Chapter 4 - THE LIE VICTORIA TOLD POLICE
Ethan did not sleep.
By morning, he had collected every public article he could find about Claire Mercer.
There weren't many.
Claire's disappearance had received modest local coverage in 2009, then faded.
One name appeared repeatedly.
Detective Paul Reeves.
Ethan found a retired police association listing with a contact number.
At 8:15 a.m., he called.
Reeves answered on the fourth ring.
“Hello?”
“My name is Ethan Cole. I'm calling about Claire Mercer.”
Silence.
Then:
“Who are you?”
“I was supposed to marry Victoria Mercer yesterday.”
A longer silence.
“You said supposed to?”
“The wedding didn't happen.”
Reeves's voice changed.
“Why are you calling me?”
“Because my daughter found Claire's pendant.”
Ethan heard movement.
“What pendant?”
He described it.
Silver oval.
Tiny photograph.
C.M.
June 17, 2009.
Reeves stopped him.
“Where did you get that?”
“My daughter found it hidden among Victoria's belongings.”
“You're sure?”
“Yes.”
“Don't give it back.”
Ethan looked toward Lily.
“Why?”
Reeves did not immediately answer.
“When Claire disappeared, Victoria told us Claire was wearing a pendant.”
Ethan felt something tighten in his chest.
Reeves continued.
“Victoria described it herself.”
Silver.
Oval.
Claire's photograph inside.
An odd sentimental piece their grandmother had made.
According to seventeen-year-old Victoria, Claire wore it constantly.
Including on the night she vanished.
Ethan stood slowly.
“But Victoria has it.”
“Apparently.”
“Maybe Claire gave it to her earlier.”
“That's not what Victoria told us.”
Reeves explained.
Police interviewed Victoria twice.
During both interviews, she maintained she had seen Claire wearing the pendant hours before Claire disappeared.
She specifically remembered it because they'd argued and Claire had been touching it while talking.
“If Victoria had that pendant later,” Reeves said, “then either Claire came back…”
“…or Victoria saw Claire after the time she told police she last saw her.”
“Exactly.”
Ethan sat down.
Reeves had never been satisfied with the original case.
Claire had supposedly run away.
But she left behind money.
Clothing.
Her passport.
Her car.
And a scheduled meeting with an attorney the following morning.
“What attorney?”
“A probate lawyer.”
“Why?”
“Family money.”
There it was again.
Reeves explained that Claire had recently begun questioning withdrawals from a trust created by her grandmother.
She believed someone was moving money without her authorization.
“Who controlled it?”
“Her mother, Lorraine Mercer.”
“Victoria's mother.”
“Yes.”
Ethan frowned.
“Victoria told me her mother died before we met.”
Reeves was silent again.
“Lorraine Mercer isn't dead.”
Ethan's stomach dropped.
“How do you know?”
“I spoke to her eight months ago.”
Ethan looked at the closed door of the bedroom.
In less than ten minutes, two years of Victoria's life with him had become fiction.
Her sister wasn't simply “family she didn't discuss.”
Her mother wasn't dead.
The pendant wasn't merely sentimental.
And Claire disappeared while investigating family money.
Ethan asked:
“Why did you speak to Lorraine eight months ago?”
May you like
Reeves answered quietly.
“Because somebody sent me a letter saying we searched the wrong place.”
