The first problem with Dererick\u2019s message was obvious.<\/p>\n
Paul Mercer had not been buried.<\/p>\n
According to official records, he had been cremated.<\/p>\n
Anna looked at Harper.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen what does \u2018where he buried Paul\u2019 mean?\u201d<\/p>\n
Nobody assumed the phrase was literal until they verified the old records.<\/p>\n
Paul\u2019s body had been identified by his brother.<\/p>\n
Autopsy performed.<\/p>\n
Cremation authorized.<\/p>\n
Ashes released to family.<\/p>\n
There was no missing corpse.<\/p>\n
Clare read the report twice.<\/p>\n
\u201cCould the identification have been wrong?\u201d<\/p>\n
Harper ordered the original evidence reviewed.<\/p>\n
Fingerprints had confirmed identity.<\/p>\n
Paul Mercer had died.<\/p>\n
So Dererick meant something else.<\/p>\n
A secret.<\/p>\n
Evidence.<\/p>\n
Records.<\/p>\n
Perhaps \u201cPaul\u201d referred to material Vale had hidden after Mercer\u2019s death.<\/p>\n
Susan Bell provided the first clue.<\/p>\n
Paul kept duplicate medication logs.<\/p>\n
He distrusted the department\u2019s recordkeeping and privately documented discrepancies.<\/p>\n
Before he died, he told Susan that if Vale ever tried to blame him for missing drugs, he could prove who authorized them.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere did he keep the logs?\u201d<\/p>\n
Susan did not know.<\/p>\n
She remembered Paul joking that hospitals were terrible places to hide evidence because everyone had keys.<\/p>\n
He preferred somewhere nobody associated with work.<\/p>\n
Paul loved gardening.<\/p>\n
After his death, his small community-garden plot was reassigned.<\/p>\n
Anna thought of Dererick\u2019s wording.<\/p>\n
Where he buried Paul.<\/p>\n
Not where Vale buried him.<\/p>\n
Ask Vale where he buried Paul.<\/p>\n
Harper searched Vale\u2019s basement notes.<\/p>\n
One entry dated shortly after Mercer\u2019s death contained two words:<\/p>\n
Garden cleared.<\/p>\n
Investigators located the old community garden.<\/p>\n
Most of it had been redeveloped into a public park.<\/p>\n
Historical maps identified Paul\u2019s former plot.<\/p>\n
Ground-penetrating equipment detected a small metal object beneath what was now a flower bed.<\/p>\n
Police excavated carefully.<\/p>\n
They found a rusted lockbox.<\/p>\n
Inside, protected by layers of plastic, were notebooks.<\/p>\n
Paul Mercer\u2019s handwriting.<\/p>\n
The logs documented medication removed under Vale\u2019s authorization but never properly entered into patient records.<\/p>\n
Several quantities corresponded to Vale\u2019s questionable research.<\/p>\n
More disturbing, Paul recorded his suspicions.<\/p>\n
K.V. using D. off books.<\/p>\n
At first investigators assumed D meant Dererick.<\/p>\n
The dates were wrong.<\/p>\n
Dererick had not yet met Vale.<\/p>\n
Susan recognized the reference.<\/p>\n
Daphne Lewis.<\/p>\n
A research nurse.<\/p>\n
She had worked with Vale before leaving suddenly.<\/p>\n
Another associate.<\/p>\n
The system before the system.<\/p>\n
Daphne had died twelve years earlier in a traffic accident.<\/p>\n
Investigators pulled her records.<\/p>\n
No obvious connection to Mercer\u2019s death.<\/p>\n
But Paul\u2019s notebook described her transporting medication and participant files outside the hospital.<\/p>\n
Vale\u2019s methods had already moved beyond institutional walls before Dererick arrived.<\/p>\n
Anna felt as though every excavation uncovered an older foundation.<\/p>\n
Dererick had modernized the machinery.<\/p>\n
He had not built its first version.<\/p>\n
Paul\u2019s final notebook entries became increasingly alarmed.<\/p>\n
He believed Vale was using information learned during research sessions to influence participants outside the studies.<\/p>\n
Personal secrets.<\/p>\n
Addictions.<\/p>\n
Affairs.<\/p>\n
Financial trouble.<\/p>\n
The earliest form of leverage.<\/p>\n
One line stood out:<\/p>\n
He says people tell the truth when they no longer trust their own memory.<\/p>\n
Anna had to stop reading.<\/p>\n
That sentence belonged to her marriage.<\/p>\n
Not literally.<\/p>\n
Structurally.<\/p>\n
Vale\u2019s idea had survived for years and eventually reached her bedroom through Dererick.<\/p>\n
Paul planned to report everything.<\/p>\n
His final dated entry said:<\/p>\n
Meeting K.V. tomorrow. Copies safe.<\/p>\n
