Chapter 6 - THE DOCTOR WHO SIGNED THE DEATH CERTIFICATES
The Rinaldi Medical Foundation opened at eight.
Sebastian arrived at seven twenty.
Not alone.
Megan sat beside him in the back seat.
Vanessa and Daniel followed in another vehicle.
Chicago police already had Evelyn’s disappearance on record, but Sebastian refused to walk blindly into Mercer’s building.
He had given investigators everything.
The cassette.
The photograph of Lily.
The forged school authorization.
The petition.
For once, nobody could accuse him of hiding family business.
But Megan noticed something.
He had not surrendered Antonio’s watch.
Not yet.
“It’s empty,” Sebastian said.
She looked at him.
“What?”
“The watch.”
He opened his hand.
The microfilm had been removed.
He had placed it inside a secure evidence envelope with the police.
“If Mercer wants it, he wants the object, not the film.”
“Why?”
“That’s what we’re going to find out.”
Dr. Charles Mercer waited in the foundation’s private conference room.
Seventy-one.
Silver hair.
Perfect navy suit.
The type of man who could tell you terrible news in a voice that made you thank him afterward.
Megan hated him immediately.
Mercer looked at Sebastian.
“You’ve become your father.”
Sebastian placed the watch on the table.
“My father trusted you.”
“He trusted many people.”
“Where’s Evelyn?”
Mercer’s eyes moved toward Megan.
“Safe.”
“Show me.”
“Soon.”
Megan stepped forward.
“My mother is sixty-seven years old.”
“Sixty-eight.”
The correction chilled her.
He knew too much.
“You touch her—”
“I have no intention of harming Evelyn.”
“You kidnapped her.”
“No.”
Mercer smiled faintly.
“She came willingly.”
Megan stared.
“Why would she?”
“Because unlike you, your mother understands what happens when Isabella’s records become public.”
Sebastian sat across from him.
“What do you want?”
“The watch.”
“It’s there.”
Mercer shook his head.
“What’s inside.”
“Police have it.”
That broke Mercer’s composure.
Only for half a second.
Enough.
“You went to police?”
“Yes.”
Daniel, standing near the wall, almost smiled.
Mercer looked at him.
“You find that amusing?”
“I find it overdue.”
Mercer turned back.
“Then this conversation is pointless.”
He stood.
Megan blocked the door.
“My mother.”
Mercer sighed.
“Evelyn asked me to take her to Isabella.”
Nobody moved.
Sebastian’s voice dropped.
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then how did you take her?”
“I delivered her to an intermediary.”
“Who?”
Mercer looked at Vanessa.
“Someone she knows.”
Vanessa went pale.
“Mrs. Bell.”
Daniel frowned.
“Who?”
Vanessa stared at Mercer.
“Agnes Bell died.”
Mercer smiled.
“So did Isabella.”
The room went quiet.
Sebastian’s patience ended.
He grabbed Mercer’s collar and forced him back into the chair.
“Enough dead people walking around.”
Mercer looked almost amused.
“You inherited Antonio’s temper too.”
Sebastian leaned closer.
“You signed my mother’s death certificate.”
“Yes.”
“You signed my father’s.”
“Yes.”
“Were either accurate?”
Mercer stopped smiling.
“Your father was dead.”
“My mother?”
“No.”
Sebastian released him.
“Why?”
Mercer adjusted his collar.
“Because Isabella asked me to.”
Vanessa stared.
“You helped her disappear.”
“Yes.”
“Then you sold her protected families.”
Mercer’s face hardened.
“No.”
Daniel stepped closer.
“Antonio identified you.”
“Antonio suspected me.”
“The note said the leak had access to security and medical records.”
“So did three administrators, two accountants, a security director, and Antonio himself.”
Megan watched Mercer closely.
He was too prepared.
Too comfortable.
“Then why file the neurological petition?”
Mercer looked at her.
“Because Sebastian has a legitimate medical risk.”
Sebastian laughed.
“I do?”
“Your father had an inherited cardiac condition.”
“Cardiac isn’t neurological.”
“No.”
Mercer folded his hands.
“But the medication you take for migraines can produce episodes that resemble cognitive impairment when improperly combined with sedatives.”
Sebastian stopped.
Megan remembered the pharmacy receipt in Vanessa’s purse.
Three disposable phones.
Medication.
Vanessa stepped forward.
“You told me those prescriptions were necessary.”
Mercer looked at her.
“They were.”
“You gave me pills to put in his evening tea.”
Megan turned sharply.
Sebastian stared at Vanessa.
“You drugged me.”
Her face crumpled.
“I thought they were preventing seizures.”
