Chapter 10 - EVAN’S SECOND LIE
Evan admitted he had described the barn to Mercer during a meeting eighteen months earlier.
But he denied telling anyone about the survey.
Walter opened the barn himself. Behind a metal cabinet, he removed a rusted toolbox that had belonged to his father.
The mineral report was gone.
In its place lay a handwritten note.
STOP DIGGING OR MARA LOSES HER BADGE.
Mara photographed it.
“They’re trying to make this personal,” Evan said.
“It was personal when they attacked Dad.”
“No. They’re saying they have something on you.”
Walter turned toward his daughter. “Do they?”
Mara did not answer immediately.
Five years earlier, she had participated in a federal financial investigation involving one of Mercer’s development companies. The case had collapsed after a confidential witness disappeared.
Mara had always believed the witness had fled.
The witness’s name was Raymond Price.
Alicia’s older brother.
Mara retrieved the archived case file and found that Raymond had accused Mercer of bribing county officials to acquire distressed properties. Three days before he was scheduled to testify, he withdrew his statement and vanished.
The agent supervising the investigation had ordered Mara to stop pursuing him.
That supervisor had since retired.
His new employer was Mercer Development Group.
“They don’t have proof I did anything wrong,” Mara said. “They have proof I was standing beside something wrong and didn’t recognize it.”
Walter gave her the same tired look he had once given Evan.
“Not recognizing evil doesn’t make you guilty.”
“No.”
“But refusing to look twice might.”
Mara understood the message.
May you like
She had demanded that Evan face every moment when he had chosen comfort over truth.
Now the same demand belonged to her.