Paul died the next evening.<\/p>\n
Harper reopened the death as a suspected homicide.<\/p>\n
The lockbox gave investigators motive and evidence of misconduct, but not proof Vale killed him.<\/p>\n
Dererick appeared to know more.<\/p>\n
That created the problem.<\/p>\n
The fugitive they were hunting possessed information investigators needed.<\/p>\n
He knew it.<\/p>\n
Anna knew he knew it.<\/p>\n
The next contact came directly to her.<\/p>\n
Despite security measures, a letter arrived through an attorney.<\/p>\n
Not Dererick\u2019s criminal attorney.<\/p>\n
A different lawyer contacted Harper and said he had been retained years earlier to deliver a sealed envelope if specific conditions occurred.<\/p>\n
The trigger had been news coverage linking Kenneth Vale to Rachel Boone.<\/p>\n
Inside the envelope was a letter addressed to Anna.<\/p>\n
Harper inspected and copied it before she read it.<\/p>\n
Dererick\u2019s handwriting was unmistakable.<\/p>\n
Anna,<\/p>\n
If you are reading this, then Nolan talked, Kenneth panicked, or both. You will be told that I am trying to manipulate you. That will be true. It will also be true that I can prove things they cannot.<\/p>\n
Anna almost stopped there.<\/p>\n
The arrogance of admitting manipulation felt calculated to create credibility.<\/p>\n
She continued.<\/p>\n
Dererick wrote that Vale was responsible for Paul Mercer\u2019s death and that the proof existed among the originals.<\/p>\n
He claimed Rachel had discovered enough to connect Vale to Paul.<\/p>\n
Vale sent Dererick to recover the evidence.<\/p>\n
Rachel refused to reveal where she kept it.<\/p>\n
Dererick escalated.<\/p>\n
Rachel died.<\/p>\n
He admitted responsibility without using the word murder.<\/p>\n
Anna noticed.<\/p>\n
Even in a letter prepared for catastrophe, he shaped language around himself.<\/p>\n
Then came the bargain.<\/p>\n
If Anna publicly promised to hear him before cooperating further with prosecutors, he would surrender the originals.<\/p>\n
Clare read that section and said, \u201cAbsolutely not.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anna agreed.<\/p>\n
The letter continued.<\/p>\n
Dererick claimed Vale would destroy remaining evidence and disappear if police cornered him without the originals.<\/p>\n
He offered a location for one piece of proof as a demonstration.<\/p>\n
A safe-deposit box.<\/p>\n
The key number matched a code in the master ledger.<\/p>\n
Harper obtained lawful access.<\/p>\n
Inside were copies of Paul Mercer\u2019s medication logs.<\/p>\n
Photographs of Vale meeting Daphne Lewis outside the hospital.<\/p>\n
And a cassette.<\/p>\n
The cassette contained Paul\u2019s voice.<\/p>\n
He had secretly recorded a confrontation with Vale.<\/p>\n
Paul accused him of unauthorized medication use and manipulating research participants.<\/p>\n
Vale denied nothing directly.<\/p>\n
Instead he told Paul to consider what accusations would do to his career.<\/p>\n
Then Vale mentioned Paul\u2019s dependence on prescription pain medication after an old injury.<\/p>\n
Paul became furious.<\/p>\n
Vale remained calm.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou see the problem,\u201d Vale said. \u201cThe person making the accusation must be more credible than the person being accused.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anna felt cold.<\/p>\n
There was the entire system in one sentence.<\/p>\n
Control the evidence.<\/p>\n
Control credibility.<\/p>\n
Control whose memory counts.<\/p>\n
The recording ended before any explicit threat.<\/p>\n
Still, it supported Paul\u2019s notebook.<\/p>\n
It also explained why Vale believed he could survive allegations.<\/p>\n
He had information about the accuser.<\/p>\n
Harper moved to arrest Vale on charges supported by the developing evidence while continuing the homicide investigation.<\/p>\n
But Vale was still missing.<\/p>\n
His finances showed no recent activity.<\/p>\n
His passport had not been used.<\/p>\n
His known vehicles were accounted for.<\/p>\n
Then a foundation employee reported something she had previously considered irrelevant.<\/p>\n
Vale maintained a private apartment under the foundation\u2019s name for visiting scholars.<\/p>\n
It was not listed among his personal properties.<\/p>\n
Police entered.<\/p>\n
The apartment was empty.<\/p>\n
Recently occupied.<\/p>\n
