Chapter 10 - The Missing Six PagesThe torn pages mattered more than the notebook.
Everett remembered writing them.
Not every word.
Enough.
He told investigators the final pages documented something beyond property invoices.
A private account.
An account Grant repeatedly told Everett belonged to a charitable reserve.
Everett had discovered the charity did not exist.
Name:
Mercer Children’s Opportunity Fund.
Vincent stared.
“I’ve never heard of it.”
“That may be the point,” Caleb Moore said.
The fund received yearly transfers from the family foundation.
Supposed purpose:
Scholarships for children of Mercer employees.
Amount over seven years:
$7.3 million.
Vincent felt sick.
“Did any scholarships exist?”
Some.
Approximately $1.4 million had actually gone to education programs.
The rest?
Layered through administrative entities.
Grant controlled several.
Money traveled.
Disappeared.
Reappeared in investments.
Total suspected diversion:
$5.1 million.
Add Loretta’s unauthorized loans and fraudulent expenses.
The overall exposure exceeded ten million.
Elena had been right.
Everett’s torn pages likely contained the fund reconciliation.
Why tear only those?
Because they implicated Grant directly.
Loretta’s property theft filled earlier pages.
Grant removed his own.
That suggested he had access to the ledger after Loretta hid it.
The burner phone confirmed.
Messages:
Loretta:
I have the book.
Grant:
Pages 94–99?
Loretta:
Yes.
Grant:
Remove them.
Loretta:
You do it.
Grant:
I’m not coming back there.
Two nights later, side camera showed Grant entering.
He lied.
He came back.
The next morning, six pages were gone.
Detective Ruiz asked Loretta about it during a cooperation discussion.
She had not yet formally agreed to cooperate, but her lawyer understood the situation.
Loretta’s answer surprised them.
“He took more than pages.”
“What?”
“A letter.”
“From Everett?”
“Elena.”
Vincent’s pulse changed when Ruiz told him.
“Elena wrote Grant?”
“No. She wrote your father.”
“Where is it?”
“Grant took it.”
“What did it say?”
Loretta claimed she didn’t read all of it.
Vincent did not believe her.
Eventually she admitted she had.
Elena wrote the letter on the morning she died.
Not anticipating death.
Simply unable to reach Everett before a doctor appointment.
Everett, I compared the scholarship fund to the property accounts. Loretta’s issue is serious, but Grant’s is larger. I think he has been using Loretta’s fake vendors to hide older transfers of his own. Do not confront him alone.
Vincent closed his eyes.
Elena had understood the structure.
Loretta was guilty.
But also camouflage.
Grant’s preexisting theft could hide among hers.
If investigators found irregular payments, Grant could say Loretta orchestrated all of them.
She had signed enough.
Benefited enough.
Lied enough.
She was the perfect future scapegoat.
“What else did Elena write?”
Ruiz hesitated.
Vincent knew there was more.
“Tell me.”
Vincent will defend Loretta at first. Don’t let that stop you from telling him. He needs facts, not protection.
Vincent looked away.
Again.
Elena knew him.
Loved him.
And knew his blind spot.
Then:
If anything happens to me, please don’t let grief become another reason everyone stays quiet.
Vincent had to sit.
Elena did not expect to die.
The sentence referred to her ongoing medical concerns? Maybe she had occasional fainting? But it read differently now.
Not prophecy.
A habit of practical thinking.
She knew families delayed difficult conversations during crises.
She was right.
Her sudden death created exactly that silence.
Everett waited.
Vincent withdrew.
Loretta moved in.
Grant expanded.
The conspiracy grew inside grief.
Vincent asked Ruiz:
“Where’s the letter?”
“Grant may have destroyed it.”
“Then how do we prove it existed?”
“We don’t need it for everything.”
Again, no single object.
Elena’s spreadsheet remained.
Email drafts remained.
The ledger entries remained.
Parker’s testimony.
Bank records.
Evidence survived even when paper didn’t.
But Vincent wanted the letter personally.
Not for court.
For Elena.
He wanted her exact words.
Grant refused to say where it was.
Then Parker remembered a storage unit.
His father rented one under the law firm’s archive account.
Warrant obtained.
Inside were old case files.
Furniture.
Shredding bins.
And a fireproof document case.
Elena’s letter was there.
Unburned.
Grant had kept it.
Why?
Insurance.
A document proving Loretta’s fraud if he ever needed to sacrifice her.
Grant had never expected the letter to become proof against him too.
Vincent received a scanned copy after investigators processed it.
Elena’s handwriting made his chest ache.
The final paragraph was not about money.
Loretta is angry at me because she thinks I’m trying to turn Vincent against her. I’m not. I want her to stop before she becomes someone she can’t explain to herself.
Vincent read it again.
Stop before she becomes someone she can’t explain to herself.
Elena had given Loretta a way out.
Loretta did not take it.
Then Vincent noticed a handwritten note Everett added at the bottom after receiving the letter.
Talked to L. She denies. Audit first. No police until facts.
Compassion again.
Caution.
Maybe too much.
Everett had wanted proof before destroying his daughter.
That delay allowed more crime.
Vincent visited him.
“Do you regret not calling police immediately?”
Everett looked down.
Then nodded.
Vincent sat beside him.
“What would you tell me if I were you?”
Everett looked up.
He struggled for words.
Finally:
“Love… not… hide.”
Vincent felt his throat tighten.
Love does not hide.
He thought of Griffin.
Of Loretta turning cameras off.
Of Elena hiding concerns until proof.
Of Everett delaying.
Of himself hiding in work.
The entire family had confused silence with protection.
Now the evidence was everywhere.
And the next thing investigators found proved Loretta’s plan had included one more step.
A scheduled appointment with a family-court attorney.
Purpose:
Emergency guardianship filing following execution of Everett Mercer’s revised will.
Date:
May you like
The day after the will signing.
Loretta had planned to take control of the children almost immediately.
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