Chapter 17 - PAIGE
She agreed to return voluntarily.
When she landed, she asked to see Vivian before speaking to police.
Brooks refused.
"Then you're missing the point."
"What point?"
"I went to the funeral home to get her out."
"You knew she was alive?"
"I suspected."
"Why didn't you call police?"
"Because Vivian told me not to trust local police until I had the trust files."
Brooks's eyes narrowed.
"Careful."
Paige opened her bag.
Inside was a second flash drive.
Vivian had given it to her one week before the poisoning.
It contained emails proving Thomas had bribed a detective years earlier during an investigation into the foundation.
Not Brooks.
Another officer.
Now retired.
Paige feared evidence would disappear.
So she planned to open the coffin herself.
"But Colin caught me."
Colin had threatened to call police.
At dawn, she flew to Switzerland to deliver the trust files to a bank compliance officer.
"Why not tell Grant?"
"Vivian didn't."
That hurt.
Vivian later explained why.
"I loved you."
Grant sat beside her.
"But?"
"But your name was on the trust structure."
She had not known whether Thomas was using Grant or working with him.
"So you thought I might want you dead."
"I thought money makes people strange."
"Apparently you were right about the family."
Paige's files gave prosecutors enough to freeze the Mercer trust and recover millions.
Thomas's defense collapsed.
But one email still made no sense.
It was from Vivian to Paige.
SUBJECT: ROSA.
If anything happens, trust her before anyone else.
"Why me?"
"Because you once gave back twenty dollars you found in my coat."
"That's it?"
"No."
Vivian's eyes softened.
"You were the only person in that house who never wanted anything from me."
The room went quiet.
Then Brooks received a call.
Thomas Mercer had collapsed in jail.
May you like
Possible heart attack.
And before losing consciousness, he had asked for Vivian.
