Chapter 9 - The Woman in the Dark Sedan
Police found Celeste Vale’s abandoned office beneath a false name in an industrial district near the river.
There were no files inside.
No computers.
No furniture except a desk and a single chair.
On the wall behind the desk, someone had painted three silver wings.
A hidden compartment beneath the floor contained photographs of Nora taken over twenty-one years.
Nora at school.
Nora entering college.
Nora and Jason leaving their wedding reception.
Nora outside Dr. Keller’s clinic.
Nora asleep beside an open bedroom window.
Someone had been watching her long before Jason’s plan began.
The compartment also held records connected to Mercer Biomedical.
The company had not been sold after Evelyn’s disappearance. Its patents had been divided among shell corporations and quietly licensed to major pharmaceutical manufacturers.
Royalties had continued accumulating.
A private trust linked to Nora’s name held assets worth more than twenty-eight million dollars.
Nora sat inside Laura’s office while a financial investigator explained it.
“My mother left me that?”
“Your mother created the original trust, but the ownership documents are unusual.”
“How?”
“The listed beneficiary is Nora Mercer.”
“That was my name before marriage.”
“The birth date is yours.”
“Then what is unusual?”
“The trust cannot be released until the original identity record is presented.”
“My birth certificate?”
“Not according to these papers. It refers to a Mercer Continuity Record.”
“The record V believes is hidden in the house.”
“Yes.”
“What happens if I die?”
“Control passes temporarily to the trustee.”
“Celeste?”
“Vale Legacy Holdings.”
Nora understood why the company wanted Jason to obtain the house.
If she died and the property transferred to his marital trust, Jason could sell it to Vale Legacy Holdings. Celeste would control both the trust and the location where she believed the record was hidden.
“What would Jason receive?”
“Five million dollars from the insurance policy and ten million from the property transfer.”
“He was going to trade my life for fifteen million.”
Laura said nothing.
“Why didn’t Celeste simply search the house herself?”
“She may have.”
“She entered that morning.”
“We found no evidence that she left.”
“You think she was hiding inside while I was trapped?”
“It’s possible.”
“For how long?”
“We don’t know.”
Nora remembered sounds from that morning.
A faint creak above her while she searched the kitchen.
A dull movement behind the wall near the staircase.
She had assumed the house was settling.
“What if there is another way out?” she asked.
“We inspected the basement and attic.”
“My grandfather renovated the house before I was born. My mother once told me there were spaces even she didn’t understand.”
“Hidden rooms?”
“I thought she was trying to frighten me.”
Laura opened another file.
“We found something in Celeste’s office that may connect to your mother.”
It was a photocopy of a handwritten letter.
The top half had been destroyed, but several lines remained.
If the record survives, Nora must never be told until the third guardian confirms the breach.
Celeste knows the first location.
Victoria knows the second.
I will keep the final key.
The letter was signed E.M.
“Evelyn Mercer,” Nora said.
“That’s our assumption.”
“Who is Victoria?”
“We don’t know.”
“The person using V on Jason’s phone?”
“Possibly.”
“Then Celeste may not have been giving the instructions.”
“She may have been working for Victoria.”
Nora looked at the photograph of the three women outside Mercer Biomedical.
Her mother stood in the center.
Celeste was on the left.
The damaged woman stood on the right.
All three wore the same silver wing ring.
“Could that be Victoria?”
“We’re trying to restore the photograph.”
Laura’s desk phone rang.
She answered, listened, and looked at Nora.
“What is it?” Nora asked.
Laura ended the call.
“A woman matching Celeste’s description entered your house last night.”
Nora’s heart struck painfully against her ribs.
“The house is sealed.”
“She entered through the basement.”
“Did officers catch her?”
“No.”
“What did she take?”
“That’s the strange part. As far as we can tell, she took nothing.”
“Then why was she there?”
“She left something.”
Laura turned her computer monitor toward Nora.
A crime-scene photograph showed a white envelope placed on the bottom stair.
Nori was written across the front.
May you like
Inside was a single sentence.
Ask Jason why he chose a wife who looked like Evelyn.
