Chapter 18 - THE LAST SECRET OF THE HAYES FAMILY
The alarm continued for nearly a minute before Mercer switched it off.
He looked pleased with himself.
“An old security system,” he explained. “Very sensitive. It detects movement in areas that should remain sealed.”
Victoria clutched my arm.
“Daniel, we have to go.”
Mercer shook his head.
“I'm afraid that won't be possible.”
He closed the door and locked it from the outside.
I heard his footsteps retreat down the corridor.
For several seconds, Victoria and I stood motionless.
Then she pulled me toward the window.
“There's a way out.”
I examined the room.
The window was reinforced with metal bars, but a narrow maintenance panel sat beneath the radiator.
“What's behind that?”
“A service passage. I used it once when they moved me here.”
I knelt and examined the panel.
It was secured by two screws.
I managed to loosen them with the edge of a metal table leg. Behind the panel was a narrow passage leading into darkness.
Victoria looked at me.
“Can you fit?”
“I'll manage.”
I climbed into the opening.
The passage was cramped and dusty, but it was wide enough to crawl through. Victoria followed, moving slowly and carefully.
We reached a small utility room several minutes later.
A door opened into the rear corridor.
I listened.
No footsteps.
No voices.
We slipped out and moved toward the kitchen, where I found a telephone mounted on the wall.
I lifted the receiver.
No dial tone.
Mercer had cut the line.
I looked at Victoria.
“Do you know where we are?”
“Not exactly. Somewhere outside the city. They moved me several times.”
“Who brought you here?”
“Vanessa at first. Then Mercer.”
“What happened to Eleanor?”
Victoria's face crumpled.
“Is she alive?”
“Yes. We found her at Briarwood.”
She covered her mouth.
“Oh, thank God.”
“She told us what happened to our father.”
Victoria closed her eyes.
“I was afraid she would remember.”
“Remember what?”
Victoria looked at me.
“I was there when he died.”
“I know.”
“No. Daniel, you don't understand.”
Her voice trembled.
“Your father wasn't alone with Vanessa that night. Mercer was there too.”
I felt my stomach tighten.
“What happened?”
Victoria took a deep breath.
“My father had discovered the medical fraud and the financial transfers. He believed he could force them to return the money if he threatened to expose the network.”
She shook her head.
“He underestimated how desperate they were.”
She explained that she had arrived at St. Andrew's Medical Center carrying copies of the original medical report. She had intended to give the documents to my father and then leave the country.
But when she entered the clinic, she heard shouting from the examination room.
My father was arguing with Vanessa.
He demanded that she explain why his medication records had been altered.
Vanessa denied everything.
Then Mercer entered.
He carried a small case containing medical supplies.
Victoria hid in an adjoining office.
She heard Mercer tell my father that the dosage could still be corrected if he agreed to sign the transfer documents.
My father refused.
He said he would rather lose the company than allow the scheme to continue.
Then Mercer administered an injection.
Victoria heard my father gasp.
She rushed toward the door but stopped when Vanessa shouted that she would be blamed if she entered the room.
“Your father collapsed,” Victoria whispered. “Mercer tried to revive him, but he had already given him something that caused his heart to stop.”
I felt as though I had been punched.
“You watched him die?”
Victoria began to cry.
“I was twenty-eight years old. I had been hiding for months. Vanessa told me that if I went to the police, she would make sure I was charged with his murder.”
“Why didn't you tell anyone?”
“I tried. I went to a police station the next day, but Mercer had already prepared the records. They showed that I had entered the clinic under a false identity and stolen medical supplies.”
She wiped her face.
“I was terrified. I thought they would arrest me before I could explain anything.”
“So you disappeared.”
“I thought I could find another way to expose them.”
She looked down.
“Instead, they found me.”
I struggled to control my anger.
“Why did Vanessa keep you alive?”
“Because I knew what happened to your father, and because I had the original report. She needed to know where I had hidden it.”
“Do you still have it?”
Victoria nodded.
“Not the paper copy. But I memorized the details, and I made a recording before they took me.”
“Where is the recording?”
She looked toward the kitchen.
“In the house. Vanessa has been trying to find it for years.”
I felt a sudden surge of hope.
“If we can recover it, we can prove what happened.”
“Not everything.”
“What do you mean?”
Victoria hesitated.
“There's another person involved.”
“Who?”
She looked at me with a mixture of sorrow and fear.
“Our father.”
I stared at her.
“What?”
“Richard wasn't the only person who knew about the scheme. Someone else in our family helped establish it years before he discovered what was happening.”
I thought of my aunt Margaret.
“Who?”
Victoria opened her mouth.
A door slammed somewhere nearby.
Footsteps approached.
She grabbed my hand.
“There's no time.”
We hurried toward the kitchen, but Mercer appeared at the end of the corridor.
He held a weapon in one hand and a small black device in the other.
“Stop.”
We froze.
“You should have stayed in the room,” he said.
Victoria stood in front of me.
“Let Daniel go. He has nothing to do with this.”
Mercer laughed.
“Your brother has everything to do with this.”
He looked at me.
“Your father left a trust containing a controlling interest in the company. If you die, the shares pass to Lily. If Lily is declared unable to inherit, the trust transfers control to the next eligible beneficiary.”
I felt my blood turn cold.
“Vanessa wants the trust.”
“She wants more than the trust. She wants to erase every person who can challenge her claim to the company.”
“Then why hasn't she killed us?”
“Because dead people cannot sign documents.”
He lifted the black device.
“And because there are easier ways to make a family disappear.”
A sharp sound came from outside.
Then another.
Mercer looked toward the front door.
For the first time, he seemed uncertain.
A loudspeaker crackled.
“POLICE! THIS PROPERTY IS SURROUNDED! PUT DOWN YOUR WEAPONS AND COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS RAISED!”
Mercer swore.
Victoria grabbed my arm.
“Now!”
We ran toward the rear door.
Mercer shouted after us, but we were already outside, crossing the courtyard toward a line of trees.
Police officers emerged from behind the stone wall.
Carter was among them.
“Daniel!”
I raised my hands.
“Victoria is with me!”
Two officers moved toward us while others entered the house.
Mercer was arrested near the front entrance.
But Vanessa was nowhere to be found.
Carter approached me.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
He looked at Victoria.
“Ms. Hayes, we need to get you somewhere safe.”
Victoria shook her head.
“Not until I tell you the truth.”
She turned toward me.
“The person who helped Vanessa wasn't your aunt.”
I frowned.
“Who was it?”
Victoria swallowed.
“Your father's younger brother.”
My breath caught.
“Uncle Peter?”
She nodded.
“He helped create the network. He arranged the first transfers, introduced Mercer to the clinic, and helped Vanessa gain access to the company after your father died.”
I stared at her.
My uncle had died five years earlier.
He had been remembered as a generous businessman who helped my father establish the company.
“Why would he do that?”
Victoria's voice fell to a whisper.
“Because he believed the company should have belonged to him.”
May you like
She looked toward the house.
“And because he wasn't the only one who knew that your father had a secret daughter.”