A cup in the sink.<\/p>\n
Medication on the counter.<\/p>\n
Vale\u2019s.<\/p>\n
He had been there.<\/p>\n
A closet contained clothing.<\/p>\n
A trash bin held bloodstained gauze.<\/p>\n
His hand injury from the lake house.<\/p>\n
Vale had treated himself there.<\/p>\n
On the table sat a newspaper opened to the first public article naming him in connection with the investigation.<\/p>\n
Several paragraphs were circled.<\/p>\n
Beside them he had written:<\/p>\n
D will trade.<\/p>\n
Dererick.<\/p>\n
Vale understood the same thing investigators did.<\/p>\n
Dererick intended to use the originals.<\/p>\n
The apartment also contained a printed map.<\/p>\n
One location marked.<\/p>\n
The abandoned railway depot where Dererick had tried to arrange the journalist meeting.<\/p>\n
Vale had known about it.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow?\u201d Anna asked.<\/p>\n
Harper considered the possibilities.<\/p>\n
Vale might still have access to Dererick\u2019s communications.<\/p>\n
Or he might understand Dererick well enough to anticipate his choices.<\/p>\n
A more troubling possibility emerged.<\/p>\n
Dererick may have contacted him again.<\/p>\n
Forensics recovered deleted browser activity from a tablet.<\/p>\n
An encrypted webmail account had been accessed.<\/p>\n
One message survived in cache.<\/p>\n
From Dererick:<\/p>\n
You want Paul and Rachel. I want a way out.<\/p>\n
Vale replied:<\/p>\n
You no longer have one.<\/p>\n
Dererick:<\/p>\n
Neither do you.<\/p>\n
The exchange continued.<\/p>\n
Vale demanded the case.<\/p>\n
Dererick proposed a meeting.<\/p>\n
Vale refused the location.<\/p>\n
Dererick offered another.<\/p>\n
A place identified only as M.<\/p>\n
Nolan recognized it.<\/p>\n
\u201cMercer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Paul\u2019s old house had been demolished years earlier.<\/p>\n
But his family owned a small fishing property outside the city.<\/p>\n
Paul used it frequently.<\/p>\n
After his death, the property changed hands.<\/p>\n
The current owner?<\/p>\n
Meridian Advisory.<\/p>\n
Vale\u2019s trust-connected entity.<\/p>\n
Vale had purchased Paul Mercer\u2019s fishing property after his death.<\/p>\n
Anna stared at the ownership record.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe buried Paul there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not his body.<\/p>\n
His history.<\/p>\n
Perhaps evidence.<\/p>\n
Perhaps something Dererick knew.<\/p>\n
Police raced toward the property.<\/p>\n
No one was there.<\/p>\n
But two sets of recent tire tracks crossed the wet ground.<\/p>\n
Inside the cabin, the air smelled of smoke.<\/p>\n
A fireplace contained burned documents.<\/p>\n
One unburned corner showed Paul\u2019s handwriting.<\/p>\n
Vale had been destroying material.<\/p>\n
Then investigators found a hidden floor compartment.<\/p>\n
Empty except for an old photograph.<\/p>\n
Paul Mercer stood beside Susan Bell and several research staff members.<\/p>\n
Kenneth Vale was among them.<\/p>\n
So was Daphne Lewis.<\/p>\n
On the back Paul had written names.<\/p>\n
One unfamiliar man stood at the edge.<\/p>\n
Susan identified him.<\/p>\n
\u201cGerald Boone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rachel\u2019s father.<\/p>\n
The connection stunned everyone.<\/p>\n
Rachel\u2019s father had worked as a hospital facilities contractor during Vale\u2019s research years.<\/p>\n
That was how Rachel first obtained the volunteer position.<\/p>\n
Gerald Boone knew Paul Mercer.<\/p>\n
After Paul died, Gerald may have helped Rachel preserve his evidence.<\/p>\n
Rachel\u2019s involvement was no accident.<\/p>\n
She inherited the secret.<\/p>\n
Vale knew.<\/p>\n
Years later, he sent Dererick to retrieve it.<\/p>\n
The chain finally connected.<\/p>\n
Paul documented Vale.<\/p>\n
Gerald helped preserve material.<\/p>\n
Rachel inherited it.<\/p>\n
Dererick targeted Rachel.<\/p>\n
Rachel died.<\/p>\n
Emily witnessed the aftermath.<\/p>\n
Nolan fled the system.<\/p>\n
Dererick continued it.<\/p>\n
Anna eventually discovered the camera.<\/p>\n
One night in her bedroom had opened a history stretching back more than a decade.<\/p>\n
Harper searched the property grounds.<\/p>\n
Near an old shed, officers found a second buried container.<\/p>\n
Inside were water-damaged documents and one sealed envelope.<\/p>\n
Gerald Boone\u2019s handwriting appeared on the front.<\/p>\n
