Chapter 5 - Beth Briggs
Beth was found alive six hours later.
A patrol officer spotted her walking barefoot beside an abandoned county road.
She had a cut above one eye and bruising on both wrists.
At the hospital, she refused to speak until Claire arrived.
David objected.
“You’re not going anywhere near her.”
Claire put on her coat.
“She asked for me.”
“She may be involved.”
“That’s why I’m going.”
“You’re pregnant.”
“Yes, David.”
Her tone sharpened.
“I remain aware of that.”
Mark drove with them.
Detective Torres met them outside Beth’s room.
“She says she knows why Laura died.”
David stopped.
“Then why did she wait eighteen years?”
“Ask her.”
Beth looked older than the staff photograph Claire had seen.
Gray hair.
Thin face.
Exhausted eyes.
When Claire entered, Beth stared at her stomach.
“So it finally happened.”
Claire sat.
“What?”
“The next Mercer child.”
David remained standing.
“My mother trusted you.”
Beth closed her eyes.
“She shouldn’t have.”
“What did you do?”
“I gave Gordon information.”
Mark folded his arms.
“What kind?”
“Laura’s schedule.”
“Why?”
“He paid me.”
David stepped forward.
“My mother died.”
“I know.”
“And you took money?”
“I was twenty-nine and stupid.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
Beth began crying.
Claire interrupted.
“Did Gordon kill Laura?”
Beth wiped her face.
“He caused the crash.”
David went still.
“How?”
“He was in the passenger seat.”
“What happened?”
“Laura had evidence.”
“The duplicate?”
Beth nodded.
“She kept records of shell companies.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know anymore.”
Mark frowned.
“You said you had a duplicate.”
“I did.”
“What happened?”
“Samuel took it.”
Henry’s father again.
Claire leaned forward.
“Why?”
Beth looked toward David.
“Because Samuel was part of the original scheme.”
Silence.
Mark whispered:
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“It does if Gordon wasn’t stealing.”
Beth stared at them.
“He was collecting.”
“For Samuel?”
“Yes.”
The room changed.
For decades, Mercer Industries had presented Samuel as a brilliant founder who built everything honestly.
Beth described another reality.
Samuel had secretly accumulated land through shell entities.
Used confidential political information.
Manipulated valuations.
Moved charitable money.
Gordon created the structures.
Laura discovered them.
“But then Gordon started taking something for himself,” Beth said.
“What?” Claire asked.
“Ownership.”
He quietly accumulated voting rights through intermediary companies.
Samuel found out.
Rather than expose Gordon, he modified the trust.
The generational audit would uncover beneficial ownership the moment the next generation triggered succession.
Laura supported Samuel’s amendment.
Not because she wanted to protect Samuel.
Because she intended the audit to expose both men.
“That’s why Gordon met her?”
“Yes.”
“He promised to confess.”
“Did he?”
“No.”
Beth’s voice trembled.
“They argued while she drove.”
“About what?”
“Gordon wanted the duplicate records.”
“Did Laura have them?”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“He tried to grab her bag.”
David closed his eyes.
“She lost control.”
Beth nodded.
“The car struck the barrier.”
“And Gordon?”
“He survived.”
“Mom?”
“Alive.”
David’s hands shook.
Beth continued.
“Nolan pulled Gordon out.”
“Samuel ordered that?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Samuel believed Laura had hidden another copy.”
Claire stared.
“So he protected Gordon because Gordon could help him find it.”
Beth nodded.
“Then why didn’t they save Laura?”
“They assumed emergency services would.”
David turned away.
Mark looked sick.
Claire asked the hardest question.
“Did Samuel know she was still alive?”
Beth hesitated.
“Yes.”
David slammed his fist against the wall.
Claire reached for him.
Beth began crying.
“I’m sorry.”
“No.”
David looked at her.
“You don’t get to be sorry yet.”
Claire continued.
“Who attacked you yesterday?”
Beth looked frightened again.
“I don’t know.”
“Man or woman?”
“Man.”
“Voice?”
“Distorted.”
“Did he ask you anything?”
“Yes.”
“What?”
Beth swallowed.
“He wanted the red ledger.”
Mark frowned.
“What red ledger?”
“I don’t know.”
“Laura mentioned it?”
“Samuel did.”
Beth remembered hearing him say:
If the red ledger surfaces, Mercer dies.
Claire stared.
“Where is it?”
Beth shook her head.
“I thought Laura had it.”
A nurse entered.
Detective Torres’s phone buzzed.
She glanced at the message.
Then looked at Claire.
“Forensics recovered a partial print from the wire.”
David stepped forward.
“Whose?”
Torres hesitated.
“It matched Nolan Briggs.”
Mark looked at the detective.
“Nolan planted it?”
“Maybe.”
Beth closed her eyes.
Claire watched her.
“You knew.”
Beth opened them.
“Nolan has done things for this family he’s never admitted.”
David looked furious.
“He helped Gordon escape the crash.”
Beth nodded.
“And something else.”
“What?”
Beth whispered:
“Three days before Laura died, Nolan installed hidden cameras inside Mercer House.”
Claire’s stomach tightened.
“Where?”
“Everywhere.”
“Why?”
“Samuel ordered it.”
Mark leaned forward.
“Are those recordings gone?”
Beth looked at him.
“No.”
Silence.
“Where are they?”
Beth stared directly at Claire.
“Inside the old nursery wall.”
Claire stopped breathing.
The same nursery where someone had written:
SUNDAY BELONGS TO THE FIRST SON.
They returned immediately.
Police opened the wall.
Behind insulation they discovered an obsolete recording unit and dozens of labeled tapes.
Most were degraded.
One was dated:
APRIL 12 — WINTER ROOM / FOYER / EAST DRIVE.
The night Laura died.
Technicians digitized it.
The footage began at 10:18 p.m.
Laura entered the Winter Room.
Henry followed.
Celeste.
Gordon.
Later, Samuel.
The legendary founder had been at Mercer House that night.
At 11:26, Laura stormed from the room.
Gordon followed.
At 11:32, they left through the east entrance.
Then something unexpected happened.
At 11:41—
Samuel returned to the foyer carrying Laura’s silver locket.
David stared.
“How did he get that?”
No one knew.
Samuel opened the locket.
Removed something tiny.
A key.
Then hid the locket inside the wall.
Mark whispered:
“The key.”
The footage continued.
Samuel turned toward the hidden camera.
For one strange moment, it looked as if he knew exactly where it was.
Then he said:
“If Laura succeeds, everything we built ends.”
A second person entered the frame.
Only the shoulder was visible.
Samuel continued.
“You know what has to happen.”
The second person answered.
“Yes.”
Claire leaned toward the screen.
The voice was distorted by age.
But Henry recognized it.
His face drained.
“No.”
David looked at him.
“Who?”
Henry stared at the screen.
May you like
Then whispered:
“Celeste.”
