Thomas was not a surname.
That was the first problem.
Rebecca's old records contained three men named Thomas.
A cousin.
A former coworker.
And Thomas Avery, who had worked for Mercer Construction during the year she died.
Detective Ruiz focused on Avery.
"Why him?" I asked.
"Because Richard fired him six days after the fire."
I was sitting in the station again, Noah with my friend under police protection.
"For what?"
"Company records say theft."
"Was he charged?"
"No."
"So Richard accused him and fired him."
"Correct."
"Where is he now?"
"We found a possible address."
"Alive?"
"Yes."
"Local?"
"About ninety miles away."
"What did he do for Richard?"
"Electrical work."
The significance landed immediately.
"The fire was ruled electrical."
"Yes."
"Did Thomas inspect the house?"
"We're trying to determine that."
"Rebecca wrote his name on a photograph."
"Apparently."
"Then she trusted him."
"Possibly."
I looked at the surviving corner of the image.
The fourth person had been deliberately burned away.
"Is that Thomas?"
"We don't know."
"Who burned the picture?"
"Also unknown."
"Daniel?"
"Could have."
"Richard?"
"Could have."
I was beginning to hate possibilities.
Ruiz sent two investigators to find Thomas Avery.
They located him that afternoon at a small appliance repair shop.
When police mentioned Rebecca Mercer, he reportedly stopped working and asked one question.
"Is Richard dead?"
Ruiz told me this herself.
"What did they say?"
"No."
"And Thomas?"
"He said he would talk."
"Here?"
"He's coming in."
I waited in a separate room.
I had no right to participate in his interview.
I understood that.
Still, knowing the man Rebecca had apparently trusted was thirty feet away made sitting still almost impossible.
Nearly two hours passed.
Then Ruiz entered.
She closed the door behind her.
"Thomas knew Rebecca."
"How well?"
"Well enough that she confided in him."
"About Daniel?"
"Yes."
"What did she say?"
Ruiz sat.
"Rebecca was planning to leave Daniel."
The pattern tightened around me.
"Why?"
"Financial deception. Daniel had accumulated debt. Richard was pressuring him regarding money connected to family property."
"Noah didn't exist then."
"No."
"So what money?"
"Rebecca inherited property from her mother."
I stared.
"Daniel's wives keep becoming financially useful."
Ruiz did not react.
"What happened to Rebecca's property?"
"After her death, proceeds eventually benefited Daniel."
"And Richard."
"Indirectly, yes."
I rubbed my palms together.
"What did Thomas know about the fire?"
"He had been at House 14 two days earlier."
"For electrical work?"
"Yes."
"Was there a problem?"
"No."
I stopped.
"No?"
"Thomas says the electrical system had issues in the past, but the specific circuit later blamed for the fire had recently been repaired and tested."
"So the official cause was wrong."
"Not necessarily. Electrical failures can occur after repair."
"But Thomas didn't believe it."
"No."
"Did he tell investigators?"
"He says Richard pressured him not to involve himself."
"How?"
"Threatened to blame him for faulty work."
There it was.
The theft accusation days later.
Richard had removed him.
"Did Rebecca think Daniel would hurt her?"
"Thomas says she was afraid."
"Of Daniel?"
"Mostly Richard."
That surprised me.
"Why Richard?"
"She believed Richard had discovered she was collecting financial records."
"What records?"
"Evidence that Daniel and Richard had used her identity in loan applications."
My chest tightened.
Forgery again.
Documents again.
A wife becoming paperwork.
"Did Rebecca go to police?"
"She planned to."
"When?"
"The week she died."
I stood and walked toward the wall.
"What did Thomas do?"
"Rebecca gave him copies of several documents."
"Does he still have them?"
Ruiz's expression changed.
"Yes."
After twelve years.
A man fired and threatened had kept a box.
Inside were loan documents, photocopied checks, correspondence, and a handwritten note from Rebecca.
Ruiz would not show me the entire note yet.
She read one section.
Daniel says his father can fix anything. I think that means Richard has been fixing Daniel's mistakes his whole life.
I thought of the current case.
Daniel gambled.
Richard covered losses.
Daniel needed money.
Richard offered a plan.
Daniel's affair became useful.
Marissa became a source for medication.
I became an obstacle.
Noah became access to money.
Richard fixed Daniel's mistakes by creating larger ones.
"What happened the night Rebecca died?"
"Thomas was not there."
"Then why did she write his name?"
"She may have wanted someone to find the documents."
"Where were they?"
"Thomas had them already."
"Did Daniel know?"
"Thomas doesn't think so."
"Richard?"
"He suspected."
I sat again.
"Is that why Richard fired him?"
"Likely."
"Did Thomas ever tell anyone?"
"He spoke with an investigator after the fire but withheld the financial documents."
"Why?"
"Fear."
I laughed without humor.
"Everyone was afraid of Richard."
"Apparently."
"Except Daniel."
Ruiz looked at me.
"I'm not sure Daniel wasn't."
That stayed with me.
Daniel and Richard were together now, but alliance did not mean equality.
Maybe Daniel had spent his entire adult life believing Richard could rescue him from consequences.
Maybe that dependence had become a prison.
It did not excuse anything.
But it explained the strange mixture of obedience and fear in the messages.
My phone rang.
Unknown number.
Ruiz saw it.
"Speaker."
I answered.
"Claire."
Daniel.
His voice sounded exhausted.
"Where are you?"
"Doesn't matter."
"Police are listening."
"I assumed."
Ruiz motioned for me to continue.
"Why are you calling?"
"Because Richard lied."
I looked at Ruiz.
"About what?"
"Everything."
"That's rich coming from you."
"I know."
"No, I don't think you do."
"Claire, listen."
