The Confession in the Choir Loft
Chapter 07 - The Confession in the Choir Loft
A faint sound came from the choir loft.
Paul Drake lay behind the railing, injured but alive.
He had been struck before entering the chapel.
Paramedics stabilized him.
Before losing consciousness, he whispered:
“Charles did not order the crash.”
Rose felt no relief.
“Who did?”
“Richard.”
Richard Mercer was Charles’s younger brother and chief financial officer of Mercer Rail.
He sat silently through every day of the custody hearing, appearing supportive but uninvolved.
Paul explained that Richard moved pension money through shell companies.
Daniel discovered it.
Charles tried to pressure Daniel into silence, but Richard feared exposure and ordered the brake sabotage.
After the crash, Richard convinced Charles that Rose would use Thomas to seize the company.
Charles initiated the custody plan.
The brothers protected different crimes while assuming they protected the same family.
Paul had hidden proof in the chapel organ.
Investigators opened the lower panel.
Inside were account ledgers and a letter from Richard authorizing “vehicle correction.”
Richard was arrested before sunset.
He blamed Charles.
“Charles created the system,” he said. “I only learned how to survive inside it.”
The distinction did not impress prosecutors.
Charles remained legally separate from the murder conspiracy.
Yet he still forged Thomas’s records, concealed Rose’s marriage, and used the child’s trust to retain corporate control.
The custody hearing resumed.
For the first time, Charles entered the courtroom without his brother beside him.
He looked older.
May you like
Thomas noticed.
He did not move closer.
