Chapter 5 - THE WOMAN WHO WAS SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD
Detective Torres watched Robert carefully.
“What’s inside the envelope?”
Robert shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
“You just said you could explain.”
“I meant—”
“You meant what?”
He looked toward Evan.
“I made mistakes.”
Evan’s eyes hardened.
“That sentence is getting old.”
Torres opened the envelope.
Inside were three photographs.
The first showed Robert standing outside St. Agnes fourteen years earlier.
The second showed him meeting Judith beside a parked car.
The third was newer.
Much newer.
Claire leaned forward.
“When was that taken?”
Torres turned the photograph over.
A date had been written on the back.
Six months ago.
Robert was sitting in a diner.
Across from him was a woman with dark hair cut to her shoulders.
Her face was partially turned away.
But Evan recognized her profile instantly.
The shape of her nose.
The curve of her chin.
A small crescent-shaped scar near her eyebrow.
He remembered giving her that scar accidentally when they were children.
He had thrown a baseball too hard.
She had teased him about it for years.
“Grace.”
His voice cracked.
Robert sat down.
Claire covered her mouth.
Detective Torres stared at him.
“You met your daughter six months ago.”
Robert nodded.
“Yes.”
Evan’s eyes filled.
“You knew she was alive.”
“Yes.”
“And you said nothing.”
“She asked me not to.”
“Why?”
Robert looked toward Claire.
“Because she believed Judith was watching her.”
Evan stepped closer.
“Then why does the letter say not to trust you?”
Robert closed his eyes.
“Because I failed her again.”
Nobody spoke.
Robert began slowly.
“Grace found me six months ago.”
“She walked into my office after seventeen years and I thought I was seeing a ghost.”
“She told me what happened at St. Agnes.”
Evan could barely breathe.
Robert continued.
“The doctor Judith hired kept renewing the commitment.”
“On what grounds?”
“Delusions. Paranoia. Violent fixation on family finances.”
Claire whispered:
“Everything she accused Judith of became evidence that she was unstable.”
Torres nodded grimly.
A classic trap.
Robert continued.
“Grace eventually stopped protesting.”
“She learned that every time she insisted she was sane, they wrote that she lacked insight.”
Evan turned away.
His sister had been buried alive without a grave.
“She escaped?”
“No.”
Robert shook his head.
“One physician eventually reviewed her original file and found inconsistencies.”
“She was released quietly.”
“Why didn’t she come home?”
Robert looked at him.
“Would you have believed her?”
Evan opened his mouth.
Nothing came out.
Five years earlier, he probably would have called his mother first.
That realization nearly crushed him.
Claire looked down.
She understood the answer too well.
Torres lifted the third photograph.
“What did Grace want from you?”
Robert’s voice became almost inaudible.
“Documents.”
“What documents?”
“Original trust statements.”
“Did you give them to her?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“She discovered Judith had moved nearly nine million dollars through shell companies.”
Evan stared.
“Nine million?”
Robert nodded.
“But money wasn’t what frightened her most.”
Torres leaned forward.
“What was?”
Robert looked toward Claire’s stomach.
“The account activity started before Grace disappeared.”
Claire went still.
“So?”
“So some of the payments weren’t going to companies.”
Robert swallowed.
“They were going to people.”
“Who?”
“Doctors. An attorney. A private investigator.”
His eyes shifted toward Evan.
“And someone named Daniel Cross.”
Evan frowned.
“Who is Daniel Cross?”
Robert’s face collapsed.
“I don’t know.”
Torres clearly didn’t believe him.
Before she could press harder, Claire’s phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
A text.
Everyone stared.
Claire opened it.
A photograph loaded.
It showed the Mercer house.
Taken from across the street.
Taken seconds earlier.
Beneath the picture was one sentence.
YOU SHOULD HAVE LEFT WHEN I WARNED YOU.
Evan rushed to the window.
Nothing.
Torres ordered everyone away from the glass.
Another message arrived.
This one included no photograph.
Only words.
ASK ROBERT WHO DANIEL REALLY IS.
Robert’s legs seemed to weaken.
Evan turned toward him.
“Who is he?”
Robert said nothing.
Claire’s phone buzzed a third time.
Another image appeared.
A birth certificate.
The name at the top:
DANIEL MERCER.
May you like
Date of birth:
The exact same day Evan had been born.