If anything happens to Rachel.<\/p>\n
Anna felt a pressure in her chest.<\/p>\n
The letter described Gerald\u2019s fear that Rachel had become determined to expose Vale after learning more about Paul\u2019s death.<\/p>\n
He begged her to give the records to police rather than confront anyone.<\/p>\n
Gerald died before Rachel acted.<\/p>\n
She kept going alone.<\/p>\n
Anna understood that impulse too well.<\/p>\n
The need to know before trusting anyone else.<\/p>\n
The belief that one more piece of proof would make danger manageable.<\/p>\n
It nearly killed Anna.<\/p>\n
It had killed Rachel.<\/p>\n
The letter contained one final clue.<\/p>\n
Gerald wrote that Paul had hidden the most important recording somewhere \u201cKenneth could never retrieve without admitting why he wanted it.\u201d<\/p>\n
No location.<\/p>\n
But Dererick apparently knew.<\/p>\n
The originals case might contain it.<\/p>\n
As police processed the fishing property, Anna\u2019s secured phone received an incoming call routed through Harper\u2019s monitoring system.<\/p>\n
Unknown number.<\/p>\n
Everyone became still.<\/p>\n
Anna answered.<\/p>\n
Dererick.<\/p>\n
His breathing sounded strained.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou found Paul\u2019s place.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anna said nothing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told you there was more.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou told me because you need something.\u201d<\/p>\n
A pause.<\/p>\n
Then a quiet laugh.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou finally stopped answering the question I ask and started asking why I asked it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anna felt no satisfaction.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat do you want?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clare stiffened.<\/p>\n
Harper signaled Anna to continue.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor what?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTo listen.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI listened for six years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Silence.<\/p>\n
Dererick\u2019s voice changed slightly.<\/p>\n
\u201cI loved you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anna looked at the wall.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou drugged me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou recorded me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou planned to take me to that room.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another pause.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
The admissions came without excuses.<\/p>\n
That frightened her more than denial.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou targeted Clare.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou used me to reach people.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd you want me to hear that you loved me?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI want you to understand that both things were true.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anna\u2019s voice remained steady.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo. You want me to agree that one changes the other.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dererick said nothing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
The line remained quiet long enough that Anna wondered whether he had disconnected.<\/p>\n
Then he spoke.<\/p>\n
\u201cKenneth never understood you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNeither did you.\u201d<\/p>\n
That landed.<\/p>\n
She heard it in his breathing.<\/p>\n
Harper pointed toward the trace status.<\/p>\n
Not enough yet.<\/p>\n
Anna continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere\u2019s the case?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWith me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere\u2019s Vale?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAre you lying?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNot about that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat happened at the lake house?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe tried to take the case.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou fought.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou left him alive.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n
