick sent me.”
“For?”
“A supposed threat.”
“Was there one?”
“No.”
Nathan stared.
Cal slowly understood.
“Patrick moved me away.”
“Maybe.”
“You think I helped him?”
“I think everyone I trusted seems to have been standing near the lie.”
Cal stood.
“So that's it?”
“No.”
Nathan stood too.
“That's the question.”
Cal looked furious.
“I carried Owen out of Warehouse Nine.”
Clara stopped moving.
Nathan knew.
Cal continued.
“I burned both hands.”
He held them out.
Scars across his palms.
Nathan had seen them for years.
Never asked much.
“You think I knew they were going to set that fire?”
“I think I don't know.”
Cal's voice broke.
“I loved him too.”
Nathan said nothing.
“You lost a brother.”
Cal pointed at himself.
“I lost my best friend.”
That was true.
Owen and Cal had been inseparable before Nathan pulled Cal deeper into security.
Cal walked toward the window.
“I heard the call at 2:21. Warehouse fire.”
He swallowed.
“I was twenty minutes away.”
Nathan remembered.
Cal arrived before fire crews controlled the east section.
He entered anyway.
Found Owen near a loading bay.
Alive for less than a minute.
Nathan's chest tightened.
“You told me he said nothing.”
Cal went still.
There.
Nathan saw it.
“Cal.”
Clara looked between them.
“What did Owen say?”
Cal closed his eyes.
Nathan's voice became dangerously quiet.
“You lied.”
“Yes.”
One word.
Nathan felt betrayed all over again.
“What did he say?”
Cal turned.
“He said, ‘Patrick.’”
Nathan's hands curled.
“You told me nothing.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Patrick was standing behind you when I woke up in the hospital.”
Nathan stopped.
Cal continued.
“He told me Owen had been confused.”
“And you believed him?”
“No.”
“Then why?”
“Because he said if I accused him without evidence, you'd kill him.”
“I probably would've.”
“Yes.”
Cal's voice rose.
“And then maybe you would've been wrong.”
Nathan stared.
Cal laughed bitterly.
“The warehouse contained Alvarez fuel cans. Wallace had already given police a statement. Everything pointed outward.”
“You chose Patrick.”
“I chose evidence.”
“You chose silence.”
“Yes.”
Nathan stepped forward.
Clara moved between them.
Both men stared at her.
“This is stupid.”
Nathan's eyes narrowed.
“Clara.”
“No.”
She looked at Cal.
“You should have told him.”
“I know.”
Then Nathan.
“And you would have killed Patrick.”
Nathan said nothing.
“See?”
She folded her arms.
“Everybody here keeps making terrible decisions because they're convinced Nathan Mercer can't handle the truth.”
Cal looked at Nathan.
“She has a point.”
“Do not encourage her.”
Clara ignored him.
“What else did Owen say?”
Cal swallowed.
“One more thing.”
Nathan waited.
“‘Daniel has it.’”
Clara covered her mouth.
The toolbox.
Daniel.
Owen had tried to tell them.
Cal continued.
“I looked for Daniel.”
“What?”
“I went to Warehouse Twelve.”
“When?”
“Two days after the funeral.”
Nathan's anger shifted.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Patrick told me Daniel had quit.”
Clara shook her head.
“He didn't quit.”
“I know that now.”
Cal rubbed his face.
“I tried finding him privately. His address in company records was old.”
Nathan looked at Clara.
“Did you move?”
“Three months before Owen died.”
Cal swore.
“Patrick altered the file.”
Probably.
A thousand small manipulations.
All designed to keep honest people separated.
Nathan sat.
“What happened after?”
“I kept watching Patrick.”
“For ten years?”
“Yes.”
“You found nothing?”
“Bits.”
Cal reached inside his coat.
Placed a folder on the table.
Nathan stared.
“What is that?”
“My resignation.”
“What?”
Cal laughed without humor.
“And eighteen months of evidence.”
Nathan opened it.
Photographs.
Bank records.
Patrick meeting former Cole executives.
Evan transferring money.
Wallace receiving payments.
“You were investigating?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because your fiancée was in half the photographs.”
Nathan looked up.
Cal continued.
“I didn't know whether you trusted her more than me.”
“I didn't.”
“I know that now.”
“Why eighteen months?”
“That's when Vivian requested access to Owen's personnel archive.”
Nathan's face hardened.
“She started this before the engagement?”
“Yes.”
“When did you discover it?”
“Six months ago.”
“And said nothing.”
Cal looked ashamed.
“I wanted proof.”
Nathan almost shouted.
Then stopped.
Everybody wanted proof.
Owen.
Daniel.
Cal.
All of them feared what Nathan would do with suspicion.
Maybe the problem had never only been the people lying to him.
Maybe it was what Nathan had taught them to expect.
He looked at Clara.
She seemed to understand the realization.
Cal pointed toward one photograph.
Vivian meeting Patrick at a private club.
Date: three weeks before Nathan proposed.
Another.
Evan.
Another.
Wallace.
