Chapter 6 - THE ENVELOPE WITHOUT A RETURN ADDRESS
Six weeks after Denise Calder was sentenced for assaulting and drugging her father-in-law, an unmarked envelope appeared beneath Walter Hayes’s front door.
Inside was a photograph of Walter asleep in his old bedroom. The image had been taken from the hallway less than an hour before the attack.
On the back, someone had written:
DENISE DIDN’T START THIS ALONE.
Walter called his daughter, Mara, before touching anything else.
Mara arrived wearing jeans and a gray federal training jacket, although she had no intention of involving her agency unless a federal crime surfaced. Her younger brother, Evan, came twenty minutes later and froze when he saw the photograph.
“You recognize it,” Mara said.
Evan’s eyes stayed on the floor.
“The hallway camera,” he admitted. “I installed it after Dad said things were disappearing.”
“That camera was never recovered.”
“I deleted the account.”
Mara turned the photograph over again. “Apparently, somebody restored it.”
Walter watched his son carefully. Since the trial, Evan had attended counseling, sold his failing company and begun making restitution. He had admitted to cowardice, financial misconduct and helping Denise isolate their father.
But he had never mentioned a second camera.
“Who else knew the password?” Walter asked.
Evan’s face went pale.
“My business partner.”
“Name?”
Evan swallowed.
“Grant Mercer.”
Walter recognized it immediately. Grant was the man who had loaned Evan money when every bank had refused.
Mara placed the photograph inside an evidence sleeve.
“What did Mercer get in return?”
Evan sat down heavily.
“He didn’t want the company.”
May you like
Mara waited.
“He wanted Dad’s land.”
