SERIES : The Glass Between Us

By eight in the morning, Daniel had learned three things about Paul Renner.

The first was that Renner had spent twelve years in Mercer’s accounting department before resigning three weeks after Richard Mercer’s death.

The second was that nobody in the current finance office had seen him since.

The third was that Sophia had lied when she said she merely knew his name.

Daniel closed the door to his study.

“Try again.”

Sophia stood beside the bookcase with her arms folded.

“I didn’t lie.”

“You said he worked for Dad.”

“He did.”

“You neglected to mention he came to see you two years ago.”

Her face changed.

Daniel held up an old visitor log from corporate headquarters.

“Paul Renner. Visitor authorized by Sophia Mercer. Forty-seven minutes in your office.”

She stared at the page.

“Eli pulled the archive?”

“I asked a question.”

Sophia turned toward the window.

“He wanted money.”

“For what?”

“He said he had information about Dad.”

“And you didn’t tell me.”

“I thought he was trying to sell grief back to us.”

“What information?”

“He said Dad had been scared before the crash.”

Daniel’s jaw tightened.

“Scared of Gideon?”

“He wouldn’t say.”

“What did you do?”

“I gave him nothing.”

“Did he leave anything with you?”

Sophia hesitated.

Daniel’s voice sharpened. “Sophia.”

“A key.”

“To what?”

“I don’t know.”

He stared at her.

“You’ve had a key for two years and never figured out what it opens?”

“I tried. There was no tag, no number, no address. Just an old brass key.”

“Where is it?”

“In my apartment.”

Daniel picked up his phone.

“We’re going.”

Victoria appeared in the doorway before Sophia could answer.

“Daniel, the police are downstairs.”

“For Lucas?”

“For me.”

Daniel’s eyes narrowed.

Two detectives waited in the sitting room. Detective Amelia Ross introduced herself with professional calm. Her partner, Mark Delaney, opened a notebook and looked directly at Victoria.

“We need to ask you some questions about last night.”

Daniel sat beside his wife.

Ross glanced at him. “Mrs. Mercer is not under arrest.”

“Then I’m staying.”

Victoria touched his wrist.

“It’s fine.”

Daniel looked at her.

“I didn’t say it wasn’t.”

Ross began. “Mrs. Mercer, did you know Mr. Quinn before last night?”

“Yes.”

“How?”

“He contacted me several weeks ago.”

“About?”

“My husband’s company.”

Daniel listened as Victoria repeated part of the truth. She mentioned Lucas’s investigation into old shell companies. She admitted meeting him twice. She admitted moving Daniel’s glass after an anonymous warning.

She did not mention Gideon.

Daniel waited until Ross asked, “Do you know who sent the warning?”

Victoria said, “No.”

Her thumb pressed her ring.

Daniel looked at the floor.

Delaney asked, “Why was a photograph of your brother sent to your phone after the incident?”

Victoria froze.

Ross watched her carefully.

“We have a warrant for Mr. Quinn’s phone,” Ross said. “We found a draft message addressed to you. It mentions your brother by name.”

Daniel turned toward Victoria.

“What draft?”

Ross read from her notes. “If anything happens to me, tell Daniel to ask Owen what Eleanor left behind.”

Victoria’s breath stopped.

Daniel said, “What did your mother leave behind?”

“I don’t know.”

This time she was not lying.

Ross leaned forward.

“Mrs. Mercer, your brother was contacted by Boston police because Paul Renner’s body was found in a vehicle owned by the Vale Foundation. Your name is now connected to both incidents. If there’s something you’re protecting, this is the time to reconsider.”

Victoria’s eyes met Daniel’s.

He saw the struggle in them.

Finally she said, “I need to speak to my brother before I answer anything else.”

Ross closed her notebook.

“You should get an attorney.”

“I am an attorney.”

“Then you know why I said it.”

After the detectives left, Daniel waited until the elevator doors closed.

“You hid Gideon from them.”

Victoria stood by the window.

“I need proof before I accuse my father of murder.”

“A man is dead.”

“And accusing Gideon without evidence could get Owen killed.”

Daniel lowered his voice.

“Stop deciding alone what risks the rest of us are allowed to take.”

She turned.

“You think I enjoy this?”

“I think you’re still acting like the girl who learned survival meant silence.”

Her face hardened.