“What's their plan?” Nathan asked.
“I didn't know until the gala.”
“The incapacity vote.”
“Yes.”
Cal continued.
“Patrick has been losing money.”
“How much?”
“Almost sixty million.”
Nathan frowned.
“How?”
“Cole operation collapsed after Malcolm died. Patrick tried maintaining it.”
“Narcotics?”
“Some. Mostly fraud and stolen pension assets.”
Nathan's stomach turned.
“He needs Mercer Holdings.”
“Yes.”
“And marriage gives Vivian access.”
“Not automatically.”
“But combined with emergency control.”
“Yes.”
Nathan understood.
Vivian was not marrying Nathan because she loved power abstractly.
She needed legal proximity.
Patrick needed her vote.
Together they could transfer enough legitimate assets to cover decades of theft before Nathan discovered it.
“Why drug me?”
“To trigger the health clause.”
“Why not kill me?”
Cal looked at him.
“Because your will gives controlling interest to charitable trusts if you die before producing an heir.”
Clara blinked.
Nathan had forgotten she didn't know.
“No children?” she asked.
“No.”
Ellie appeared from the hallway.
“I can be your kid.”
Everyone turned.
Clara closed her eyes.
“Were you listening?”
“No.”
A lie so obvious Nathan almost admired it.
Ellie walked in holding her wand.
“You said no children.”
Nathan looked at her.
“Correct.”
“I can do it.”
“Do what?”
“Be the children.”
Cal turned away to hide a laugh.
Nathan crouched.
“That's not how inheritance works.”
“Why?”
“Because laws.”
Ellie frowned.
“Boring.”
“Yes.”
She looked at Clara.
“Can I have cocoa?”
“After dinner.”
Ellie left.
Nathan watched her.
Cal smiled faintly.
“She's good for you.”
Nathan glared.
“Focus.”
But Clara was watching him.
Her expression soft.
That made focusing difficult.
Cal continued.
“Patrick thinks the incapacity vote gives him seventy-two hours to restructure assets before you challenge it.”
“Let him.”
“I already did.”
“What has he moved?”
“Twenty million.”
Nathan smiled.
Cal understood.
“Tracked?”
“Yes.”
“Federal?”
“Not yet.”
“Make it federal.”
Cal raised an eyebrow.
“You really want investigators seeing this?”
“Yes.”
“Nate.”
“I am done protecting an organization that stole from widows.”
Clara looked down.
Nathan continued.
“Build the case.”
Cal nodded.
Then his phone vibrated.
He checked.
“Vivian.”
Nathan's eyes narrowed.
“What?”
“She wants you to contact her.”
“Why?”
Cal read.
“She says Clara Walsh manipulated you during a mental health crisis.”
Clara laughed.
Nathan almost did.
“There’s more.”
“What?”
“Vivian claims Clara stole jewelry from Mercer House.”
Clara stopped laughing.
“What?”
“Half-million-dollar necklace.”
“I've never even touched her jewelry.”
Nathan's face hardened.
“When did she report it?”
“Twenty minutes ago.”
Of course.
Vivian needed Clara discredited.
The housekeeper who witnessed Owen's room.
The widow connected to Daniel.
The woman now beside Nathan.
Cal continued.
“Police have a warrant for Clara's apartment.”
Nathan stood.
“They'll find the necklace.”
Clara went pale.
“You think she planted it?”
“I know she did.”
“Ellie's things are there.”
Nathan called his attorney.
Then police liaison.
Then stopped.
Clara touched his arm.
“Don't interfere illegally.”
Nathan looked offended.
“You're learning me too quickly.”
“I clean mirrors.”
He almost smiled.
“We'll let them search.”
“What if they find it?”
“They will.”
“And arrest me?”
“No.”
“How can you know?”
Nathan looked at Cal.
“Because we're going to show them Vivian entering your apartment.”
Clara stared.
Nathan smiled coldly.
“She forgot something.”
“What?”
“Your building belongs to Mercer Properties.”
Nathan had installed cameras after a tenant robbery the previous year.
Two hours later, footage showed Vivian's personal assistant entering Clara's apartment using a copied service key.
She remained inside seven minutes.
The necklace appeared exactly where police were told to look.
Instead of arresting Clara, detectives began asking questions about Vivian.
Patrick's plan began cracking.
Then another message arrived.
This one directly to Nathan.
From Vivian.
Come home alone and I'll tell you what really happened to Owen.
Nathan read it once.
Clara read his face.
“You're going.”
“Yes.”
“Alone?”
“She asked.”
“That seems like a reason not to.”
Nathan looked at Cal.
“Prepare surveillance.”
Clara shook her head.
“Nathan.”
He turned.
She stepped closer.
“Don't walk into danger because guilt makes you think you deserve whatever happens.”
The words hit him hard.
He lowered his voice.
“I'll come back.”
“You can't promise that.”
“Yes, I can.”
“How?”
May you like
Nathan looked toward the hallway where Ellie had disappeared.
“Because I still owe your daughter one wish.”
