Chapter 8 - The Dead Woman's Warning
Daniel ran.
Detective Morales shouted for hospital security as he tore through the hallway toward the elevators.
The gray-haired woman had vanished.
Daniel reached the corner and nearly collided with a nurse pushing a medication cart.
“Where did she go?”
The nurse stared at him.
“Who?”
“Woman. Black coat. Gray hair.”
The nurse pointed toward the stairwell.
Daniel shoved through the door.
Footsteps echoed below.
He raced downward.
Seventh floor.
Sixth.
Fifth.
A black sleeve vanished around the landing.
“Stop!”
The woman kept moving.
Daniel skipped three stairs at once.
He reached the third floor just as a fire door slammed.
By the time he burst into the parking garage, she was gone.
Cars moved through concrete lanes.
Headlights swept across pillars.
A security guard shouted into his radio.
Daniel turned in circles, searching.
Nothing.
Morales arrived thirty seconds later.
“She's gone?”
Daniel punched the concrete wall.
“She had Sophie's necklace.”
Morales looked toward the security cameras.
“Then she wanted you to see her.”
That landed differently.
Daniel slowly turned.
“What?”
“If she only wanted to escape, she wouldn't stand outside Sophie's room displaying evidence.”
Daniel understood.
“She was sending a message.”
“Yes.”
Nathan appeared behind them, out of breath.
Daniel grabbed his arm.
“Tell me everything about Evelyn Mercer.”
Nathan glanced toward Morales.
“This isn't the place.”
“Then find one.”
Twenty minutes later, they sat inside a hospital conference room while two officers guarded Sophie.
Nathan opened a file he had apparently kept buried for years.
Evelyn Mercer had once been married to industrialist Robert Mercer.
In 2002, Robert nearly died when brake lines on his car were cut.
Investigators discovered Evelyn had recently increased a life-insurance policy.
She was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder.
Robert survived.
Evelyn went to prison.
Anna, then nineteen, severed all contact with her mother.
“But Anna told me Evelyn was dead.”
“She wanted her dead to her,” Nathan said quietly.
Daniel stared at the old photograph.
Evelyn looked elegant.
Cold.
Even twenty years earlier, the scar on her cheek was visible.
“When was she released?”
Nathan looked ashamed.
“Seven months ago.”
Daniel stood.
“You knew?”
“I received notification because Anna's trust documentation named Evelyn as an excluded beneficiary.”
“And you didn't tell me?”
“Anna's instructions were explicit. Evelyn was never to receive information about Sophie.”
Daniel slammed both hands on the table.
“She found her anyway!”
Morales watched Nathan carefully.
“How?”
Nathan looked toward the window.
“I don't know.”
Morales did not believe him.
Neither did Daniel.
A detective entered.
“Morales.”
He handed her a plastic evidence bag.
Inside was Sophie's necklace.
Daniel's eyes widened.
“Where?”
“Front desk.”
Morales turned the bag over.
A folded piece of paper was attached.
She opened it.
Three words had been written in black ink.
ASK ABOUT ANNA.
Daniel felt the room tilt.
“What does that mean?”
Nathan closed his eyes.
And Daniel understood.
The attorney knew.
“Tell me.”
Nathan didn't answer.
Daniel moved toward him.
“What happened to my wife?”
Nathan's voice was barely audible.
“The accident wasn't random.”
Silence.
Morales stopped writing.
Daniel stared.
“You told me the investigation found mechanical failure.”
“It did.”
“Then what are you saying?”
Nathan swallowed.
“Anna came to my office two days before she died.”
Daniel's knees weakened.
“She believed someone was following her.”
“Who?”
“She didn't know.”
Nathan opened another envelope.
Inside was a handwritten letter.
Daniel recognized Anna's handwriting instantly.
He had not seen it in six years.
His chest tightened.
Nathan slid the letter across the table.
Daniel began reading.
Daniel,
If you're reading this, something happened before I could tell you myself.
There are things about my family I hid because I wanted Sophie to grow up without them.
But I think someone discovered the trust.
Someone knows what Sophie inherits.
And I am afraid they may believe her death is worth more than her life.
Daniel stopped.
His vision blurred.
He continued.
Do not trust anyone simply because they share your blood.
And if Evelyn ever returns, listen before you condemn her.
She did terrible things.
But one terrible person may still tell the truth about another.
Daniel lowered the paper.
“Why didn't you give me this?”
Nathan looked devastated.
“Because she returned the next morning and asked for it back.”
“But you kept it.”
“I copied it.”
Daniel was furious.
“You had this for six years.”
“I thought Anna was frightened because of her mother.”
“You thought wrong.”
Morales interrupted.
“There's something else.”
She pointed at the line.
Someone discovered the trust.
“Who knew about it?”
Nathan began listing names.
Anna.
Nathan.
Two trustees.
Daniel's father.
And eventually Beatrice.
Daniel stared.
“When did my mother learn?”
Nathan looked at the table.
“Three days before Anna died.”
No one moved.
Daniel remembered Beatrice arriving at his house the night Anna died.
She had held him while he cried.
She had arranged the funeral.
She had spent six years saying Anna's death was God's will.
Now Daniel wondered whether his mother had simply been consoling the man whose wife she had helped remove.
His phone rang.
Vale House security.
Daniel answered.
“Sir, you need to come home.”
“What happened?”
“We opened the safe from the pool.”
Daniel's pulse jumped.
“And?”
“It's empty.”
Daniel stared at Morales.
“Empty?”
“Except for one thing.”
“What?”
“A photograph.”
Daniel drove back to Vale House with Morales.
Police lights covered the circular driveway.
The home where Sophie had taken her first steps now looked like a crime scene.
The safe rested beside the pool.
A technician had forced it open.
Inside lay a photograph sealed in plastic.
Daniel picked it up.
Anna stood beside another woman.
Not Evelyn.
Beatrice.
They were outside Nathan's law office.
The date printed on the photograph was two days before Anna died.
On the back, someone had written:
SHE ASKED ME TO PROTECT SOPHIE.
Daniel stared at Nathan.
“Did Anna meet my mother that day?”
Nathan looked genuinely confused.
“Not that I knew.”
Morales studied the photograph.
“Who took this?”
A voice came from behind them.
“I did.”
Everyone turned.
Evelyn Mercer stood beside the glass doors.
Three officers immediately raised their weapons.
Daniel stepped forward.
“You stay away from my daughter.”
Evelyn lifted both hands.
“If I wanted Sophie dead, Daniel, you would never have seen me at the hospital.”
“Why were you there?”
“To make sure Beatrice didn't finish what Camille started.”
Daniel's jaw tightened.
“Where is my mother?”
Evelyn smiled without humor.
“You still think she's running away.”
“She disappeared through a tunnel.”
“No.”
Evelyn looked toward the dark windows of Vale House.
“She went to get something.”
“What?”
“Anna's original will.”
Daniel stopped breathing.
Evelyn continued.
“And if Beatrice gets it before midnight…”
May you like
She looked him directly in the eyes.
“…your daughter loses everything, even if she survives.”
