Chapter 6 - The Wrong Enemy)
Daniel tried tracing the call.
Impossible.
The hidden telephone line had been routed through multiple analog relays and an internet masking service.
Whoever Katherine Vale was, she knew how Haven operated.
Daniel stood inside the secret room staring at Emma’s photograph.
Martin searched the filing cabinets.
Most were empty.
One contained old Mercer Foundation reports.
Another held burner phones with removed batteries.
The final drawer contained a thin file labeled V.W.
Inside was Vanessa’s original employment record.
Not Whitmore Consulting.
Haven.
Her role was listed simply as Liaison.
A personnel evaluation from eleven years earlier described her as “highly effective at trust integration.”
Daniel read the phrase twice.
“What does that mean?”
Martin’s face was grim.
“Exactly what she did to you.”
Trust integration.
Vanessa had not seduced him for romance.
She had infiltrated his life.
But Katherine’s warning confused him.
Stop looking for Vanessa.
Why protect her?
Daniel called Eleanor and ordered the security team around Emma doubled.
Then he contacted a federal prosecutor Martin trusted from law school, Assistant U.S. Attorney Naomi Price.
They met privately at an unused office in Cambridge.
Naomi listened without interrupting.
When Daniel finished, she stared at Rachel’s files for a long time.
“If half of this is genuine, you’re describing a conspiracy that crosses state lines, corporate entities, law enforcement, judges, possibly elected officials.”
“It’s genuine.”
“I believe you believe that.”
Daniel pushed Rachel’s handwritten letter toward her.
“My wife died because of this.”
Naomi did not touch the paper.
“And your fiancée?”
“Vanessa was involved.”
“Involved how?”
“Rachel named her.”
“That proves Rachel suspected her.”
“My daughter says Vanessa locked her inside a wall.”
“That is a prosecutable crime if we can establish evidence.”
“She also took the metal box.”
“We’ll need Emma’s testimony carefully handled by specialists.”
Daniel’s frustration rose.
“Naomi, this isn’t a normal case.”
“Which is exactly why I cannot treat it casually.”
She leaned forward.
“If your story is correct, you do not know who is compromised.”
“That’s what Rachel said.”
“Then stop moving like an angry husband and start moving like a witness.”
The words hit.
Daniel sat back.
Naomi continued.
“No more confronting people. No more private searches unless legally authorized. You give me copies of everything. You keep originals secure. And Emma goes somewhere Vanessa cannot predict.”
“I’m not sending my daughter away.”
“I didn’t say away from you.”
Daniel looked at her.
Naomi lowered her voice.
“I have access to federal witness protection resources before formal enrollment if I can establish credible danger.”
Martin nodded.
“She’s right.”
Daniel hated it.
But he agreed.
That evening, Daniel and Emma were moved to a secure federal residence under assumed names.
Eleanor joined them.
No phones.
No personal vehicles.
No predictable routines.
Emma seemed relieved to be somewhere unfamiliar.
Daniel hated that too.
A seven-year-old should miss home.
Emma feared it.
After dinner she sat at the kitchen table drawing.
Daniel watched from across the room.
She drew three people holding hands.
A woman.
A man.
A little girl.
Rachel.
Daniel sat beside her.
“Sweetheart?”
Emma kept drawing.
“Can I ask you about Vanessa?”
Her pencil stopped.
“Do I have to?”
“No.”
Emma considered.
Then nodded.
Daniel kept his voice soft.
“When she found you behind the painting, what exactly happened?”
Emma looked at the paper.
“I was trying to open Mommy’s box.”
“How did you find it?”
“Mommy showed me the picture before.”
“What picture?”
“The king who never smiles.”
Frederick’s portrait.
“She said there was a secret behind him?”
Emma nodded.
“She said it was our treasure game.”
Rachel had turned it into a game so Emma would remember.
Daniel swallowed.
“What happened when Vanessa came?”
“I heard her shoes.”
“What did she say?”
“She asked what I was doing.”
“And you told her?”
“No.”
Emma’s voice became smaller.
“She saw the box.”
Daniel waited.
“She grabbed it. Then she asked if I found a little black thing.”
“The USB.”
Emma nodded.
“I said no.”
“Where was it?”
“In my pillow.”
Clever girl.
Rachel had trained her better than Daniel realized.
“Then what?”
“Vanessa got mad.”
“How?”
“She squeezed my arm.”
Daniel fought to keep his face neutral.
“She pushed me inside and said I had ruined everything.”
Emma’s eyes filled.
“Then she shut the door.”
Daniel reached for her hand.
“She called somebody?”
“Yes.”
“The Judge?”
Emma nodded.
“What exactly did she say?”
Emma closed her eyes, trying to remember.
“She said, ‘The copy isn’t here. Rachel must have moved it.’”
Daniel waited.
“And then?”
Emma’s eyes opened.
“She said, ‘No, I won’t hurt her.’”
Daniel froze.
“Vanessa said that?”
Emma nodded.
“She said, ‘That wasn’t the deal.’”
A new possibility appeared.
Vanessa had locked Emma in a wall.
That was unforgivable.
But if Emma’s memory was accurate, Vanessa had refused an instruction to hurt her.
“Then what happened?”
“She listened.”
Emma’s face changed.
“She got scared.”
“What did she say?”
Emma whispered:
“She said, ‘You already killed one Mercer child. I won’t give you another.’”
Daniel felt every hair on his arms rise.
One Mercer child.
Thomas had no acknowledged son.
Rachel’s letter said Thomas did.
Daniel leaned closer.
“Emma, are you sure she said child?”
“Yes.”
Daniel stood.
The secure house suddenly felt too small.
He found Naomi in the next room.
“We’ve misunderstood something.”
She looked up.
“What?”
“Vanessa is dangerous.”
“That we know.”
“But she may not be the person who killed Rachel.”
Naomi frowned.
Daniel told her what Emma remembered.
Martin, listening nearby, went pale.
“If somebody already killed one Mercer child…”
Daniel finished the thought.
“Then Thomas’s secret son may be dead.”
Naomi shook her head.
“Or everyone believes he is.”
Daniel looked at Rachel’s letter again.
Find Katherine Vale.
She knows where the Haven records are stored.
Vanessa is dangerous, but she is not the beginning.
A realization hit him.
“Katherine didn’t tell me to stop investigating.”
Martin looked up.
“She told you to stop looking for Vanessa.”
“Because Vanessa isn’t the target.”
Daniel stared at the file.
“She’s bait.”
At that exact moment, one of the federal agents entered the room.
“We have a situation.”
Daniel stood.
“What?”
The agent placed a tablet on the table.
Security footage showed a woman approaching the front gate of Mercer House.
Blonde hair.
Dark coat.
Vanessa.
She looked directly into the camera.
Then she held up both empty hands.
“I know Daniel can see this eventually,” she said.
“I need to talk to him before Judge Colby finds me.”
She glanced over her shoulder.
Then back at the camera.
“And if I disappear, tell him Rachel was right about everything except one thing.”
May you like
Vanessa stepped closer.
“I didn’t kill her.”
