Prescott Had Hidden the Phone, but Not for the Reason I Thought

Chapter 04 - Prescott Had Hidden the Phone, but Not for the Reason I Thought

I did not drag Prescott out of the SUV.

Old Lawson would have.

Old Lawson would have arrived with four men and a conclusion.

Instead I waited for police.

Daniel looked at me like he was meeting someone else.

Elena stayed at the hospital with the twins.

Also good.

Whatever happened in the garage did not need her there.

Prescott surrendered the phone through his lawyer.

No chase.

No gun.

He came out with both hands visible.

Then looked at me.

“Lawson.”

I said nothing.

He looked tired.

Not guilty enough.

Not innocent enough.

At the station, he asked to speak with counsel present.

I was not allowed in the interview.

Correct.

My attorney later gave me what could be shared.

Prescott admitted keeping Genevieve’s phone.

Why?

Because she gave it to him the night she died.

That made no sense.

Then he produced a voicemail she had left him at 9:42 p.m.

Prescott, I’m leaving the phone in the garage locker. Lawson cannot know yet. If I’m wrong, I won’t destroy Franklin’s career over fear. If I’m right, get the twins away from him before you tell Lawson.

Genevieve’s voice.

Alive.

Calm.

Mine disappeared from the room.

The crash happened at 11:18 p.m.

Prescott claimed he retrieved the phone after midnight.

Why not give it to police?

Because it contained evidence of my illegal operations too.

Port payments.

Political favors.

Cash ledgers Genevieve had photographed from my office while investigating whether medical money crossed criminal accounts.

I laughed when my lawyer told me.

Not because it was funny.

My dead wife had been building a case file on me while trying to save our children.

Prescott hid the phone to protect me.

Then lied to me about it.

Protection.

The family religion.

Did he tamper with the brakes?

He denied it.

The maintenance waiver?

Genevieve had asked him to remove the SUV from normal GPS and maintenance tracking that afternoon because she was meeting Elena without my security team knowing.

He used a generic override.

Bad.

Secretive.

But not brake sabotage.

Then money.

Argent Biologics had paid Prescott $1.8 million through a consulting company after Genevieve died.

That looked worse.

He admitted it.

“Crisis-management retainer.”

For what?

To keep the Mercer name out of a pending federal review of Argent data practices.

I had authorized reputation management generally.

Not that payment.

Prescott took it personally.

Why?

Greed.

Not blackmail.

Not noble.

He saw a chance to make money from a mess he was already hiding.

He also agreed to discourage me from requesting outside medical review.

That made my stomach turn.

Prescott insisted he did not know the twins’ inherited condition could change treatment.

He knew Genevieve distrusted Yates.

He knew Argent feared review.

He chose money over questions.

That was enough.

Then Genevieve’s phone.

Digital forensics recovered messages.

Three weeks before her death:

GENEVIEVE: I found Elena Ward.

PRESCOTT: Lawson know?

GENEVIEVE: No.

PRESCOTT: Bad idea.

GENEVIEVE: He will turn this into war before I know what I have.

PRESCOTT: You’re probably right.

I stared at that.

He had agreed.

Then:

GENEVIEVE: Franklin’s office received the amended genetics report.

PRESCOTT: That doesn’t prove he hid it.

GENEVIEVE: I know.

PRESCOTT: Talk to him.

GENEVIEVE: Not yet.

Then, two days before the crash:

GENEVIEVE: Adrian knows I’m looking.

Prescott replied:

HOW?

My chest tightened.

Adrian Vale.

Genevieve’s older brother.

CEO of Argent Biologics.

Uncle to my children.

At Christmas, he sat on my floor letting Blythe paint his nails.

When Jonah lost his hair, Adrian shaved his own head for a month.

I had trusted him because Genevieve did.

Then another message.

GENEVIEVE: Franklin told him.

PRESCOTT: What do you want me to do?

GENEVIEVE: Nothing yet.

PRESCOTT: Genevieve.

GENEVIEVE: I need one more document.

PRESCOTT: Which?

GENEVIEVE: The Argent succession agreement.

I knew the document.

Or thought I did.

Genevieve inherited fourteen percent of Argent when her mother died.

After Genevieve’s death, the stake moved into trust for Jonah and Blythe.

Adrian remained voting proxy until they turned eighteen.

Standard.

Then Prescott’s final reply:

DON’T GO ALONE.

Genevieve:

I’m meeting family. Not an enemy.

I closed my eyes.

Family.

Then Dr. Patel called.

The twins’ genetic results had been confirmed.

The inherited marrow disorder was real.

More important, one prior treatment order had been changed four months earlier after an outside consultant recommended a lower-intensity approach pending genetics review.

The consultant’s note was removed.

Yates reinstated the original protocol.

Dr. Patel was careful.

“This does not prove malicious intent.”

I knew.

“But?”

“It proves someone considered the inherited diagnosis and chose not to follow through.”

“Could that have harmed them?”

“Yes.”

The word was quiet.

Then hospital legal found the outside consultant.

Dr. Samuel Kerr.

Retired now.

He remembered the case because the family name made everyone nervous.

Kerr said he recommended urgent germline review and transplant planning.

Yates told him the family refused genetic disclosure.

My blood went cold.

“I never refused.”

Kerr had an email.

FROM: F.YATES OFFICE

Mercer father declines hereditary counseling. Family requests standard oncology protocol only. Do not contact directly.

I had never seen it.

Neither had Genevieve.

Then Kerr said:

“I thought it was strange.”

“Why?”

“Because the mother had called me privately asking the opposite.”

Genevieve had tried to get the twins out of Yates’s treatment system months before she died.

And somebody told the consultant I stopped her.

The same technique.

Different family.

Make each side believe the other chose the silence.

Then Prescott’s lawyer released one final piece from the recovered phone.

A voice memo recorded by Genevieve at 10:57 p.m.

Twenty-one minutes before the crash.

She sounded breathless.

Angry.

Adrian’s name came first.

Then:

He says the children were never supposed to qualify for the trial data set.

Franklin changed the eligibility file.

If the germline report comes out, Argent loses the pediatric patent extension.

I’m going to Lawson now.

Then a pause.

A car door.

Genevieve whispering:

Someone followed me from Adrian’s house.

The recording ended.

The police crash file said Genevieve drove alone from a charity board dinner.

She had not been at a charity dinner.

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She had been at her brother’s house.

And Adrian Vale had spent two years never mentioning that he was the last known person to see his sister alive.