“For how long?”
“Six weeks.”
Sebastian stepped away from her.
Vanessa’s voice broke.
“You had headaches. You were forgetting meetings. Mercer showed me scans.”
“Fake scans?”
Mercer said calmly, “Altered.”
Daniel cursed under his breath.
Sebastian looked at Vanessa with something worse than anger.
“Did you ever ask me?”
She had no answer.
That was enough.
Megan understood another piece.
Vanessa had participated in the competency scheme.
But perhaps she had been manipulated too.
Not innocent.
Not mastermind.
Answer one.
Open two.
Mercer leaned back.
“The petition was not mine.”
“Your signature is on it.”
“My medical statement is.”
“Which you fabricated.”
“Yes.”
Sebastian’s gaze sharpened.
“So whose plan?”
Mercer looked toward Daniel.
Daniel shook his head.
“Not mine.”
Vanessa whispered, “Mine.”
Everyone turned.
She swallowed.
“I suggested the petition.”
Sebastian stared.
“You?”
“I thought someone inside the company was preparing to remove you permanently.”
“So you decided to remove me first?”
“Temporarily.”
Her voice shook.
“I wanted Daniel controlling the trust because I believed he was the only person Isabella still trusted.”
Daniel looked stunned.
“You thought that?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Isabella told me twenty years ago that if everything collapsed, Daniel would know what to do.”
Daniel laughed softly.
“She hated me.”
“She trusted your guilt.”
That silenced him.
Mercer looked irritated now.
Megan noticed.
He wanted them accusing each other.
Vanessa’s confession had done the opposite.
It had aligned pieces.
Megan looked at Mercer.
“Who gave Vanessa the idea that Sebastian was in danger?”
Mercer said nothing.
“You did.”
Still nothing.
“Who told her he was getting worse medically?”
Silence.
Megan stepped closer.
“You needed the petition filed.”
Mercer’s expression cooled.
“You’re observant for a housekeeper.”
Sebastian’s head turned slowly.
Mercer realized too late.
Megan smiled without warmth.
“There it is.”
“What?”
“The part where you underestimate people because of their job.”
She pointed at Antonio’s watch.
“You don’t want the film.”
“No?”
“You want the watch because you think something else is hidden in it.”
For the first time, Mercer looked at the object instead of them.
Sebastian saw it too.
He picked it up.
Examined the back.
The hidden compartment was empty.
But the watch chain had a decorative gold cylinder near the clasp.
Sebastian twisted it.
A tiny strip of paper slid out.
Mercer stood.
Daniel blocked him.
Sebastian unfolded the paper.
One address.
No name.
Megan recognized the town.
Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.
Below it were four words.
ISABELLA — BLUE HOUSE — JULY
Vanessa covered her mouth.
Sebastian looked at Mercer.
“You knew.”
Mercer stared at the paper.
“No.”
It sounded genuine.
That frightened Megan even more.
If Mercer had not known where Isabella was—
who had?
Sebastian pocketed the note.
Mercer suddenly laughed.
“You think you found her.”
Sebastian looked at him.
“You haven’t.”
“Why?”
“Because July was three months ago.”
Megan’s stomach sank.
Mercer continued.
“And because Evelyn wasn’t taken to Wisconsin.”
“Where was she taken?”
Mercer glanced toward the window.
“Ask the woman who just arrived.”
Everyone turned.
Across the foundation lobby stood an elderly woman in a gray coat.
Thin.
Elegant.
Silver hair cut to her shoulders.
Vanessa whispered, “Agnes.”
The supposedly dead Agnes Bell entered the conference room carrying an old leather handbag.
She ignored Mercer.
Ignored Daniel.
Ignored Megan.
She looked only at Sebastian.
Her eyes filled.
“You have Antonio’s face.”
Sebastian stood very still.
“Where is my mother?”
Agnes opened her handbag.
She removed a blue envelope.
“Your mother asked me to give you this if Charles Mercer ever saw the inside of that watch.”
Mercer’s face changed.
Fear.
Actual fear.
Sebastian opened the envelope.
Inside was a single photograph taken three months earlier.
Isabella sat on the porch of a blue house.
Older.
Silver-haired.
Alive.
Beside her sat Evelyn.
And standing behind them—
Megan’s hand flew to her mouth.
A man in his sixties.
Thomas Cole.
Her father.
Alive.
On the back, Isabella had written:
If Megan sees this, tell her Thomas kept his promise. Tell Sebastian I am sorry I broke mine.
Then, beneath that:
Do not trust Charles. But do not arrest him until he tells you who paid him.
May you like
Sebastian looked up.
Mercer was already running.
