Chapter 11 - The Man Behind the Eastern Window
The address led to a house outside Bellhaven.
Vivian arrived with Edmund and Gabriel just after sunrise.
Evelyn’s car was parked outside.
The front door stood open.
Inside, photographs covered the walls.
Victims.
Ships.
Officials.
Fifteen years of investigation.
Evelyn had never stopped.
Vivian walked through the rooms slowly.
“She built her own intelligence operation.”
Gabriel nodded.
“She always was better than us.”
Edmund looked at him.
“You knew about this?”
“No.”
Vivian found her mother in the basement.
Alive.
Sitting across from Judge Aaron Pike.
He was tied to a chair.
Evelyn held a gun.
“Mom.”
Evelyn turned.
“I told you not to follow.”
“No. You left a dramatic note with an address.”
Gabriel almost laughed.
Evelyn lowered the weapon.
Pike smiled.
“Family reunion.”
Edmund approached.
“You ordered the second sniper.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To kill Salvatore.”
“You nearly killed Vivian.”
“Collateral risk.”
Edmund hit him.
Vivian did not object.
Pike spat blood.
“You think Salvatore built the network alone?”
“No,” Vivian said. “You helped.”
“I financed it.”
Evelyn raised the gun again.
Pike smiled.
“But you still don’t understand the marriage.”
Vivian went still.
“What about it?”
“Why did Salvatore want you and Edmund married?”
“To unite the families.”
“That’s the fairy tale.”
“Then tell me.”
Pike leaned back.
“Because married assets inherit.”
Edmund frowned.
“Inherit what?”
“The Costa trust.”
Gabriel understood first.
“Oh, God.”
Pike smiled.
“Salvatore’s legitimate holdings pass to his eldest surviving son.”
Gabriel.
“But Gabriel was legally dead.”
“So Edmund inherited.”
“Yes.”
“And marriage?”
“If Edmund died without children, Vivian inherited under the prenuptial arrangement Salvatore secretly inserted.”
Vivian stared at Edmund.
“I never signed that.”
“You signed a package of documents,” Pike said.
Edmund’s anger sharpened.
“My attorneys reviewed everything.”
“Your attorney worked for us.”
“Who?”
Pike smiled.
Then Vivian understood.
The wedding.
The sniper.
“Someone wanted Edmund dead after we married.”
“Yes.”
“And me afterward.”
“Yes.”
“Then whoever controlled my estate would control both fortunes.”
Pike nodded.
“Now you’re thinking.”
Evelyn stepped forward.
“Who?”
Pike looked at her.
“You know.”
“I want to hear you say it.”
He laughed.
“You still haven’t figured it out after fifteen years?”
A window shattered.
Pike’s head snapped backward.
Evelyn screamed.
Edmund pulled Vivian down.
Gabriel fired toward the hill.
Another sniper.
Pike was dead.
The one man about to give them the name had been silenced.
Edmund crawled toward the window.
A red laser swept across the wall.
The same red dot.
Vivian stared.
“Eastern window.”
“What?”
“The wedding shooter.”
Gabriel looked outside.
“He’s using the same position pattern.”
They moved through the back door.
A figure ran into the woods.
Edmund pursued.
Vivian followed despite every shouted instruction.
The shooter reached a parked motorcycle.
Gabriel cut him off.
Edmund tackled him.
The mask came off.
A young man.
Vivian had never seen him.
Edmund searched his jacket.
Identification.
MARTIN VALE.
Evelyn arrived.
Her face drained.
“No.”
“You know him?”
“He worked for my attorney.”
“Which attorney?”
Evelyn stared at the shooter.
“Charles Mercer.”
Edmund went still.
His attorney.
The man who drafted the marriage contract.
They called Mercer.
No answer.
His office was empty.
His house abandoned.
Then Vivian remembered something.
At the wedding, after the ceremony, Mercer had congratulated her.
He had kissed her cheek.
And whispered:
“Your mother would be proud.”
At the time she assumed it was politeness.
But her mother had been dead for fifteen years.
How did Mercer know enough to say it that way?
Evelyn took the shooter’s phone.
One outgoing message had been sent seconds before Pike died.
PIKE SILENCED. MOVING TO FINAL ASSET.
Vivian read it.
“Final asset?”
Edmund’s phone rang.
Victor’s hospital.
He answered.
His face changed.
“What happened?”
Vivian grabbed his arm.
Edmund slowly lowered the phone.
“Your father is missing.”
Her blood turned cold.
“Who took him?”
“The security camera caught one man.”
Edmund opened the image.
Charles Mercer.
May you like
Victor walked beside him voluntarily.
And in Victor’s hand was the original Costa-Moretti marriage contract.
