Chapter 17 - The Earlier Victims
The storage unit contained twenty-three boxes.
Detective Ruiz opened them under federal supervision.
Elena, Nathan, and Rebecca watched from behind the evidence line.
Each box represented a person.
Former employees.
Accountants.
Attorneys.
Journalists.
Competitors.
Some had lost careers.
Some had disappeared.
Three had died in accidents.
Rebecca found her father’s name.
Michael Mercer.
She opened the box with trembling hands.
Inside were surveillance photographs.
Bank statements.
Recorded calls.
And a handwritten order from Charles.
PRESSURE UNTIL COMPLIANCE.
Rebecca sank into a chair.
“He didn’t abandon us.”
Vanessa stood several feet away in restraints after negotiating permission to assist investigators.
Rebecca looked toward her sister.
“He was trying to protect us.”
Vanessa began crying.
For years she had hated the wrong people.
Then Ruiz found another box.
Robert Howard.
Nathan stared.
“My father was being monitored too?”
Ruiz opened it.
Charles had recorded Robert secretly during the final year of his life.
One audio file changed everything.
Robert’s voice filled the storage unit.
“I won’t let you hurt Nathan again.”
Charles responded.
“Then sign the transfer.”
“No.”
“You owe me.”
“I owe you nothing.”
“You built this company with me.”
Robert’s voice became quieter.
“And I regret it every day.”
The recording ended.
Nathan looked stunned.
“My father tried to stop him.”
Ruiz nodded.
“Late.”
“But yes.”
Another file indicated Robert had planned to confess publicly.
Three days later, he died from what doctors called a sudden cardiac event.
Ruiz immediately ordered the case reopened.
Nathan stared at the box.
He had spent days believing his father was simply a monster.
The truth was worse and more human.
Robert had been guilty.
Then afraid.
Then remorseful.
Then possibly murdered before he could undo what he helped create.
Elena took Nathan’s hand.
“You don’t have to decide what you feel today.”
Nathan nodded.
Rebecca opened another envelope.
Inside was a photograph of Charles speaking with Dr. Voss.
A date was written on the back.
The day before Robert died.
Ruiz looked toward the federal agents.
“Find Voss.”
They found him eight hours later.
He had been living under another name in Arizona.
When investigators approached his house, he surrendered immediately.
His first words were simple.
“I knew this day would come.”
Dr. Voss confessed that Charles had forced him to falsify medical records for years.
He also admitted something worse.
Robert Howard had not died naturally.
Charles had ordered Voss to alter medication dosages.
Nathan closed his eyes when Ruiz called.
Elena sat beside him.
The last illusion of his childhood disappeared.
But this time Nathan did not break.
He looked at Elena.
May you like
“Tomorrow I tell them everything.”
And he did.
