Chapter 85: The Last Questions

For years, Matteo’s death had felt like something unfinished that belonged to him. He’d carried those unanswered questions into adulthood, and eventually into how he ran nearly every aspect of his life.

Now it was a case.

A real one, with evidence and witnesses, suspects who could finally be questioned, and people with the legal authority to pursue them.

Nothing remained that required Giovanni Mercer to hunt anyone personally.

Martin Valdez hadn’t confessed.

Apparently, that was the first thing Alexander needed to understand.

"He denied almost everything," the Chief Investigator said.

Alexander looked down at the report spread across the conference table.

"Then how did you get all this?"

The older man gave him a faint smile.

"We stopped asking him to confess."

Across from Alexander, Giovanni raised his eyes.

That apparently required an explanation.

The Chief Investigator leaned back. "A confession would’ve made things easier, but we didn’t need one. We already had Elias’s statement, Gerald’s records, Lenny Arceo’s testimony, and the original maintenance checklist. We had the messages too."

Including the photographs.

That was where Martin’s problems had truly started.

At first, he’d denied sending any of them.

He claimed he didn’t know Elias Navarro well enough to care where he’d ended up working. He certainly hadn’t followed him to Vance Holdings, photographed him after his interview, or sent anything to members of the Sebastian family.

Then the investigators showed him the photographs.

Martin changed his answer.

He’d seen Elias before.

Maybe he’d recognized him.

That didn’t mean he’d taken the pictures.

So they showed him more.

By the time Martin realized the investigators weren’t presenting evidence to convince him but to see how many times he’d change his story, he’d already given them several different versions.

The Chief Investigator hadn’t even bothered pointing that out.

He simply asked the next question.

Why Elias?

That one took considerably longer.

Because Elias Navarro hadn’t actually known enough to destroy anyone.

He remembered Calderon Maintenance and Matteo Mercer’s accident, but those memories had spent years sitting separately in his head without any reason to connect them.

Then Alexander Vance started looking for a new driver.

Martin recognized one of the applicants.

An old Calderon employee.

That alone might not have mattered.

Except Elias got the job.

And Alexander Vance happened to be working rather closely with Giovanni Mercer.

Alexander glanced toward the man beside him.

"The bridge."

"Among other projects," Giovanni said.

The Chief Investigator nodded. "Martin was following enough public information to know the two of you were meeting regularly."

Which meant an old Calderon employee was suddenly driving around the man who regularly met with Matteo Mercer’s son.

Martin panicked.

Unfortunately for him, panic apparently made him creative.

He found old photographs of Elias with Maribel Ortega. Their relationship hadn’t been secret, so Martin didn’t need to dig particularly deep. He only needed one picture convincing enough to make Elias believe Maribel might be watched too.

After that, social media did most of the work.

Maribel had worked for Victoria Sebastian.

Dominic Sebastian had been engaged to Alexander.

Andrei had replaced Dominic as CEO after the Vance-Sebastian relationship spectacularly collapsed.

There were already enough cracks between them.

Martin merely pushed.

"He thought we’d blame each other," Alexander said.

"That appears to have been the idea."

The photograph of Elias leaving Vance Holdings went to Andrei. Victoria and Dominic received messages informing them that Elias had gotten the job. Alexander, meanwhile, already knew through the background investigation that Elias’s former partner had worked in Victoria’s household.

Nobody received enough information to understand what was happening.

Just enough to become suspicious.

It probably would’ve worked better if Martin had stopped there.

Giovanni tapped a finger against the table.

"Why didn’t he send me anything?"

The Chief Investigator’s expression changed slightly.

That had apparently been another difficult question.

Martin’s first answer had been simple.

He didn’t have Giovanni’s number.

Unfortunately, investigators already knew that wasn’t true.

So Martin tried again.

There was no reason to contact him.

That answer hadn’t lasted long.

"Eventually," the Chief Investigator said, "we asked him why he’d gone through so much trouble contacting people surrounding Giovanni Mercer while deliberately avoiding Giovanni Mercer."

Alexander could almost imagine the silence that followed.

Martin had finally answered after realizing there weren’t many places left to retreat.

Giovanni was the one person he hadn’t wanted asking questions.

Because threatening Elias was one thing, sending photographs to people already embroiled in a very public family and corporate feud could be dismissed as intimidation, manipulation, or someone deliberately stirring trouble.

Sending anything connected to Calderon directly to Matteo Mercer’s son was different.

Giovanni might ask why.

Worse, he might ask what any of it had to do with his father.

Giovanni gave a humorless laugh.

"So he left me out."

"And made the omission considerably more suspicious once everyone compared messages," Alexander added.

Martin had essentially drawn a circle around Giovanni by refusing to touch him.

There was still another problem.

Alexander turned a page.

"Gerald."

This time, Giovanni answered before the investigator could.

"Jeremy."

The Chief Investigator nodded.

Martin’s father had put him inside Mercer.

Getting that admission hadn’t been easy either.

Jeremy’s first position was that he barely remembered Gerald.

Then investigators produced records of their contact.

Suddenly, he remembered him.

But only professionally.

He’d recommended Martin simply because his son needed work, and he’d heard from workers that they needed a compliance supervisor.

Nothing suspicious about that.

So the investigators asked why Gerald.

Jeremy insisted there was no particular reason.

That answer lasted until they brought up the swimming accident.

Giovanni’s expression hardened.

Years earlier, Gerald had nearly drowned during college. Giovanni had rescued him, and the incident had appeared in campus publications.

Jeremy had found it while researching Gerald.

He’d known exactly who the man was before approaching him.

"Keeping someone close to Mercer was useful," the Chief Investigator explained. "Jeremy had been following your progress for years. You were Matteo Mercer’s son and the obvious future head of Mercer Group. It didn’t take much foresight to assume that sooner or later, you’d have access to everything your father once did."

With every promotion, Giovanni gained greater access to records Jeremy and Martin would’ve preferred to keep forgotten.

Old contracts.

Maintenance reports.

Falsified certifications.

Everything connected to the schemes that had once made them money.

Jeremy hadn’t known whether Matteo’s son would ever investigate his father’s death.

He just didn’t want to find out too late.

Giovanni stared at the report for several seconds.

"So Martin was insurance."

"Essentially."

The old principle: keep an enemy close.

Except Giovanni hadn’t even known they considered him one.

For several seconds, nobody said anything.

Then Giovanni closed the report in front of him.

They still had one question they had somehow managed to circle without asking directly.