Chapter 11 - Summit ValeGrant Mercer did not look like a criminal.
He looked like a man who sold expensive watches.
Perfect suit.
Perfect teeth.
Measured voice.
He arrived at Hale Ridge headquarters with three attorneys and demanded access to company records concerning the Summit Vale negotiations.
Harold met him in the boardroom.
Rachel sat beside her father.
Mercer smiled.
“Rachel. It’s been years.”
“Not enough.”
His smile remained.
Harold placed both palms on the table.
“There will be no sale.”
Mercer leaned back.
“That’s not entirely your decision.”
“It’s my land.”
Naomi Price spoke from the far end.
“Actually, Mr. Mercer, portions are held subject to preservation covenants requiring additional consent.”
Mercer glanced at her.
“I’m aware.”
Rachel noticed how quickly he answered.
“You’re very aware, apparently.”
Mercer folded his hands.
“Summit Vale has negotiated in good faith for eighteen months.”
“With Doris,” Harold said.
“With authorized representatives.”
“She wasn’t authorized.”
Mercer finally lost some of his smile.
“That’s a matter for your family.”
“No,” Rachel said. “It became a criminal matter when she kicked my son off Eagle’s Crown.”
One of Mercer’s lawyers immediately whispered to him.
Mercer’s face tightened.
“I had nothing to do with what happened to Miles.”
Rachel watched him.
She believed that part.
But not much else.
Naomi slid a document across the table.
“SV Advisory.”
Mercer did not touch it.
“What about it?”
“Your firm agreed to pay it $6.4 million.”
“For consulting services.”
“Who provided those services?”
“I don’t manage every vendor.”
Harold laughed.
“You sign a six-million-dollar agreement and don’t know who gets paid?”
Mercer’s eyes cooled.
“I recommend you direct accusations through counsel.”
Rachel leaned forward.
“Was Doris Hale supposed to receive the money?”
Mercer stood.
“This meeting is over.”
Rachel knew.
Not proof.
But she knew.
As Mercer left, Harold’s longtime assistant brought in an overnight package.
No return address.
Inside was a photocopy of a twenty-year-old memorandum.
Hale Ridge Western Expansion Review.
Harold frowned.
“I haven’t seen this in years.”
Rachel read.
The document concerned a proposed land acquisition in 2006.
The author was Harold’s former business partner, Thomas Bell.
Thomas had died the following year after falling from a horse during a backcountry trip.
Rachel remembered the funeral.
She had been nineteen.
Thomas had been close to the family.
The final paragraph of the memo made her skin tighten.
“Doris continues making commitments to outside investors without board authority. I strongly recommend suspending her access to financial accounts until a full audit is completed.”
Harold sat down.
Rachel looked at him.
“Did Thomas tell you this?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“I thought he was exaggerating.”
“Did you audit?”
“No.”
Rachel stared.
“Why?”
“Doris said Thomas wanted to push her out.”
“Was that true?”
“I don’t know.”
Rachel read the memo again.
Twenty years ago, Thomas Bell had seen the same pattern Miriam later discovered.
Unauthorized financial commitments.
Control.
Secrecy.
“Who sent this?”
Nobody knew.
But another page had been clipped behind it.
A handwritten note.
Three words.
ASK ABOUT WOLF CREEK.
Harold went pale.
Rachel noticed.
“What is Wolf Creek?”
He didn’t answer.
“Dad.”
Harold looked toward the window.
“The place Thomas died.”
Silence.
Rachel felt a new kind of fear.
“Was Mom there?”
Harold swallowed.
“Yes.”
The room changed.
Naomi spoke first.
“Was his death investigated?”
“It was ruled accidental.”
“Who found him?”
Harold looked at Rachel.
“Doris.”
Rachel stared.
“You cannot be serious.”
“She said his horse spooked.”
“Did anyone else see it?”
“No.”
Rachel stood.
“You’ve known this for twenty years?”
“I knew she found him. That’s all.”
“Did Thomas’s warning disappear after he died?”
Harold said nothing.
Rachel’s face hardened.
“That’s what I thought.”
Her phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
She opened the message.
A single photograph appeared.
It showed a metal storage box.
On its lid someone had written:
T. BELL — PRIVATE.
May you like
Beneath the image was a message.
If Doris knows this still exists, she will destroy it.
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