Chapter 5 - Margaret Disappears
Margaret had taken the oldest car on the property.
A 2008 Subaru that belonged to the maintenance team.
No GPS service.
No family tracking application.
No connected phone system.
She had planned for the possibility.
That was what frightened Thomas most.
At 11:18 p.m., Detective Alvarez stood in the lodge foyer.
“Do you know where she might go?”
Thomas shook his head.
“She has friends in Denver. A sister in Arizona. Former colleagues.”
“Access to cash?”
“Yes.”
“How much?”
“I don’t know anymore.”
Alvarez looked at him carefully.
“That answer seems important.”
Thomas told her about the irregular accounts.
The forged sale.
The altered trust.
Rebecca Sloan arrived twenty minutes later with copies of the documents.
Alvarez read them silently.
When she finished, she looked toward the staircase.
“Mr. Mercer, how much money are we talking about?”
“The property option is twenty-eight million.”
“And Hailey’s trust?”
Thomas hesitated.
Grant stood beside him.
“Dad.”
Thomas exhaled.
“Approximately eleven point six million at current valuation.”
Alvarez looked from father to son.
“And Margaret would control it under the altered amendment if Hailey died?”
“Yes.”
The detective closed the folder.
“That changes the investigation.”
Grant stared toward the dark windows.
“We need to find her.”
“We’re trying.”
“She pushed my daughter off a mountain.”
Alvarez remained calm.
“And if we arrest too soon with weak evidence, the case becomes harder. I want her found, but I also want the case built properly.”
Elise had remained at the hospital.
Hailey woke just after midnight.
The first thing she asked was, “Where’s Grandma?”
Elise hesitated.
“She left.”
Hailey gripped the blanket.
“Is she coming here?”
“No.”
“Promise?”
Elise leaned over her.
“I promise she will not come near you.”
Hailey stared at the ceiling.
Then whispered, “I think she took my little camera.”
Elise frowned.
“The helmet camera?”
“No.”
Hailey looked at her.
“My other one.”
“What other one?”
“The tiny camera Grandpa gave me.”
Thomas had bought Hailey a small clip-on action camera for her documentary.
She used it constantly.
“Where was it?”
“In my backpack.”
“On the mountain?”
Hailey nodded.
“I put it on a rock before we went near the edge.”
Elise leaned closer.
“Was it recording?”
“I think so.”
Her heart raced.
“Did Grandma know?”
“No.”
Hailey’s voice dropped.
“I wanted to surprise Grandpa.”
At 12:41 a.m., Alvarez received Elise’s call.
Within twenty minutes, deputies were searching the overlook again.
The backpack was gone.
But near a group of rocks twenty yards from the cliff, they found a small plastic mounting clip.
Alvarez photographed it.
Grant watched.
“If Margaret took the backpack, she knew about the camera.”
“Maybe.”
“She went back for it.”
“We don’t know that.”
Grant clenched his jaw.
Alvarez stood.
“What we know is that something was mounted here.”
She pointed to faint impressions in the dirt.
“What’s that?”
“Tripod legs.”
Thomas stared.
Hailey had filmed the entire scene from another angle.
If the camera still existed.
At 2:10 a.m., state police located the maintenance Subaru near Independence Pass.
Empty.
Keys inside.
No Margaret.
A trail camera later showed a dark SUV stopping nearby.
Someone entered the passenger side.
The license plate was unreadable.
Margaret had help.
That possibility opened another problem.
Who?
Thomas began reviewing employees with access to Mercer Ridge’s legal and financial records.
One name immediately stood out.
Caleb Warren.
Mercer Ridge’s longtime chief financial officer.
For twelve years, Caleb had worked closely with Margaret.
He had approved many of the transfers Thomas had recently questioned.
Grant stared at the computer.
“Call him.”
Thomas did.
No answer.
Again.
Voicemail.
Alvarez contacted Denver police.
At 3:32 a.m., officers arrived at Caleb’s condominium.
The front door was locked.
His suitcase was gone.
So was his vehicle.
On the kitchen counter lay an envelope.
Inside were two resignation letters.
One dated that day.
The other dated six weeks earlier.
Alvarez photographed them.
“Why two versions?” Grant asked.
Thomas picked up the second page.
His eyes stopped on one line.
Effective immediately upon completion of the Mercer Ridge northern transaction.
Caleb had known about the sale.
Thomas turned the page.
A handwritten number appeared at the bottom.
$1,400,000.
Grant stared.
“What is that?”
Thomas looked toward Alvarez.
“I think it’s Caleb’s share.”
The detective’s phone rang.
She answered.
Listened.
Then slowly turned toward them.
A bank fraud investigator had flagged an attempted international transfer from a Mercer Ridge corporate account.
Amount:
$6.2 million.
Initiated eleven minutes earlier.
Authorization credentials belonged to Margaret Mercer.
Thomas looked at the time.
His wife was not simply running.
May you like
She was trying to take the money with her.
And somewhere with her—or with Caleb—might be the camera that showed exactly what happened on the cliff.
