Chapter 5 - the man above the staircase
David saw only a flicker of metal before he moved.
He guided Sarah behind a marble column and pulled Victoria with him as a shot struck the floor where they had been standing.
The sound exploded through the mansion.
Victoria screamed.
“Marcus!” she shouted. “What are you doing?”
Marcus appeared at the top of the staircase, one hand gripping the railing and the other holding the weapon.
He was thinner than the photograph in the investigation file. His dark suit hung loosely on his shoulders, and sweat shone across his forehead.
“You said he would not return until next week,” Marcus said.
Victoria stared up at him.
“I did not know.”
“You were supposed to finish the transfer.”
“I almost did.”
David kept himself between Sarah and the staircase.
“Put the weapon down.”
Marcus laughed once.
“You think the uniform gives you authority here?”
“No. But it tells you I have spent years watching frightened men make bad decisions. You still have time to make a better one.”
Marcus descended one step.
“The document.”
Sarah held it against her chest.
David lowered his voice.
“Mom, stay behind me.”
Victoria looked from Marcus to the locked front doors.
“This was not our arrangement.”
Marcus’s face twisted.
“Our arrangement ended when you failed.”
“I gave you access to the house.”
“You gave me delays.”
“She would not sign.”
“You said you could control her.”
David glanced toward Victoria.
“You imprisoned my mother.”
Victoria said nothing.
Marcus descended another step.
“Give me the document, Mrs. Mercer.”
Sarah’s voice shook, but she remained upright.
“No.”
“You do not even know what it is.”
“I know you are willing to kill for it.”
Marcus raised the weapon.
David watched his eyes rather than his hand. Fear made people focus on the object that could hurt them. Training taught him to watch intent.
Marcus’s attention shifted briefly toward the front windows.
A vehicle was approaching outside.
David heard tires on the gravel.
Marcus heard them too.
He fired toward the security panel beside the staircase. Sparks erupted, and the foyer lights went dark.
The front doors remained locked.
Only the dramatic sunlight through the high windows illuminated the room.
Marcus ran down the remaining steps.
David pushed Sarah toward the corridor.
“Kitchen door,” he told her. “Go.”
Victoria grabbed David’s sleeve.
“He will kill me.”
“Then move.”
They reached the corridor as Marcus fired again.
A framed portrait shattered behind them.
Sarah stumbled.
David caught her and pulled both women into the library. He locked the door, then pushed a heavy table against it.
“Is there another exit?” he asked.
Sarah pointed toward the fireplace.
“Your father built a service passage behind the panel.”
Victoria looked at her sharply.
“You told me there were no hidden passages.”
Sarah met her gaze.
“You never asked politely.”
David found the release lever behind a row of books. A narrow section of the wall opened into darkness.
The library door shook as Marcus struck it from the other side.
David handed Sarah his phone.
“Go into the passage. Call Colonel Pierce.”
Sarah accepted it.
“What about you?”
“I am coming behind you.”
Victoria refused to move.
“You do not understand,” she whispered. “If Marcus is here, the others already know.”
“What others?”
The door shook again.
Wood cracked near the lock.
Victoria looked toward the transfer document.
“Eleanor Price was not one person.”
David stared at her.
“It was a program,” she continued. “A network of identities used to move money through dead beneficiaries.”
“Who controls it?”
Victoria swallowed.
“Your father did.”
The pounding against the library door stopped.
Silence filled the corridor outside.
Then Marcus spoke through the broken wood.
“She is lying, Captain Mercer.”
David turned toward the door.
Marcus’s voice became almost gentle.
“Ask your mother why Henry Mercer really built the hidden passage.”
Sarah stood inside the opening, pale and motionless.
May you like
David looked at her.
For the first time since he returned, his mother would not meet his eyes.
