Chapter 11 - THE WOMAN IN ROOM 214
Alicia Price was found in a roadside motel registered under another name.
She had bruises around one wrist and had not slept in three days. She refused to speak until Mara placed Raymond Price’s old photograph on the table.
“My brother trusted you,” Alicia said.
“I barely knew him.”
“He told me you were the only investigator who believed him.”
“Then why did he disappear?”
Alicia’s eyes filled.
“He didn’t.”
Raymond had agreed to cooperate until Mercer’s people showed him photographs of Alicia’s children leaving school. He withdrew his statement and entered hiding.
Three months later, Alicia received a package containing Raymond’s watch and a key.
She never saw him again.
Mercer then forced Alicia to work for him. She notarized fraudulent documents because he threatened her children and promised to reveal where Raymond was buried if she resisted.
“Why call us now?” Mara asked.
“Because Denise’s arrest made Mercer nervous. He’s clearing everyone connected to the old deals.”
Alicia handed over the key.
It belonged to a bus-station locker.
Inside, investigators found Raymond’s original accounting records, audio recordings of Mercer and a list of public officials receiving monthly payments.
One name appeared more frequently than the others.
Judge Howard Bell.
The same probate judge who had approved six emergency guardianships linked to Mercer’s companies.
Walter’s case had been assigned to Bell before another judge replaced him because of a scheduling conflict.
Alicia looked directly at Mara.
“That conflict saved your father’s house.”
Mara studied the payment ledger.
“No,” she said. “It delayed them.”
Mercer had not stopped after losing Walter’s guardianship case.
He had simply moved to another method.
The county land office showed that Walter’s mineral rights had been sold ten days earlier.
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The signature belonged to a dead man.
Raymond Price.