Dererick gave a tired laugh.<\/p>\n
\u201cWould you believe me if I said I\u2019m done killing people?\u201d<\/p>\n
Anna\u2019s stomach tightened.<\/p>\n
The wording.<\/p>\n
Not hurting.<\/p>\n
Killing.<\/p>\n
Plural implication or careless phrasing?<\/p>\n
Harper heard it too.<\/p>\n
\u201cRachel?\u201d Anna asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWho else?\u201d<\/p>\n
Silence.<\/p>\n
\u201cDererick.\u201d<\/p>\n
He breathed once.<\/p>\n
\u201cAsk Kenneth about Daphne.\u201d<\/p>\n
Daphne Lewis.<\/p>\n
The research nurse whose death had been ruled a traffic accident.<\/p>\n
\u201cDid you kill her?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDid Vale?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI wasn\u2019t there.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen how do you know?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause he showed me what happens when someone mistakes evidence for protection.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anna closed her eyes.<\/p>\n
Vale had used Daphne as a warning.<\/p>\n
That meant Dererick had known about another suspicious death for years.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou stayed anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou learned from him anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou did the same things.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anna felt something inside her settle.<\/p>\n
For days, revelations had kept complicating Dererick: student, abuser, husband, target, fugitive, witness against Vale.<\/p>\n
But complexity did not erase responsibility.<\/p>\n
He had choices at every stage.<\/p>\n
He had chosen.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou want a bargain,\u201d Anna said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to give you the originals.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cGive them to police.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen you don\u2019t want to give them up. You want to trade them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Silence.<\/p>\n
Harper watched Anna closely.<\/p>\n
Dererick finally said, \u201cCome alone and I\u2019ll hand you the case.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou want Rachel\u2019s truth?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPaul\u2019s?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDaphne\u2019s?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen come.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
The word surprised even Anna with how easy it felt.<\/p>\n
Dererick\u2019s voice hardened for the first time.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou think Morales and Harper can protect everything?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis isn\u2019t about them.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s about you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo. That\u2019s the mistake you keep making.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anna looked toward Clare.<\/p>\n
Then at Harper.<\/p>\n
Then back toward the phone she could not see him through.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou built your whole life around deciding what other people would do when you frightened them enough. You still think I have to choose between obeying you and losing the evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dererick said nothing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou will if Kenneth finds me first.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen give Harper the case.\u201d<\/p>\n
A long pause.<\/p>\n
The trace indicator changed.<\/p>\n
Location narrowing.<\/p>\n
Harper motioned for another thirty seconds.<\/p>\n
Dererick\u2019s voice softened.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you remember what you said at the lake when I proposed?\u201d<\/p>\n
Anna did.<\/p>\n
She had told him she wanted a marriage where neither person ever needed to be afraid of telling the truth.<\/p>\n
The memory hurt.<\/p>\n
