Chapter 10 - The Basement Office Holds Answers
Investigators searched the Northbridge facility under lawful authority.
In the basement office, they found duplicate billing files and a
computer with deleted correspondence.
Digital specialists recovered fragments.
One message from Graham to Peter read:
The Mercer woman has copies. Keep her away from the auditors.
Another referred to “temporary accommodation” for Anna.
That phrase led to a vacant caretaker’s cottage owned by a related
company.
Officers went there.
Anna was not inside.
But they found her scarf, prescription medication, and a notebook filled
with dates.
Lily identified the scarf from a photograph.
Daniel watched Ethan absorb the news.
“Does that mean she’s alive?”
“It means she was there,” Daniel said.
He refused to give the boy a promise he could not keep.
Then investigators discovered a recent grocery receipt in the cottage.
It was dated only two days earlier.
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Someone had been there.
And someone had purchased food for two.
