Chapter 6 - Rachel’s Crash Hides Another Victim
Police reopened Rachel’s crash investigation.
The original report contained inconsistencies.
Two bodies had supposedly been recovered.
Rachel’s identity was confirmed through dental records.
The second identification relied on personal belongings and Marcus’s
statement.
There had been no DNA confirmation.
Daniel Mercer might never have been in the vehicle.
Victoria remembered Rachel meeting Daniel the day before the crash.
He was an independent forensic accountant.
Rachel hired him to trace Harbor funds.
Then he vanished.
Ethan had assumed he died with her.
A search of Daniel’s old records revealed a storage unit still being
paid anonymously.
Inside were copies of Project Harbor documents, photographs, and a
damaged laptop.
One photograph showed Marcus meeting Ethan’s father months before
Richard’s death.
Another showed Sophia outside Harbor’s old research building.
But the most disturbing photograph showed Rachel beside her car on the
morning she died.
A man stood behind her.
Marcus.
Ethan’s hands shook.
“Was he there when she crashed?”
Investigators could not say.
The damaged laptop contained one recoverable audio memo from Daniel.
“Rachel believes Marcus altered the trust files. She also thinks someone
inside Harbor is using Sophia to find Patient 417.”
Noah.
Daniel continued.
“Sophia may not know the full plan.”
Ethan looked at Victoria.
That distinction mattered.
Sophia had done terrible things.
But Marcus might have manipulated her too.
The memo ended with a location.
Blackridge Clinic.
An abandoned Whitmore research facility closed after a fire nine years
earlier.
Police searched it.
In a basement records room, they found sealed boxes Marcus had
apparently been accessing recently.
One contained original Harbor consent forms.
Another contained photographs of Sophia’s mother.
Then investigators found a handwritten list.
Rachel Whitmore.
Daniel Mercer.
Victoria Shaw.
Noah Whitmore.
Four names.
Beside Rachel’s name: SILENCED.
Beside Daniel’s: MISSING.
Beside Victoria’s: ISOLATED.
Beside Noah’s: CONTROL THROUGH GUARDIANSHIP.
Ethan stared at the page.
The wedding had never been the endgame.
It was the final step in a plan Marcus had been building for years.
Then an officer entered.
“We found something else.”
A recent food container.
A blanket.
Prescription medication.
Someone had been living inside the abandoned clinic.
The prescription label read:
May you like
DANIEL MERCER.
Daniel was alive.
