Chapter 3 - What Hailey Saw
At St. Catherine Medical Center, Hailey refused to sleep until Margaret was gone.
A sheriff’s deputy remained outside her room.
Elise sat beside the bed holding her daughter’s hand.
Grant stood near the window.
Thomas sat quietly in the corner.
No one had asked Margaret to join them.
She had been interviewed separately downstairs.
Hailey stared at her father.
“Do you believe me?”
Grant’s mouth opened.
Nothing came out.
Hailey’s eyes filled.
“Dad?”
He crossed the room and sat beside her.
“Yes.”
The answer came too late.
Hailey looked away.
Grant flinched as though she had struck him.
Elise rubbed Hailey’s hair.
“You don’t have to talk about it tonight.”
“I do.”
Thomas leaned forward.
“Only if you want to.”
Hailey looked at him.
“I told Grandma I saw her in your office.”
Thomas went still.
“When?”
“Last night.”
Grant frowned.
“What did you see?”
Hailey swallowed.
“I went downstairs because I wanted my tablet charger.”
Thomas’s private study was on the first floor of the family lodge.
Hailey had walked past the partly open door.
Margaret was inside.
“She had papers on your desk.”
Thomas’s face hardened.
“What papers?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did you see anything written on them?”
Hailey closed her eyes.
“One had the mountain picture at the top.”
Thomas looked at Grant.
Mercer Ridge Development LLC.
The company letterhead displayed a silhouette of the mountain.
“What else?”
“She had another paper underneath.”
Hailey demonstrated with her hand.
“She kept writing your name.”
Thomas did not move.
Grant stared at him.
“Dad?”
Thomas ignored him.
“Hailey, did she see you?”
“At first, no.”
Hailey’s breathing quickened.
“I had my helmet camera.”
Elise looked at the evidence bag on the table.
“You were wearing it inside?”
Hailey nodded.
“I was making a video for Grandpa.”
Thomas smiled faintly despite himself.
Hailey had been creating what she called a “secret documentary” about Mercer Ridge.
“She was talking on the phone,” Hailey continued.
“What did she say?” Thomas asked.
Hailey frowned, concentrating.
“She said something about Friday.”
Grant looked at his father.
“What happens Friday?”
Thomas’s eyes remained on Hailey.
“Anything else?”
Hailey nodded.
“She said, ‘Once Thomas’s name is on it, he can complain all he wants.’”
Silence.
Elise looked at Grant.
Grant stared at Thomas.
“What does that mean?”
Thomas leaned back.
For the last six months, he had been investigating irregularities in the family company.
Money had disappeared from accounts controlled by Margaret.
Not millions at first.
Hundreds of thousands.
Then more.
He had not told Grant because Grant had always defended his mother.
And because Thomas had wanted proof before accusing the woman he had shared his life with for almost half a century.
“I think your grandmother has been forging my signature.”
Hailey stared at him.
Grant stood.
“What?”
Thomas finally looked at his son.
“There are documents connected to a sale of the northern acreage.”
“The Ridge isn’t for sale.”
“I know.”
“Then what documents?”
“A purchase option.”
Grant’s face changed.
Mercer Ridge covered nearly twenty-four hundred acres.
A Denver development consortium had offered more than twenty-eight million dollars for six hundred acres along the northern boundary.
Thomas had refused.
The land included forest that Grant’s grandfather had protected since the 1950s.
Margaret had argued for selling.
Repeatedly.
Thomas had said no.
“What exactly did Mom sign?” Grant asked.
“I don’t know yet.”
Elise looked toward the hallway.
“And Hailey saw her.”
Thomas nodded.
Hailey whispered, “She saw me too.”
Everyone turned.
“What happened?” Elise asked.
“I moved.”
Hailey’s voice trembled.
“The floor made a noise.”
Margaret had turned toward the doorway.
Hailey had run.
“She came to my room later.”
“What did she say?” Grant asked.
Hailey’s eyes filled again.
“She asked if I’d been downstairs.”
Elise squeezed her hand.
“And?”
“I lied.”
Thomas nodded slowly.
“What did you tell her?”
“I said no.”
Hailey began crying.
“But she knew.”
Grant lowered his head.
The room seemed suddenly too small.
A knock came at the door.
Detective Nora Alvarez of the Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office entered.
“I’m sorry to interrupt.”
She held a notepad.
“Mr. Mercer, may I speak with you outside?”
Thomas stood.
Grant followed him.
In the hallway, Alvarez lowered her voice.
“We reviewed the initial recording from the helmet camera.”
Thomas stopped breathing.
“Does it show the cliff?”
“Yes.”
Grant stepped closer.
“And?”
Alvarez looked toward Hailey’s room.
“The video stops approximately four seconds before your daughter goes over the edge.”
Grant stared at her.
“What do you mean, stops?”
“The file appears corrupted.”
Thomas’s expression tightened.
“From the fall?”
“Possibly.”
Alvarez paused.
“But there’s another problem.”
“What?”
“The camera was still recording when rescuers reached Hailey.”
Grant frowned.
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“Exactly.”
Alvarez held his gaze.
“There should be a continuous file.”
Thomas understood first.
“Someone deleted part of it.”
Alvarez nodded.
“We can’t say that yet.”
But her expression did.
Grant looked toward the elevator.
His mother had left the hospital fifteen minutes earlier.
Thomas reached for his phone.
Then stopped.
On the other side of town, Margaret entered the family lodge.
She locked the front door.
Walked straight to Thomas’s study.
And opened the bottom drawer.
The document she had hidden there was gone.
Margaret stared at the empty space.
Then she heard something upstairs.
May you like
A floorboard creaked.
Someone else was inside the house.