"Did you drug Noah?"
Silence.
"You already admitted it."
"I didn't know the dose would hit him that hard."
"You put it in his food."
"I needed him asleep."
"To take him to Richard."
"At first."
My pulse quickened.
"What changed?"
"Richard changed the deal."
Ruiz began writing.
"What deal?"
"Money."
"The trust."
Daniel breathed out.
"So you know."
"Yes."
"What did Richard promise you?"
"Enough to clear my debts."
"In exchange for control of Noah's money."
"I wasn't going to steal from him."
"Then what do you call it?"
"Borrowing."
I almost laughed.
"You drugged your son so you could borrow his inheritance."
"It wasn't supposed to become this."
"Then what was supposed to happen to me?"
Silence.
"C medical."
Daniel said nothing.
"Answer me."
"I was going to make it look like you took too much medication."
My hand trembled.
"Would I wake up?"
"Yes."
"How do you know?"
"I calculated it."
The casual horror of the sentence emptied the room.
"You calculated it."
"I wasn't trying to kill you."
"You left me on the floor."
"I was coming back."
"You came back for my plate."
"Because I panicked."
"You checked my pulse."
"Because I wanted to make sure you were okay."
"Then why didn't you call an ambulance?"
Daniel's voice cracked.
"Because if I called, everything was over."
There it was.
His plan mattered more than my safety.
"Why Noah?"
"I needed him asleep when I moved him."
"Where?"
"To the motel."
"And then Richard."
"Eventually."
"What did Richard want?"
"Temporary control. Documents. Access to trust distributions."
"Why abandon Noah's birth certificate?"
Daniel became silent.
"Daniel?"
"Because I decided I wasn't bringing him."
Ruiz looked up sharply.
"When?"
"After the hospital."
"Why?"
"Richard told me what he really wanted."
"What?"
"He didn't want temporary control."
I gripped the phone.
"He wanted permanent custody arrangements."
"How?"
"Claire…"
"Say it."
"By making sure neither of us could challenge him."
The meaning came slowly.
Neither.
Me.
Daniel.
Richard did not simply intend to use Daniel to gain control.
Daniel himself was disposable.
"That's why you ran from Richard."
"Yes."
"But traffic cameras showed you together."
"He found me."
"At the river?"
"Yes."
"What happened in the truck?"
"We fought."
"The blood?"
"Mine."
"Where is Richard now?"
"I don't know."
Ruiz wrote quickly.
"Where are you?"
Daniel ignored the question.
"Claire, Richard knows about Thomas."
My stomach tightened.
"How?"
"I told him years ago."
"Why?"
"I was scared after Rebecca died."
"You knew Thomas had evidence."
"I knew Rebecca trusted him."
"Did you kill Rebecca?"
The line went silent.
Ruiz stopped writing.
"Daniel."
"No."
"Did Richard?"
"I don't know."
"That's not good enough."
"I wasn't there when the fire started."
"Richard gave you your alibi."
"Because I was with him earlier."
"Earlier?"
Ruiz's eyes sharpened.
The old record said Daniel had been at the yard during the relevant period.
"What time did you leave?"
Daniel breathed heavily.
"Before Richard said I did."
My skin prickled.
"Where did you go?"
"Home."
"To Rebecca?"
"Yes."
"What happened?"
"We argued."
"About the documents?"
"Yes."
"And then?"
"I left."
"Was she alive?"
"Yes."
"Was she conscious?"
Silence.
My stomach turned.
"Daniel."
"She'd taken something."
"On her own?"
"I don't know."
"Did you give it to her?"
"No."
"Did Richard?"
"I don't know."
"You keep saying that."
"Because I don't know what happened after I left."
"Where did you go?"
"Back toward the yard."
"And Richard?"
"He said he'd handle Rebecca."
The room went completely still.
"What does that mean?"
"I thought he meant he'd talk to her."
"Then the house burned."
Daniel began crying.
Not loudly.
I had heard him cry only twice in twelve years.
"I should have told them."
"Yes."
"I was twenty-eight."
"You were an adult."
"I know."
"Did Richard start the fire?"
"I never asked."
"Why?"
"Because I knew what the answer might be."
I closed my eyes.
Cowardice had become complicity.
Perhaps not murder.
But silence.
Insurance money.
A new life.
Me.
"Why marry me without telling me about Rebecca?"
"I wanted that life gone."
"You didn't make it gone. You buried it."
"I know."
Ruiz pointed to the phone and mouthed: location.
"Daniel, where are you?"
"No."
"Richard is looking for you."
"I know."
"Police can protect you."
He laughed weakly.
"You don't know my father."
"Then help them stop him."
Silence.
"Where is he going?"
"I don't know."
"Does he know where Thomas lives?"
A pause.
"Maybe."
Ruiz immediately stood and left the room while signaling another officer.
"Daniel, listen to me. If Richard thinks Thomas has evidence—"
"I know."
"Then tell police everything."
"I can't."
"Why?"
"Because there's something else."
Of course.
Always something else.
"What?"
"Rebecca wasn't the first person Richard helped me with."
I stopped breathing.
"What does that mean?"
Daniel continued before I could ask.
"Look at Mercer Construction payroll from the year before Rebecca died. Find a man named Owen Price."
"Who is he?"
"My old business partner."
"What happened to him?"
The line crackled.
Then Daniel whispered:
"He disappeared."
The call ended.
Ruiz returned moments later.
Officers were already being sent to Thomas Avery.
But the name Daniel had given me opened another door.
Owen Price.
A former business partner who vanished thirteen years ago.
Police records showed his vehicle had been found abandoned near a quarry owned at the time by Mercer Construction.
His body had never been recovered.
And Richard Mercer had been the last confirmed person known to have seen him alive.
