Chapter 10 - The Motel Room Is Empty
Daniel did not go alone.
He let Eleanor believe he did.
Charles sat beside him in the SUV while Marcus followed nearly a mile
behind in an unmarked vehicle.
Vanessa remained at the mansion with Lily and Evelyn.
Daniel hated leaving his daughter.
But if Rachel was truly alive, he needed answers.
Room 12 at the roadside motel stood open.
Daniel entered first.
“Rachel?”
No response.
Charles remained near the door.
The room smelled of coffee and bleach.
A half-finished cup sat on the nightstand.
Still warm.
Daniel touched it.
“She was here.”
Charles checked the bathroom.
Empty.
On the bed lay a red scarf.
Daniel recognized it.
Rachel had worn it on their first winter trip to Boston.
He picked it up.
Beneath it was a phone.
The screen illuminated.
PLAY ME.
Daniel pressed the video.
Rachel appeared.
Not an old recording.
She wore the same jacket shown in the photograph sent less than an hour
earlier.
“Daniel.”
His throat closed.
“I’m sorry.”
He sat on the edge of the bed.
Rachel looked directly into the camera.
“If you’re seeing this, Eleanor intercepted my attempt to contact you.”
Daniel glanced at Charles.
Rachel continued.
“She wants Charles here because he has something she needs.”
Daniel looked at his father.
“What?”
Charles said nothing.
Rachel answered from the screen.
“A ledger.”
Charles closed his eyes.
Daniel stood.
“What ledger?”
Rachel continued.
“The original Northstar ledger contains names, payments, judges,
doctors, police officers, corporate donors, and every person the Mercer
network ever disappeared.”
Daniel stared at Charles.
“You have it.”
Charles remained silent.
Rachel’s recording continued.
“Charles took it from Eleanor in 1989.”
Daniel frowned.
“From Eleanor?”
Rachel nodded as though anticipating him.
“Daniel, the story you’ve heard is backwards. Eleanor did expose the
network. But she didn’t destroy it.”
Charles whispered, “She took it over.”
Daniel felt cold.
Rachel said the same words a second later.
“She took it over.”
The recording explained what Charles had been too ashamed to admit.
Their father had created Northstar’s predecessor to hide scandals
involving wealthy clients.
Eleanor discovered the operation.
At first, she tried to expose it.
Then she realized how powerful the information was.
She began using the files to blackmail the same people she claimed she
wanted to stop.
Charles stole the ledger and tried to dismantle the network.
Eleanor vanished.
But she had not run.
She had rebuilt.
Daniel looked at Charles.
“Why didn’t you go to the FBI?”
“Because half the names in that ledger were people who could bury us
before breakfast.”
“So you hid it?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
Charles looked away.
Daniel grabbed his jacket.
“Where?”
“Somewhere Eleanor will never find it.”
A sound came from the bathroom.
Both men turned.
Daniel drew the handgun Marcus had insisted he carry.
“Come out.”
The bathroom mirror shifted.
A hidden connecting panel opened.
Rachel stepped through.
Daniel forgot how to breathe.
She looked older.
Her hair was shorter, threaded with gray.
A thin scar crossed her jaw.
But it was Rachel.
For nine years he had imagined what he would say if given one more
minute with her.
Now he had nothing.
Rachel’s eyes filled.
“Hi.”
Daniel crossed the room.
For a moment it looked as though he might embrace her.
Instead he stopped three feet away.
“You’re alive.”
“Yes.”
“You let Lily grow up without you.”
Rachel flinched.
“Yes.”
“You let me tell her you were dead.”
“I know.”
“You let me marry your friend.”
Rachel looked at Vanessa’s ring on his hand.
“I know.”
Daniel’s voice broke.
“Why?”
Rachel stepped closer.
“Because every time I tried to come home, someone near you died.”
Daniel stared.
She told him about a federal investigator killed in a supposed robbery.
A Northstar nurse who vanished.
A journalist whose house burned two days before publishing.
“Eleanor wanted me alive,” Rachel said. “She wanted the ledger. As long
as I stayed away from you, she watched me instead of Lily.”
Daniel shook his head.
“You made that choice for all of us.”
“Yes.”
“You should have trusted me.”
“I should have.”
That admission hurt more than an excuse.
Charles stepped forward.
“Rachel, how did Eleanor find Evelyn?”
“She didn’t.”
Everyone froze.
Rachel looked at Daniel.
“Someone else did.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
Marcus entered from the exterior door.
Rachel saw him and raised her gun.
“Don’t move.”
Marcus stopped.
Daniel looked between them.
“Rachel said Marcus wasn’t involved.”
“She was wrong,” Rachel said.
Marcus slowly lifted his hands.
“Rachel.”
“Tell him.”
“Tell me what?”
Rachel’s gun remained steady.
“Marcus has been sending Eleanor information for years.”
Daniel looked at his best friend.
Marcus did not deny it.
Then he said quietly, “Because she has my daughter.”
Daniel stared.
“You don’t have a daughter.”
Marcus’s face crumpled.
“I do.”
Outside, tires screamed across the parking lot.
Rachel looked through the curtain.
“Too late.”
Three black SUVs entered the motel lot.
May you like
And Marcus whispered the words Daniel least wanted to hear.
“She found us.”
