Chapter 14 - THE CALL FROM MARK
Mark called Sarah at 4:12 the next afternoon.
The number was blocked.
Sarah almost ignored it.
Something made her answer.
"Hello?"
"Do not hang up."
She recognized his voice immediately.
Her entire body went cold.
Officer Torres had instructed Sarah to record any contact if possible.
Sarah tapped the recording shortcut on her phone.
"Where are you?"
Mark laughed softly.
"You sound like Claire."
"Police are looking for you."
"Police are looking at what somebody wants them to see."
Sarah gripped the edge of the hotel desk.
Lily was in the next room with Jessica watching a movie.
"Did you forge my signature?"
Mark did not answer.
"Did you use my identity for the Northstar loan?"
"You think this started with me?"
"Answer the question."
"No."
Sarah's jaw tightened.
"No, you won't answer, or no, you didn't do it?"
"I did not create the plan to use you."
The wording mattered.
"But you participated."
Mark exhaled.
"I signed things I should not have signed."
"You sent Owen after Lily's drawing."
Silence.
"Did you?"
"Yes."
Sarah closed her eyes.
"He's eight."
"I panicked."
"So you used your son to scare a five-year-old."
"I told him to get a piece of paper."
"You told him you'd go to jail if he didn't."
Mark's voice broke for the first time.
"I probably am going to jail."
Sarah did not soften.
"Good."
A long silence followed.
Then Mark spoke quietly.
"You should be more worried about who will still be free."
Sarah's pulse quickened.
"Claire?"
Mark laughed without humor.
"Claire is very good at crying at the exact moment people stop asking questions."
Sarah remembered the file author field.
CPRICE.
"Did Claire create SARAH EXIT?"
Silence.
"Mark."
"Ask her why she was in Grant's office at two fourteen in the morning."
Sarah stood.
"What?"
"Ask her."
"The access code belonged to Mom."
"Exactly."
"How would Claire know it?"
Mark laughed again.
"Because Margaret writes every password she owns in the back of her address book."
Sarah felt sick.
That sounded exactly like Margaret.
"Do you have proof?"
"I have more proof than Grant does."
"Then give it to police."
"So Claire can hand them a trembling confession about how her dangerous husband manipulated her?"
"You did manipulate her."
Mark's voice hardened.
"Yes."
The admission surprised Sarah.
"I lied about money."
"I hid losses."
"I used her father's loan to keep my company alive."
"I told Owen to take the drawing."
"I took the files from my house because I knew Claire was going to make me the only criminal in the room."
Sarah stared at the wall.
"Did you break into Grant's office?"
"No."
"Did you leave the stolen file in the SUV?"
"No."
"Did you send me the threat?"
"No."
"Did you put Lily in the SUV?"
"Yes."
Sarah's hand tightened around the phone.
"Why?"
"Because I got a text from Claire."
"She says she didn't send it."
"Then somebody wanted both of us to believe she did."
"You didn't question it?"
"Claire had spent the previous hour telling me we needed to get Lily away from the house before police arrived."
Sarah went still.
"She said what?"
"Ask her."
"Why would she want Lily gone?"
"Because Lily saw Margaret sign Richard's name."
Sarah's breathing slowed.
"That implicates Mom, not Claire."
Mark was quiet.
Then he said the sentence that changed everything again.
"Lily didn't see the whole room."
Sarah's pulse raced.
"What does that mean?"
"There were three adults in the study during the storm."
Sarah stared at nothing.
"Mom."
"Claire."
"You."
Mark answered softly.
"Yes."
"What were you doing?"
"Arguing."
"About the loan?"
"About whose name we were going to use."
Sarah felt the floor disappear beneath her.
"Whose idea was mine?"
Mark did not answer.
"Mark."
A small click sounded on the line.
"I'll send you something."
The call ended.
Ten seconds later, a video file arrived from an unknown number.
Sarah forwarded it immediately to Officer Torres before opening it.
Then she pressed play.
The video appeared to have been recorded secretly from inside Richard's study during the storm three weeks earlier.
The angle was low.
A phone hidden on a shelf.
Margaret stood at the desk.
Claire paced behind her.
Mark was partially visible near the window.
Rain hammered the glass.
Margaret held a pen over the corporate resolution.
Claire's voice was clear.
"If we use my name, Northstar will trace the old transfers."
Mark answered.
"Then don't use yours."
Margaret looked up.
"We use Sarah."
Sarah stopped breathing.
Claire stared at her mother.
"She'll never agree."
Margaret's reply came without hesitation.
"She doesn't need to."
After Mark's call, Sarah replayed his wording before she replayed the video.
I did not create the plan to use you.
He had avoided saying he never used her.
He had admitted enough to sound truthful while reserving room for his own guilt.
Grant noticed the same thing.
"People cooperating late often tell the truth in pieces that benefit them."
Sarah looked at the blank screen after the first clip ended.
"So how do I know which piece to believe?"
"You don't."
Grant's answer was immediate.
"You corroborate it."
Officer Torres traced the file transfer.
The video had been uploaded from public Wi-Fi at a truck stop near the state line.
Security footage showed a man in a baseball cap using a laptop in a corner booth.
The image was grainy, but the height and build were consistent with Mark.
He was close enough to flee across state lines.
He was also close enough to keep watching the case.
Sarah felt anger at the control he still tried to maintain from a distance.
Then Lily walked into the hotel room carrying the stuffed rabbit.
"Mommy, is Uncle Mark hiding?"
Sarah turned off the laptop.
"The police are looking for him."
Lily climbed onto the chair.
"Owen says hiding makes it worse."
Sarah almost smiled at the irony.
"Sometimes it does."
Lily looked at the paused image of the storm video before Sarah could close it completely.
Margaret was at the desk.
Claire was behind her.
A sliver of Mark's shirt showed near the window.
Lily pointed.
"That's not where Uncle Mark was."
Sarah froze.
"What do you mean?"
"When Grandma's watch broke."
"Where was he?"
Lily pointed toward the opposite side of the room.
"By Grandpa's books."
Sarah stared at the video angle.
If Lily's memory was correct, the clip had been recorded at a different moment than the exact instant Margaret struck the watch.
There was more footage.
May you like
Mark was not merely hiding context.
He was selecting it.
