Chapter 20 - MARCUS SAID LAUREL’S FINAL SECRET WAS ABOUT EVERETTEverett almost refused the meeting.
Marcus Dane had caused Laurel’s crash.
Whether prosecutors ultimately called it vehicular manslaughter, reckless homicide or something else would be decided later.
Everett did not need to hear excuses.
But Marcus said:
“Laurel discovered something about Everett himself.”
So Everett went.
Federal detention interview room.
Marcus looked ordinary.
That offended Everett somehow.
No villain’s face.
No visible evil.
Just a fifty-eight-year-old man with receding hair and wire-frame glasses.
Marcus sat across the table.
“You look like Charles.”
Everett ignored it.
“What did Laurel discover?”
Marcus smiled faintly.
“No hello?”
“You killed my wife.”
Marcus’s smile disappeared.
“I caused the crash.”
“Difference?”
“I didn’t intend her death.”
Everett stared.
Marcus continued.
“I tried to force her to pull over.”
“You hit her.”
“Yes.”
“Then left.”
“I panicked.”
“You called Margaret.”
“Yes.”
“And spent four years covering it.”
“Yes.”
At least no euphemisms.
Everett leaned forward.
“What did Laurel know about me?”
Marcus looked at the camera in the interview room.
“Lantern used your identity.”
“We know.”
“No.”
Marcus shook his head.
“Not just signatures.”
Everett frowned.
“What?”
“Your personal biometric profile.”
His pulse changed.
“Explain.”
“When Whitmore Capital invested in Northstar, you enrolled in executive security.”
Everett remembered fingerprints.
Voice authentication.
Face scan.
“Marcus copied it.”
“You copied it.”
“Yes.”
“For what?”
“To create authorization events that looked like you.”
Everett stared.
“Deepfakes?”
“Early versions.”
“Voice?”
“Yes.”
“Video?”
“Limited.”
“Signatures?”
“Yes.”
Everett felt sick.
“How many things were authorized in my name?”
“Dozens.”
“Illegal surveillance payments.”
“Yes.”
“What else?”
Marcus looked at him.
“Political contributions.”
“Vendor contracts.”
“Private settlements.”
Everett’s face went cold.
“You built a criminal record around me.”
“Insurance.”
“So if Lantern was exposed—”
“You were the fall guy.”
Silence.
Everett sat back.
Laurel hadn’t only been protecting Everett from embarrassment.
She believed he could be framed as Lantern’s architect.
“Did Charles know?”
“Not initially.”
“Margaret?”
“Yes.”
“Nolan?”
“No.”
“Graham?”
“He suspected.”
Everett closed his eyes.
Again.
“How did Laurel find out?”
“She saw a voice authorization attributed to you on a night you were speaking at a conference in London.”
Everett remembered.
“She compared travel.”
“Yes.”
“What did she do?”
“Confronted Margaret.”
“And?”
“Margaret told her if she exposed Lantern, Everett would go to prison.”
Everett felt his throat tighten.
That explained Laurel’s hesitation.
“She believed her.”
“For a while.”
“What changed?”
“She discovered the biometric forgeries.”
“So she knew I was innocent.”
“Mostly.”
Everett frowned.
“Mostly?”
Marcus looked at him.
“You benefited from Lantern intelligence.”
“I didn’t know where it came from.”
“Does that make every deal clean?”
Everett had no answer.
No.
Perhaps not.
Marcus continued.
“Laurel understood that.”
“She wasn’t trying to prove you were perfect.”
“She was trying to prove you weren’t knowingly running Lantern.”
Everett looked away.
That distinction mattered.
Marcus said:
“She wanted you to cooperate with regulators.”
“She was on her way to do that.”
“Yes.”
“When you hit her.”
Marcus’s eyes dropped.
“Yes.”
Everett wanted rage.
Instead, he felt tired.
“What was the secret not on the recorder?”
Marcus looked up.
“Laurel met a federal investigator before the crash.”
Everett froze.
“I thought she was driving to meet them.”
“She had already met one the day before.”
“Name.”
“Rebecca Shaw.”
Detective Ellison, observing, wrote it down.
Marcus continued.
“Laurel gave Rebecca a partial index.”
Everett stared.
“Then federal authorities had Lantern evidence four years ago?”
“A fragment.”
“What happened?”
Marcus smiled bitterly.
“Rebecca disappeared.”
Everett felt cold.
“Dead?”
“No.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
“What do you mean disappeared?”
“She stopped showing up.”
“Was she corrupt?”
“I thought so.”
“Why?”
“Because no investigation started.”
Everett’s stomach tightened.
Another compromised authority?
Then Marcus said:
“Six months later, Rebecca contacted me.”
Everett stared.
“What?”
“She said she had gone into hiding because someone inside her agency accessed the evidence.”
“Who?”
“She never told me.”
“What did she want from you?”
“Protection.”
“You?”
Marcus laughed.
“Yes. The irony wasn’t lost on me.”
“What happened?”
“I refused.”
“Then?”
“She sent me one message.”
“What?”
Marcus leaned forward.
“‘The child is safer if everyone thinks Laurel’s copy is the only copy.’”
Everett stopped breathing.
Hadley.
Rebecca knew about her.
“Is Rebecca alive?”
Marcus shrugged.
“I don’t know.”
Everett stood.
“You dragged me here for a ghost.”
“No.”
Marcus looked up.
“I brought you here because the partial index Laurel gave Rebecca included one file that wasn’t on the recorder.”
“What file?”
“Your house.”
Everett froze.
Marcus continued.
“Not recent footage.”
“Older.”
“How old?”
“Before Laurel began investigating.”
Everett’s skin prickled.
“What was recorded?”
Marcus’s expression changed.
“I never saw it.”
“Then why does it matter?”
“Because Margaret did.”
“What did she say?”
Marcus paused.
“She said if Everett ever sees the nursery footage, nothing else matters.”
Everett stared.
“Nursery?”
Hadley’s nursery.
Years ago.
Before Laurel died.
Before Seraphina.
“What was in it?”
Marcus shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
Everett did not believe him.
Marcus said:
“But Laurel watched it.”
“And after she did?”
“She started investigating your brother.”
Charles.
Everett’s pulse changed.
“What did Charles do in Hadley’s nursery?”
Marcus looked away.
“I told you. I never saw it.”
Everett left.
Back at the rental house, he found Hadley asleep.
Doreen sat nearby.
Everett looked at her.
“Did Charles ever spend time alone with Hadley when she was a baby?”
Doreen frowned.
“Sometimes.”
“Anything unusual?”
“No.”
Then her face changed.
“One night Laurel got very angry.”
“When?”
“Hadley was about ten months old.”
“Why?”
“She found Charles in the nursery.”
Everett’s chest tightened.
“Doing what?”
“I don’t know.”
“Laurel made him leave.”
“Did she tell you why?”
Doreen thought.
“She said, ‘He had no right to take that.’”
Everett stopped.
“Take what?”
“I never knew.”
May you like
But Hadley’s nursery had once contained something Charles wanted.
And Laurel’s investigation may have begun years earlier than anyone realized.
Related Stories