She refused to give him the satisfaction of repeating it.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou remember,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI did too.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen you knew exactly what you were destroying.\u201d<\/p>\n
Silence.<\/p>\n
The trace locked.<\/p>\n
Harper moved.<\/p>\n
Officers were dispatched to an industrial corridor east of Paul Mercer\u2019s fishing property.<\/p>\n
Dererick seemed to sense the change.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnna.\u201d<\/p>\n
She waited.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen this ends, Kenneth will tell you I was the monster.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou were.\u201d<\/p>\n
A breath.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd he\u2019ll be right about himself too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anna disconnected.<\/p>\n
Harper\u2019s teams converged on the traced location.<\/p>\n
An abandoned cold-storage facility stood beside a freight yard.<\/p>\n
One entrance was open.<\/p>\n
Blood marked the floor.<\/p>\n
Dererick had been there minutes earlier.<\/p>\n
But he was gone.<\/p>\n
On a crate in the center of the building sat a black camera.<\/p>\n
Recording.<\/p>\n
Beside it was one envelope addressed to Anna.<\/p>\n
Inside was a memory card.<\/p>\n
Not the originals case.<\/p>\n
One copied file.<\/p>\n
Harper reviewed it first.<\/p>\n
Then she came to Anna.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is about Daphne.\u201d<\/p>\n
The video had been recorded twelve years earlier.<\/p>\n
Kenneth Vale appeared in frame.<\/p>\n
Daphne Lewis sat across from him.<\/p>\n
She was frightened but fully conscious.<\/p>\n
They argued about missing medication and altered research records.<\/p>\n
Daphne said she had made copies.<\/p>\n
Vale told her to surrender them.<\/p>\n
She refused.<\/p>\n
Then Vale leaned forward and said:<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve seen what happens to people who force this into the open.\u201d<\/p>\n
The recording ended.<\/p>\n
No murder.<\/p>\n
No confession.<\/p>\n
But direct evidence of intimidation shortly before Daphne\u2019s fatal crash.<\/p>\n
Anna stared at the final frame.<\/p>\n
Dererick had begun releasing pieces.<\/p>\n
He was no longer waiting for her agreement.<\/p>\n
Something had changed during their call.<\/p>\n
Or perhaps this had always been another contingency.<\/p>\n
Harper\u2019s phone rang.<\/p>\n
A search team had found a vehicle leaving the freight yard.<\/p>\n
It crashed three miles away after striking a barrier.<\/p>\n
The driver had fled on foot.<\/p>\n
Blood inside matched Dererick.<\/p>\n
The metal case was not in the vehicle.<\/p>\n
But officers found another object beneath the passenger seat.<\/p>\n
Kenneth Vale\u2019s phone.<\/p>\n
And on it, a message sent less than an hour earlier to Dererick.<\/p>\n
I have Clare. Bring the case.<\/p>\n
Anna looked across the room.<\/p>\n
The chair beside her was empty.<\/p>\n
Clare had stepped out ten minutes earlier to answer what she believed was a secure hospital call.<\/p>\n
She had not returned.<\/p>\n
The first problem with Dererick\u2019s message was obvious. Paul Mercer had not been buried. According to official records, he had been cremated. Anna looked at Harper. \u201cThen what does \u2018where … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1178,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feel-one-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/feelonestory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/feelonestory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/feelonestory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/feelonestory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/feelonestory.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1194"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/feelonestory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1216,"href":"https:\/\/feelonestory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1194\/revisions\/1216"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/feelonestory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/feelonestory.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/feelonestory.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/feelonestory.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}