Chapter 15 - The Motel Room

Daniel did not go alone.

Room 18.

The door stood open.

Daniel entered wearing a wire.

Claire sat in a chair near the window, one wrist tied to a pipe.

Her face was bruised.

Marcus stood behind her with a handgun.

"Close the door."

"That's new."

Daniel did not look at her.

"You said you know what happened to Hannah."

Marcus smiled.

"Hannah couldn't leave Brightwood alone."

"So you killed her?"

"I didn't touch her."

"You were at the hospital."

Marcus's face tightened.

"I moved a file."

Claire snapped, "Liar."

Marcus hit the wall beside her head.

Daniel's entire body tensed.

Claire looked at Daniel.

"He switched her medication bag."

Marcus shouted, "Shut up!"

There it was.

Daniel kept him talking.

"Why Hannah?"

Marcus paced.

"She found the family list. She wanted regulators. Mercer said scare her. Thomas said destroy the records. Claire was supposed to handle the warning."

Claire's face twisted.

"I told her to stop. I didn't tell you to kill her."

Daniel looked at her for the first time.

"You threatened my wife."

Claire began crying.

"I was twenty-seven and stupid."

"Then four years later you married me."

"Marcus made me."

Marcus laughed.

"Oh, now I made you?"

Claire screamed, "You said if I didn't get control of Sophie, you'd tell Daniel I was there before Hannah died!"

Daniel felt sick.

Daniel said, "You still starved her. You still drugged her."

Claire looked down.

"I know."

Marcus raised the gun.

"Enough therapy."

Police shouted outside.

Marcus spun toward the door.

Claire kicked the chair sideways into his legs.

The gun fired into the ceiling.

Daniel grabbed Claire's chair and pulled her down.

Officers stormed the room.

Marcus ran through the bathroom window.

Ortiz chased him across the rear lot.

He made it twenty yards.

Then slipped on loose gravel and dropped the gun.

Police surrounded him.

For the first time, Marcus Reed had nowhere to go.

Back inside, Claire looked at Daniel.

"I can tell you where the original Brightwood ledger is."

"Why would I believe you?"

"Because Hannah found it first."

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Daniel froze.

Claire whispered, "And she hid a copy in your house."