Chapter 6 - The Woman in the Red Coat
Samuel did not move toward Rebecca.
He shifted slightly so that Evelyn remained behind him.
Rebecca held the closed syringe case at her side. Her expression was not angry. That made her more dangerous.
“Put it down,” Samuel said.
“You assume it’s for you.”
“You’ve been drugging my mother.”
“I’ve been keeping her calm.”
“You locked her in a room.”
“She kept trying to expose things she did not understand.”
“She understands who you are.”
Rebecca’s face changed at the sound of her real name.
Evelyn stepped closer to Samuel.
“Rachel is alive,” Samuel said.
Rebecca’s gaze flickered toward the floor grate.
Only once.
It was enough.
“You’ve been communicating with Saint Orison through the house,” he continued. “The payments, the intercom, the recordings. Keller built this system to control everyone from one place.”
“You have no idea what Keller built.”
“Then explain it.”
Rebecca laughed softly.
“You still think this began with property and money.”
“Didn’t it?”
“The Reed estate is useful, but it was never the objective.”
“What was?”
“You.”
A car door slammed outside.
Rebecca looked toward the window.
For the first time, she appeared unsettled.
A woman in a red coat crossed the front lawn and climbed the porch steps. Samuel recognized Nora.
Rebecca closed the syringe case and hid it inside a cabinet.
“Send her away.”
“No.”
“If Nora enters this house, Keller will know she chose your side.”
“I thought she already had.”
“You don’t understand Nora’s side.”
The doorbell rang.
Samuel went downstairs while Evelyn remained in the library passage.
Rebecca followed at a distance.
Nora stood on the porch with rain on her coat.
“You weren’t supposed to come here,” Samuel said.
“You weren’t answering.”
“My phone is being watched.”
“So is mine. Keller moved the competency hearing.”
“To when?”
“Seven tomorrow morning. Private courtroom. He claims your mother is at immediate risk.”
Rebecca appeared behind Samuel.
“Nora,” she said.
The two women looked at each other with the recognition of former allies.
Nora stepped inside without being invited.
“Rebecca.”
Samuel locked the front door.
“How do you know each other?”
Nora removed her wet coat.
“We worked for your father.”
Rebecca gave a cold smile.
“That is one version.”
“Tell me another,” Samuel said.
Rebecca walked into the sitting room.
“Your father discovered Keller’s operation after Rachel contacted him. He recruited Nora to help copy legal records. He recruited me because I could enter places Rachel could not.”
“Because you looked like her.”
“Because people saw what they expected to see.”
“You replaced her after the accident.”
“I kept Keller from realizing she had survived.”
“For twelve years?”
“At first, it was supposed to last twelve days.”
Samuel stared at her.
Rebecca continued.
“Rachel had stolen Keller’s central archive. She planned to deliver it to federal investigators. Keller forced her car off the road before she could reach them. You were driving. You were injured. Rachel escaped, but she knew Keller would search every hospital and police station.”
“So you took her place.”
“I entered your hospital room wearing her coat. Your memory was fragmented. Keller believed Rachel was under observation, exactly where he could see her.”
“And the body?”
“A Keller employee died in the crash. Your father changed the identification to make Keller believe you were dead for three days. It gave Rachel time to disappear.”
Nora looked at Rebecca.
“You left out the part where Keller bought you.”
Rebecca’s eyes hardened.
“He found my mother.”
“Rachel’s mother too,” Nora said. “You chose to cooperate.”
“I chose to keep her alive.”
“Who?”
Rebecca did not answer.
Samuel stepped closer.
“My wife?”
“You never married Rachel.”
“I married her name.”
Rebecca looked away.
The sentence hurt more because it was true.
Every anniversary, every shared breakfast, every night spent waiting for a call during deployment had belonged to a woman performing someone else’s life.
“Why imprison my mother?”
“Because she found the recording your father left. She threatened to go public before we knew where Keller kept Rachel.”
“We?”
Rebecca looked toward Nora.
Nora’s face became still.
Samuel understood.
“You two were still working together.”
“Until six months ago,” Nora said. “Rebecca began moving money through your identity. She stopped sharing information.”
“I needed funds Keller could not trace.”
“You borrowed against Evelyn’s home.”
“To pay Saint Orison.”
“For Rachel’s imprisonment?”
“For her protection.”
Samuel almost laughed.
“You expect me to believe Keller accepts monthly payments to protect a prisoner from himself?”
“No,” Rebecca said. “The payments go to someone inside the facility.”
“Who?”
Before she could answer, every light in the house went out.
The security system emitted a low tone.
Then the electronic locks engaged.
A man’s voice came through the hidden speakers.
“Good evening, Samuel.”
Dr. Keller.
Samuel moved toward the window, but steel shutters began descending over the glass.
Keller continued.
“You were told not to involve Nora.”
Nora reached inside her coat and removed a small recording device.
Rebecca stared at it.
“You brought a transmitter?”
“I brought insurance.”
“You brought him here.”
A smell of smoke entered the room.
Samuel ran toward the staircase.
The smoke was not coming from a fire. It was being pumped through the ventilation system.
Keller’s voice remained calm.
“The hearing will proceed without unnecessary witnesses.”
Nora collapsed first.
Rebecca caught the edge of a chair.
Samuel pulled his collar over his mouth and reached for the alarm panel.
The screen displayed a single message.
SECOND AUTHORIZATION ACCEPTED.
Below it was the false signature Keller had asked him to write.
The deliberate difference Samuel had placed in his name had not protected him.
It had activated something.
His vision blurred.
Rebecca fell to her knees.
Before Samuel lost consciousness, she reached into her pocket and pressed a key into his hand.
“Your mother was right,” she whispered.
“About what?”
Rebecca’s voice seemed to come from far away.
“I’m not your wife.”
May you like
Her fingers closed around his.
“But Rachel isn’t either.”
