Chapter 6 - Olivia Had Hidden Her Own Plan
Olivia did not deny it.
She had sent instructions through Samuel telling him to keep Maya
assigned near the basement.
But she swore she never ordered thirty-six-hour shifts.
“Mom made me promise,” Olivia said. “If Eleanor’s family ever returned,
I was supposed to guide them to the blue room.”
“You guided an exhausted employee into a trap.”
“I didn’t know Samuel was changing the hours.”
Julian believed her emotion.
He did not yet trust her explanation.
Evan verified that Olivia’s original messages specified locations, not
overtime.
Someone had combined her secret plan with Raymond’s.
That someone had access to both sides.
The answer appeared in Samuel’s communication records.
Julian’s executive assistant, Grace Holloway, had received copies of
Olivia’s messages.
Grace had worked beside Julian for eleven years.
Her office was empty.
Her computer had been wiped.
A paper calendar in the recycling bin marked Maya’s shifts, Olivia’s
trips, and Julian’s travel.
Grace had expected all three Mercers to be away the night Maya
collapsed.
Authorities located her in Philadelphia.
She surrendered through counsel.
Then she told Julian something he never expected.
Her father was Robert Vale.
The supposedly dead brother of Rebecca Vale—Margaret Mercer’s hidden
sister.
Grace had taken the job to watch Mercer Capital from inside.
She was not working for Raymond.
She was investigating him.
“You lied to me for eleven years,” Julian said.
“Yes.”
“Did you order Maya’s overtime?”
“No.”
“Did you try to move her toward the blue room?”
“Yes.”
Julian laughed bitterly.
Two secret protectors had unknowingly created the perfect structure for
an attacker.
Grace gave Nora an encrypted drive.
It contained a message from Raymond:
IF MAYA OPENS THE ROOM BEFORE THE VOTE, TRIGGER THE THEFT PROTOCOL.
The theft protocol was a prewritten police complaint accusing Maya of
stealing corporate records.
It had been drafted before Maya applied for the job.
Someone knew she was coming.
Maya remembered an elderly hospice volunteer who visited Eleanor near
the end.
His first name was Robert.
Grace went pale.
“My father died when I was nine.”
Maya opened Eleanor’s hospice visitor log.
Robert Vale had signed in six times.
May you like
The last visit was two days before Eleanor died.
Another dead person had just walked back into the story.
