Chapter 4 - GRANT MERCER
Police found Grant’s SUV at a gas station eleven miles away.
Empty.
Engine cold.
No Maisie.
No Grant.
Security video showed Grant entering the station alone at 6:18 p.m.
He bought:
water,
a prepaid phone,
bandages.
Then left on foot through the side entrance.
The SUV remained.
That made Lucas physically ill.
Detective Cole asked:
“Did Grant know Maisie?”
“No.”
“Did he have childcare experience?”
“No.”
“Did you run a background check?”
Lucas stared.
“No.”
Grant had been recommended by Elaine.
That shifted the room.
Rachel looked at Elaine.
“How do you know him?”
Elaine did not answer.
Tessa did.
“Uncle Peter used him.”
Peter Hale.
Elaine’s brother.
A former insurance adjuster.
Grant had done surveillance work for Peter during claim investigations.
Mostly legitimate.
Some questionable.
Then police found Grant’s record.
No violent convictions.
But one arrest seven years earlier for:
unlawful entry during a repossession dispute.
Charges dismissed.
Not reassuring.
Then phone records.
Elaine contacted Grant first.
Eight calls over two weeks.
Lucas only spoke to him three times.
Rachel turned to her husband.
“You weren’t running this.”
Lucas looked at his mother.
No answer.
May you like
He had thought he was controlling the plan.
He was not.
