Chapter 5 - The Woman in the ElevatorThe former nurse agreed to meet in a crowded café in Providence.
Her name was Linda Park.
She was fifty-four and kept glancing toward the windows.
Daniel arrived without a driver.
Sarah joined him separately.
Linda refused coffee.
“I don’t want trouble.”
Daniel placed Evelyn’s photograph on the table.
“You remember her?”
Linda’s eyes softened.
“Yes.”
“When did you last see her?”
“October nineteenth.”
Daniel looked at Sarah.
Evelyn’s death certificate listed October sixteenth.
“Describe what happened.”
Linda folded her hands.
“Mrs. Mercer had improved. She was weak, but she was walking with assistance.”
“Was she confused?”
“Sometimes after medication. Not normally.”
“Medication prescribed by whom?”
“Dr. Marlow.”
“Did you question it?”
“Yes.”
Linda looked down.
“He told me the family wanted her sedated because she was agitated.”
Daniel’s voice hardened.
“My family?”
“He said her son.”
Daniel felt sick.
“What happened on the nineteenth?”
“I was working night shift. Around eleven thirty, two men came with transfer papers.”
“Names?”
“One was Peter Voss.”
Daniel already knew.
“And the other?”
“I didn’t recognize him.”
“Where did they take her?”
“The paperwork said Stonebridge Continuing Care.”
Daniel and Sarah exchanged a glance.
Stonebridge.
Again.
“Does that facility exist?”
Sarah asked.
Linda shook her head.
“I searched later. I couldn’t find it.”
“Why later?”
“Because the next morning, management told us Mrs. Mercer had died three days earlier.”
Daniel stared at her.
“That made no sense.”
“No.”
“What did you do?”
“I confronted Dr. Marlow.”
“And?”
“He told me I was mistaken.”
“Were you?”
“No.”
Linda’s eyes filled with fear.
“I helped put your mother into that elevator.”
Daniel’s hands tightened.
“Why didn’t you report it?”
“I tried.”
“To whom?”
“The state licensing office.”
“What happened?”
“Nothing.”
“Police?”
“I called anonymously.”
“And?”
“Two days later someone left photographs of my daughter outside my apartment.”
Daniel went still.
Sarah leaned forward.
“Do you still have them?”
Linda nodded.
“In a safe-deposit box.”
Daniel realized the conspiracy was larger than one forged letter.
“Would you testify?”
Linda looked terrified.
“No.”
Daniel expected the answer.
Then she looked at Evelyn’s photograph again.
“If she really is alive…”
“She is.”
Linda covered her mouth.
Daniel said quietly, “My mother spent eighteen months believing I abandoned her.”
Linda wiped her eyes.
“I’m sorry.”
“Help me make sure nobody can do this again.”
She looked at him.
Finally she nodded.
“One condition.”
“What?”
“My daughter gets protection.”
“You have it.”
When Daniel returned to Sarah’s office, another discovery waited.
The crematorium listed on Evelyn’s certificate existed.
Green Vale Memorial Services.
Sarah had obtained the authorization form.
Daniel stared at the signature.
His mother’s cremation had supposedly been approved by Graham.
“That’s legal?”
“As acting healthcare agent, under the forged document, he claimed authority.”
Daniel turned the page.
The cremated remains had been released directly to Graham Mercer.
Daniel remembered the mahogany urn at the funeral.
He had carried it.
He had placed his hand on it while guests whispered condolences.
“What was in the urn?”
Sarah answered softly.
“We don’t know.”
Daniel stood and walked to the window.
For eighteen months, the urn had sat in the family mausoleum beside his father.
He had spoken to it.
Apologized to it.
Told it about difficult board meetings.
Told it he missed her.
His uncle had known.
Every time.
Sarah interrupted his thoughts.
“We found another problem.”
Daniel turned.
“The healthcare authorization containing your signature was created from your corporate certificate at 2:14 a.m. Singapore time.”
“I was asleep.”
“Can anyone prove it?”
“My hotel security probably can.”
“That helps.”
“Who accessed the certificate?”
“We’re tracing logs.”
Daniel’s phone buzzed.
Maya.
She had returned to the cottage with food while Evelyn remained at Sarah’s apartment.
Daniel answered.
“You shouldn’t be there alone.”
“I know.”
“What happened?”
“There’s something behind the chair.”
Daniel frowned.
“What?”
“Mrs. Mercer’s chair.”
Maya sounded breathless.
“I moved it to clean.”
“And?”
“There’s writing on the wall.”
Daniel arrived forty minutes later.
Behind the old chair, written faintly in pencil, were dates.
Sixteen months of dates.
Almost every Thursday.
Beside many dates were single letters.
P.
V.
Peter Voss.
Near the bottom, Evelyn had written:
Asked again about Daniel. P says Daniel signed the sale.
Daniel crouched.
“What sale?”
Maya pointed lower.
Another entry.
Graham says after Halcyon, Daniel will have no reason to keep me hidden.
Daniel’s blood chilled.
His mother had seen Graham.
Here.
Inside the cottage.
Directly.
Yet in Chapter 1 she had said she did not know whom she could trust.
She had not denied knowing her captor.
She had been afraid to name him.
Daniel touched the pencil marks.
Maya whispered, “She remembered more than she told us.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Daniel stood.
“Because she still doesn’t completely trust me.”
A vehicle approached outside.
Daniel moved toward the window.
A black sedan stopped beside the abandoned mill.
Peter Voss stepped out.
Gray coat.
Tall frame.
Scarred right hand.
He walked directly toward the cottage.
Daniel pulled Maya behind the wall.
Voss unlocked the front door.
He entered.
Saw the empty chair.
Stopped.
Then his phone rang.
Daniel could hear his side of the conversation.
“She’s gone.”
A pause.
“No, sir. Someone moved her.”
Another pause.
Voss looked around the room.
“I understand.”
He ended the call.
Then he noticed the bread on the table.
He stared at it.
Slowly, he smiled.
“She came back.”
Daniel felt Maya tense.
Voss turned toward the doorway.
“Miss Collins,” he called.
Maya’s face went white.
“I know you’re here.”
Daniel reached for his phone.
Voss continued.
“And if Daniel Mercer is with you, he should know something.”
Silence.
May you like
Voss looked directly toward the wall hiding them.
“His mother isn’t the only Mercer who lied to him.”
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