Chapter 7 - The Detective My Father Bought
Melissa entered protective custody.
State police arrested Detective Mercer the next morning.
At first, he denied taking bribes.
Then investigators showed him the bank transfers.
His confidence disappeared.
Mercer admitted Robert had paid him to remove items from the lake house after Grandpa’s death.
“What items?” Claire asked during the recorded interview.
“A medication bottle. A second phone. Papers from the study.”
“Did you alter the time of death?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To support Robert’s statement that he arrived after the fall.”
Mercer claimed he did not know whether Robert pushed Grandpa.
But he knew Grandpa had been alive when Robert arrived.
“How do you know?” I asked.
Mercer looked at me through the interview-room glass.
“Because your grandfather called me.”
The call lasted forty-three seconds.
Grandpa said Robert was inside the house and demanded police assistance.
Mercer did not send anyone.
Instead, he called Robert.
By the time officers arrived two hours later, Grandpa was dead at the bottom of the staircase.
I felt as if the air had left the room.
“You could have saved him.”
Mercer lowered his eyes.
“Yes.”
The medication bottle he removed contained blood-pressure pills.
Toxicology had never tested them because the bottle vanished.
Mercer said Martin Crowe later burned the papers.
The second phone went to Robert.
“Where is it now?”
“I don’t know.”
Claire asked about the shooting at Melissa’s apartment.
Mercer denied involvement.
Phone records supported him.
He had been under surveillance at the time.
That meant someone else remained active.
Tyler.
I did not want to believe my brother would order a shooting.
Then Daniel recovered traffic-camera footage.
The dark pickup belonged to one of Tyler’s friends.
The driver was arrested that afternoon.
He claimed Tyler paid him to frighten Melissa, not kill her.
Tyler had become reckless.
Robert had always used lawyers and hidden payments.
Tyler used anger.
Police issued a warrant.
He disappeared before they reached the house.
Jennifer claimed she did not know where he was.
I watched her give the statement from across the driveway.
She looked elegant, controlled, and almost bored.
“Your son just fled from an attempted-witness-intimidation warrant,” I said.
“He panicked.”
“You always have an excuse for him.”
“He needs help.”
“So did I.”
Her eyes finally sharpened.
“You were always strong enough to survive.”
The cruelty of that sentence shocked me more than shouting would have.
“You knew what they were doing.”
“I knew your father was trying to protect the company.”
“Grandpa died.”
“That was an accident.”
“You don’t believe that.”
Jennifer’s mouth tightened.
Then she stepped closer.
“Your grandfather enjoyed turning people against each other. He made you feel chosen because it kept you loyal.”
“He loved me.”
“He used you to punish Robert.”
Maybe part of her believed that.
But it did not explain the forged signature, the drugged wine, or the hospital.
Claire received a message from an unknown number.
A photograph appeared.
Tyler stood beside my car at the edge of a mountain road.
He held a gas can.
The message read:
Withdraw the charges, or the next thing she loses won’t be property.
May you like
Seconds later, my car exploded.
👉 Tyler had moved from intimidation to open destruction, and his next message made it clear he was coming for Olivia herself.
