Chapter 12 - Holloway Wanted a DealGraham Holloway asked for an attorney before he asked for medical treatment.
That told Caleb exactly who he was.
Within twelve hours, Holloway offered cooperation.
Rawlings had intended to kill him.
Loyalty disappeared immediately.
Caleb watched the interview from behind glass.
Holloway’s attorney said:
“My client can identify participants in a corruption network spanning municipal contracting, law enforcement, and private logistics.”
Assistant U.S. attorneys had already entered the case.
Caleb no longer controlled it.
He didn’t mind.
He wanted truth.
Holloway named officers.
Contractors.
Two city employees.
Captain Dennis Shaw.
Three private security companies.
Then he explained Preacher.
“Rawlings used that name with street crews.”
“Why?”
“He liked the joke.”
“What joke?”
“He said prosecutors and preachers both make people confess.”
Caleb felt disgust.
“Did Tyler know who he was?”
“No.”
“The Pike ring?”
“Rawlings stole it.”
“When?”
“Charity golf tournament.”
Pike hadn’t lost it.
Rawlings had taken it.
“Why impersonate Pike?”
“Insurance.”
“If Tyler got caught.”
“He points at Pike.”
Layered misdirection.
Caleb asked:
“Who killed Mercer?”
Holloway looked down.
“I ordered someone to recover documents.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
“My people confronted him.”
“Names.”
Holloway gave two.
One was already dead from an unrelated overdose.
The other lived in Kentucky.
“Did you order Mercer killed?”
Holloway swallowed.
“I said solve the problem.”
Caleb’s face hardened.
“You knew what that meant.”
“Yes.”
“Did Rawlings tell you to?”
“He told me Mercer would expose all of us.”
“And?”
“I panicked.”
There it was again.
Fear as justification.
Caleb had heard versions of it all night.
Brooke feared for her mother.
Pike feared losing his wife.
Shaw feared losing his career.
Holloway feared prison.
Everybody told themselves fear reduced responsibility.
It didn’t.
Caleb asked, “What was Mercer’s original evidence?”
“A ledger.”
“Where?”
“Rawlings thought Caleb had it.”
“Did Mercer hide it?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
Holloway shook his head.
“We never found it.”
Caleb frowned.
“Then what did you take from his garage?”
“Copies.”
“Of what?”
“Payments.”
“Enough to destroy you?”
“Enough to hurt.”
“But not Rawlings.”
“No.”
“The recording did that.”
“Yes.”
Caleb leaned back.
“Where is the recording original?”
Holloway smiled bitterly.
“If Rawlings knew, Emily never would’ve been kidnapped.”
Caleb left.
Lena waited outside.
“What?”
“Ledger still missing.”
“Mercer hid it.”
“Yes.”
“Maybe family.”
“Mercer had no wife. No children.”
“Office?”
“Searched.”
“Safe deposit?”
“Nothing.”
Caleb thought back to the original case.
Mercer’s garage.
His car.
Home.
One detail.
Samuel Mercer restored motorcycles as a hobby.
Three vintage bikes sat in his garage when he died.
Police inventoried them.
Family sold them through probate six months later.
Caleb stopped walking.
Lena noticed.
“What?”
“Motorcycles.”
“What about them?”
“Mercer owned three.”
“Yes?”
“Holloway used motorcycle thieves because bikes made good envelopes.”
Lena understood.
“You think Mercer did the same thing.”
Caleb nodded.
“He may have hidden the ledger inside one.”
They pulled probate records.
Three motorcycles sold.
One to a collector in Dayton.
One to a dealership in Indiana.
And one—
Caleb stared.
A 1978 Honda CB750.
Purchased by an anonymous bidder through an LLC.
Company name:
St. Michael Restoration.
Lena frowned.
“St. Michael.”
Caleb thought of Rawlings.
Cross tattoo.
Religious nicknames.
But this purchase happened after Mercer’s death.
Maybe Rawlings had been searching too.
“Who owns the LLC?”
They traced it.
Registered agent.
A woman named Julia Mercer.
Caleb froze.
“Mercer had no family.”
Lena searched.
Julia Mercer.
Age sixty-seven.
Address in Cincinnati.
Relationship:
Samuel Mercer’s older sister.
The original case file listed no siblings because Mercer had been estranged from his family for twenty years.
Caleb stared.
“He did have family.”
And suddenly another possibility emerged.
May you like
Maybe Samuel Mercer had not trusted police.
Maybe he had trusted his sister.
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