Chapter 14 - Pier 14
Pier 14 was a private marina filled with dark water and expensive boats.
Daniel remembered the exact spot where he had proposed to Anna eleven years earlier. A weathered storage building stood at the end of the dock.
Box 302 was inside.
Maria held the tiny key. “This feels too easy.”
“Nothing about tonight has been easy.”
“That’s why I don’t trust easy.”
Daniel nodded. “Fair.”
They called a federal tip line from a prepaid phone and left the details of Anna’s recording, Cole, Claire, and the ledger. Daniel refused to rely on local police now.
Then they opened Box 302.
Inside was a waterproof case.
Daniel pulled out a thick ledger, a flash drive, and a stack of photographs.
The first photo showed Claire meeting Ray.
The second showed Cole taking an envelope from a city contractor.
The third showed Jonathan Mercer alive at an airport two months after his supposed funeral.
Maria let out a slow breath. “Your father really did fake his death.”
Daniel turned another photograph over.
Anna had written on the back:
Jonathan says he’s leaving to protect Daniel. I don’t believe him.
A boat engine started nearby.
Maria looked up.
A black speedboat pulled away from a slip at the far end of the marina.
A man stood behind the wheel.
Even from a distance, Daniel recognized him.
“Dad!”
Jonathan looked back.
Daniel ran down the dock.
“Stop!”
The boat slowed.
For one strange second, father and son stared across twenty yards of black water.
Then a muzzle flash burst from the parking lot.
Jonathan jerked.
He fell over the wheel.
The boat veered hard and crashed into a piling.
Daniel dropped behind a dock box as another shot cracked past him.
Maria pulled him down. “Shooter!”
They crawled behind a concrete wall.
Daniel looked toward the parking lot and saw a figure running between cars.
Not Cole.
Not Claire.
A woman with long blond hair.
Maria saw her too.
“Who is that?”
Daniel stared.
“I don’t know.”
But when the woman reached a car, she turned just enough for him to see her face.
Daniel stopped breathing.
May you like
“Jenna?” he whispered.
Anna’s younger sister—Lily’s beloved aunt—looked straight at him and smiled.
