Chapter 6 - The Man in the Green Wagon
I showed the message to Rebecca instead of answering. She praised the decision without making me feel like a child. "People who demand secrecy often want control," she said. "If he has evidence, he can speak to investigators." She arranged a monitored meeting at a public legal office. Daniel Mercer agreed only after learning that Emily would be there. "Sofia's daughter deserves to hear it," he wrote.
Daniel was older than the photograph in my mother's drawer, his scar pale against weathered skin. He sat with both hands visible on the conference table. Rebecca began by explaining that she represented our interests, not his. Daniel nodded. "I know what I did. I won't ask anyone to forgive me." He told us he had worked on vehicles and boats for the Bellini family. Adrian had ordered him to falsify maintenance records after a series of suspicious repairs. Daniel suspected sabotage but did not know who carried it out. When Thomas Dawson discovered discrepancies, Daniel tried to warn him. The highway collision happened the next night.
"Why disappear?" I demanded. "Why leave my mother alone with a child?" Daniel looked at me directly. "Because I was a coward. Adrian threatened my sister. I believed running would keep her alive." I hated how ordinary his answer sounded. There was no dramatic confession, only a man who had made a terrible choice and spent years hiding behind it.
He had kept a notebook with dates, work orders, and the names of drivers who collected vehicles. He surrendered it to Rebecca. One entry recorded a meeting between Adrian and Victor Hale the morning Sofia's boat left the dock. Another mentioned a storage locker in Indiana where original invoices had been hidden. Daniel said the locker key was still in his possession. Rebecca instructed him not to retrieve anything himself.
Luca listened from the far end of the table. His silence frightened Daniel more than any shouted threat could have. Finally Luca said, "You should have come to me." Daniel lowered his head. "I thought you were involved." Luca flinched. "My wife thought the same." It was a brutal thing to hear, and he did not defend himself.
After the meeting, Emily asked me to walk with her. We went slowly through a small courtyard behind the office. "I used to think Dad could fix anything," she said. "Then Mom died and he couldn't. I was angry at him for being human." I admitted I had been angry with my father for dying, though I knew it was unfair. Emily slipped her arm through mine. "Maybe we can be angry and still love them."
At the apartment that evening, Rose cried when I told her Daniel had spoken. She remembered my father's final phone call. He had said he was coming home with proof and would never leave them frightened again. The promise had been broken by a collision on a dark road. I sat beside her until she fell asleep.
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A call from Rebecca woke me after midnight. Federal agents had recovered the Indiana locker contents. The invoices were genuine, and one payment referenced a private security contract at Maple Street. The contract was dated for the following morning. Someone had planned to enter Emily's house while we were distracted by the engagement dinner.
"They knew about the cabinet," I said. Rebecca agreed. "And they may know about the tape." Before she hung up, she added one more detail. A second copy of the security contract named a recipient: Claire Dawson. I looked down at my own hands. My name had been written into their plan before I had ever opened the dining-room doors.
