Chapter 5 - Rachel Left Evidence For Daniel
Daniel locked down the mansion.
No one entered.
No one left.
Security swept Lily’s bedroom first.
The photograph had been taken through the window, but the third-floor
exterior wall was nearly impossible to reach without climbing equipment.
Marcus found something worse.
A tiny wireless camera had been concealed inside the carved wooden frame
around Lily’s window.
Daniel stared at the device in his palm.
“Who installed this?”
Marcus shook his head.
“It wasn’t part of our system.”
“When was the last security inspection?”
“Monday.”
“And nobody saw it?”
“It’s professionally concealed.”
Daniel looked at Vanessa.
She stood near the door.
“Was this yours?”
“No.”
“Your answers aren’t worth much right now.”
“I know.”
That quiet admission stopped him.
Vanessa looked at Lily, who sat on the bed holding her stuffed rabbit.
“I deserve that.”
Daniel sent Lily downstairs with a female security officer.
Then he turned to Evelyn.
“Tell me about Rachel.”
Evelyn sat in an armchair, wrapped in a blanket.
A doctor Daniel trusted was already on the way.
“Rachel knew the foundation was being used to move money,” Evelyn said.
“But the fraud wasn’t the part that frightened her.”
“What was?”
“Patient records.”
Charles, seated across the room under guard, gave a tired sigh.
“Daniel, your mother spent years in psychiatric care.”
Evelyn looked at him.
“You made sure of that.”
Daniel raised a hand.
“Dad, speak again and I’ll have them move you downstairs.”
Charles leaned back.
Evelyn continued.
“Rachel found payments connected to a private medical network called
Northstar Behavioral Group.”
Daniel knew the name.
The Mercer Foundation had donated to Northstar facilities years ago.
“They treated psychiatric patients.”
“Some.”
“What does that mean?”
“Rachel believed Northstar was being paid to create false diagnoses and
hold people who became inconvenient.”
Daniel looked at his mother.
“People like you.”
“Yes.”
The room became very quiet.
Daniel remembered signing old foundation reports that described
Northstar as an innovative mental-health provider.
Had he unknowingly helped fund the institution imprisoning his own
mother?
Evelyn reached into the pocket of the oversized sweater Vanessa had
given her.
She removed a tiny brass key.
“Rachel told me if anything happened to her, you were supposed to get
this.”
Daniel stared.
“You’ve had that for twelve years?”
“Almost.”
“Why didn’t you tell me through the wall?”
“Because I didn’t know whether you were alone.”
Daniel took the key.
“What does it open?”
“I don’t know.”
Charles looked at it.
His reaction was tiny.
But Daniel saw it.
“You know.”
Charles looked away.
Daniel crossed the room.
“What does it open?”
“Nothing that matters anymore.”
“Then you won’t mind telling me.”
Charles remained silent.
Vanessa suddenly spoke.
“The train station.”
Everyone turned.
She wiped her face.
“Union Station in Hartford. Old rental lockers.”
Daniel stared at her.
“How do you know?”
“Because Rachel gave me the matching number.”
Vanessa reached beneath her blouse and pulled out a chain.
A small metal tag hung from it.
317.
Daniel felt as if the floor had shifted.
“You knew Rachel?”
Vanessa nodded.
“How long?”
“Before I knew you.”
Daniel stepped back.
His marriage had begun three years after Rachel’s death.
Vanessa had told him they first met at a museum fundraiser.
That had been a lie.
“What were you to her?”
Vanessa looked toward Lily’s empty doorway.
“Her friend.”
Daniel laughed once.
“You married your dead friend’s husband without telling him you knew
her?”
“She asked me to watch you.”
“What?”
“Rachel knew she was in danger.”
Daniel’s anger surged.
“You expect me to believe she assigned you to marry me?”
“No.”
Vanessa’s face hardened for the first time.
“She asked me to make sure you and Lily were safe. Falling in love with
you was the part I never planned.”
Daniel wanted to dismiss every word.
But the hidden room existed.
His dead mother was alive.
His father had lied about her death.
Normal rules no longer applied.
“What’s in locker 317?”
“I don’t know.”
Charles stood abruptly.
The guards moved.
“You are not going to Hartford.”
Daniel faced him.
“Why?”
“Because whoever sent that photograph wants you moving.”
“Maybe.”
Daniel held up the key.
“But Rachel wanted me moving too.”
Charles’s expression changed.
Fear again.
Daniel understood something.
His father was not merely afraid of being exposed.
He was afraid of whatever Rachel had left behind.
Daniel arranged for Lily and Evelyn to remain under guard.
Vanessa insisted on going with him.
“No.”
“Daniel, the station changed its locker system years ago. You need the
old access code.”
“You have it?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Rachel gave it to me.”
Daniel stared at her.
“One lie on the drive and you’re done.”
Vanessa nodded.
They left through the garage with Marcus driving.
Halfway to Hartford, Vanessa finally spoke.
“Daniel, there’s something else.”
He looked out the window.
“Of course there is.”
“Rachel didn’t die in the accident described in the police report.”
Daniel turned slowly.
“What are you talking about?”
Vanessa’s voice trembled.
“She survived the first impact.”
Daniel stopped breathing.
“How do you know?”
“Because she called me afterward.”
The highway lights swept across Vanessa’s face.
“She was alive for eleven minutes.”
Daniel’s hands clenched.
“What did she say?”
May you like
Vanessa looked at him.
“She said, ‘Tell Daniel the crash wasn’t meant for me.’”
