Chapter 5 - What Erica Never Told Jason
Dad moved toward the hallway.
I caught his arm.
“No.”
“This is my house.”
“And I'm the one with training.”
I took the fireplace poker from beside the study hearth—not because I expected a fight, but because walking upstairs empty-handed seemed foolish.
“Stay behind me.”
For once, Dad obeyed.
The staircase creaked beneath my boots.
At the landing, one bedroom door stood open.
The guest room.
I approached.
“Hello?”
No answer.
I pushed the door wider.
Empty.
The window was open.
Snow had blown across the sill.
On the carpet lay a laptop.
Dad stared.
“That isn't mine.”
I crouched beside it.
A cable ran from the computer to a small device plugged into the wall network port.
Someone had been inside.
Recently.
Then we heard pounding downstairs.
Dad flinched.
“Front door.”
We descended.
I looked through the side window.
Jason.
I opened the door.
He stumbled inside.
“Where's Erica?”
I asked.
“I thought she was here.”
“She isn't.”
His face changed.
“She texted me.”
He showed me.
Meet me at Richard's. I found what Mom hid.
The message had arrived fifteen minutes earlier.
“She didn't send that,” I said.
“How do you know?”
“Someone was upstairs using our network.”
Jason went pale.
Dad called the police.
Within minutes, officers were on the way.
Jason sank into a chair.
“I didn't know.”
“About what?”
“All of it.”
I sat across from him.
“Start six months ago.”
He rubbed his face.
“Erica found discrepancies at Northstar.”
“How?”
“She does forensic accounting.”
I knew she worked in finance but had never understood exactly what she did.
“She noticed payments routed through subsidiaries,” Jason continued. “Then inspection reports started disappearing.”
“And you?”
“I told her to leave it alone.”
“Why?”
“Because I'd just been told I was being considered for promotion.”
I understood.
“You thought she might ruin it.”
He looked ashamed.
“Yes.”
“Then?”
“She kept investigating.”
“And contacted Natalie.”
He looked up.
“You know?”
“Yes.”
Jason nodded.
“Eventually she showed me enough that I couldn't ignore it.”
“Grant?”
“We suspected him.”
“Why didn't you report it?”
“I tried.”
“To whom?”
“Our compliance department.”
“What happened?”
“The next morning, Grant called me upstairs and offered me the promotion.”
The leash.
“Did you accept?”
“Yes.”
I stared at him.
“Why?”
“Because Erica asked me to.”
That surprised me.
“She thought if I got closer to Grant, we could access records.”
“So you were helping her?”
“Eventually.”
“Why did you panic when you saw me on television?”
Jason looked toward Dad.
“Because of the bus.”
“Northstar.”
He nodded.
“That bus was supposed to be taken out of service three weeks ago.”
My stomach dropped.
“Why wasn't it?”
“The inspection report was changed.”
“By Grant.”
“We think so.”
“Then what did Erica know?”
Jason looked at me.
“Everything.”
His phone rang.
Erica.
He answered instantly.
“Where are you?”
Her voice came through speakerphone.
“Jason?”
“I'm with Claire.”
Silence.
Then Erica exhaled.
“Thank God.”
“Where are you?”
“St. Matthew's.”
David's hospital.
“Why?”
“Because I needed to see David.”
Jason looked at me.
“You know him too?”
Erica answered.
“He found me first.”
That was the connection.
“Stay there,” I said.
“Claire?”
“Don't leave.”
“I wasn't planning to.”
We drove to the hospital.
Erica was sitting beside David when we entered.
Jason crossed the room and hugged her.
For several seconds, neither spoke.
Then Erica looked at me.
“I'm sorry.”
“For what?”
“For letting you think Jason wanted you excluded.”
I turned toward him.
Jason looked confused.
“I didn't.”
“I know.”
Erica reached into her bag.
She removed a flash drive.
“This is why Richard couldn't have you at dinner.”
Dad stiffened.
“What is that?”
“The copy Martin gave me.”
“Of what?”
“Northstar's original safety records.”
She looked at Jason.
“And something else.”
“What?”
“A personnel file.”
She plugged the drive into David's laptop.
A scanned document appeared.
Jason's father's name.
Daniel Mercer.
Deceased.
Below it:
INTERNAL INVESTIGATIONS.
Jason leaned closer.
“What is this?”
Erica opened another file.
An audio recording.
A man's voice filled the room.
Daniel Mercer.
Jason's father.
Recorded more than twenty-five years earlier.
“If anything happens to me, Grant Holloway knows why.”
Jason stopped breathing.
The recording continued.
Daniel described falsified inspections, bribed contractors, hidden accident reports.
Then he mentioned Richard Bennett.
Dad.
Jason looked at him.
The recording said:
“Richard is helping me. If they come after me, he has copies.”
Jason's eyes filled.
All his life, he had believed Dad married his mother and became his father because circumstances brought them together.
Now he understood there was more.
Dad had been protecting Daniel's family.
Jason stood.
“You knew my father?”
Dad nodded.
“He was my friend.”
“You never told me.”
“Your mother asked me not to.”
“Everybody keeps making decisions for me!”
His voice echoed through the room.
I understood that anger better than anyone.
Erica touched his arm.
“There’s another file.”
She opened it.
A photograph appeared.
Daniel.
Dad.
Mom.
David.
And Grant Holloway.
Young.
Smiling.
Friends once.
Then Erica clicked the final document.
It was dated two days before Daniel's death.
A handwritten note.
Richard has the ledger. If Grant learns where it is, Claire may become leverage.
My name.
I had been a child.
Jason stared at the note.
Then at me.
“So Dad kept you away because—”
“Because Grant was coming,” I said.
Dad nodded.
“I didn't know whether he still considered Claire leverage.”
Anger and gratitude collided painfully.
“You still should have told me.”
“I know.”
For the first time, Dad didn't defend himself.
He simply said:
“I know.”
A nurse entered.
“Major Bennett?”
“Yes?”
“There's someone asking for you downstairs.”
“Who?”
“She wouldn't give her name.”
My phone buzzed.
A message from Natalie.
Do not go downstairs.
Another message followed.
Claire, we found out who has been feeding Grant information from inside your family.
Then a photograph loaded.
I stared at the face.
Jason leaned over my shoulder.
His expression changed.
“No.”
But the elevator doors at the end of the corridor opened.
May you like
And the woman in the photograph stepped out.
Jason's mother.