“And you’re acting like the boy who inherited a company and decided control could prevent grief.”

The words landed.

Sophia quietly said, “She’s not wrong.”

Daniel looked at his sister.

“Not now.”

“Especially now.”

For a long moment, nobody spoke.

Then Victoria’s phone rang.

Owen.

She answered immediately.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. Confused, but fine. Police asked me about Dad’s foundation and whether I knew Paul Renner.”

“Did you?”

“No. But they said he had my address written on a piece of paper in his pocket.”

Victoria sat down.

“Owen, Lucas left a draft message. He said to ask you what Mom left behind.”

Silence.

“Owen?”

“I thought you knew.”

Victoria stood again.

“Knew what?”

“Mom gave me something the night she died.”

Daniel moved closer.

“What?” Victoria asked.

“A music box.”

She blinked. “The blue one?”

“Yeah. You hated it because it played that terrible version of Moon River.”

“I remember.”

“Mom told me never to give it to Dad.”

“Where is it?”

“In storage.”

Daniel cut in. “Owen, don’t go there alone.”

“I wasn’t planning to.”

Eli entered the room at exactly that moment.

“I can have someone meet him.”

Owen heard him through the speaker.

“Who’s that?”

“Daniel’s security chief,” Victoria said. “Do what he says.”

Owen sighed. “I love how everyone became terrifying overnight.”

Victoria closed her eyes. “Please.”

His tone softened.

“Okay. I’ll wait.”

An hour later, Owen entered the storage facility with two off-duty police officers hired through Eli’s Boston contact. Victoria stayed on video while he opened a dusty unit stacked with college boxes and old Vale family furniture.

“There,” she said when the camera passed a cedar chest.

Owen set the phone down and opened it.

The music box was smaller than Daniel expected, painted dark blue with tiny silver stars.

Owen lifted it.

“Still ugly.”

Victoria almost smiled.

“Open the bottom.”

“Why?”

“Mom used to hide birthday money under felt lining.”

Owen turned the box over and worked a fingernail beneath the faded cloth.

Something clicked.

A narrow compartment opened.

Inside lay a tiny memory card wrapped in yellowing tissue paper.

Nobody spoke.

Owen held it up.

“Is this what Lucas meant?”

Daniel answered.

“We’re about to find out.”

They did not send the card electronically.

Eli arranged a courier on a private flight. By early afternoon, the card sat inside an offline reader in Daniel’s study.

It contained eight files.

Seven were scanned financial documents.

The eighth was an audio recording.

Victoria stared at the filename.

ELEANOR_08_14.

“That’s three days before she died.”

Daniel looked at her.

“Do you want to listen?”

“No.”

Then, after a long breath, “Yes.”

Eli clicked play.

Static filled the room.

Then a woman’s voice, calm but strained.

“If Victoria or Owen ever hears this, I’m sorry.”

Victoria covered her mouth.

The voice continued.

“Gideon believes Richard Mercer is preparing to expose Northstar. He says Richard has become weak. He says Daniel can be controlled if Richard is gone.”

Daniel went motionless.

Sophia gripped the back of a chair.

Eleanor’s recording crackled.

“I found transfers from Northstar Maritime Services to Halcyon Consulting, then into private accounts. I don’t know everything they’ve done. I only know Gideon is frightened, and frightened men like him become dangerous.”

A noise sounded in the recording, like a door shutting far away.

Eleanor lowered her voice.

“If Richard dies, it will not be an accident.”

The audio ended.

Victoria was crying silently.

Daniel did not notice his own hands had clenched until Sophia touched one.

“Daniel.”

He opened his fingers.

Eli pointed toward the scanned files.

“We have account numbers, dates, transfer amounts.”

Sophia wiped her eyes. “Can we trace them?”

“Some. Maybe.”

Daniel looked at Victoria.

For seven years of marriage, she had believed her mother’s death was connected to Gideon. For eleven years, Daniel had believed his father died because a bridge froze.

Now their grief had the same name standing behind it.

Victoria whispered, “I told you my mother tried to leave.”

Daniel came to her.

“I believe you.”

She looked up.

It was the first certainty he had given her since the gala.

He held her face in both hands.

“I believe you.”

She leaned into him for one brief second.

Then Eli’s laptop chimed.

He frowned at the screen.

“What?” Daniel asked.