Chapter 6 - The Woman in the Red CoatVanessa sat across from Chloe in a room illuminated by a single hanging bulb.
There were no windows.
No clocks.
No visible doors.
Only concrete walls and a metal table.
Chloe stared at her.
“You're dead.”
Vanessa smiled.
“Apparently not.”
“You died three years ago.”
“I disappeared.”
“Why?”
Vanessa leaned forward.
“Because your husband wasn't supposed to survive.”
Chloe's face tightened.
“What did you do to him?”
“Nothing.”
Vanessa paused.
“Not yet.”
Chloe tried to stand.
Vanessa immediately raised a gun.
“Sit.”
Chloe obeyed.
Her voice trembled.
“You're the reason Daniel's father died.”
Vanessa smiled again.
“You're learning.”
“Why?”
“Because Charles Mercer discovered the second ledger.”
Chloe frowned.
“What is it?”
“Proof.”
“Proof of what?”
“That powerful people have been buying lives for decades.”
Chloe stared at her.
Vanessa continued.
“Doctors. Judges. Police chiefs. Politicians. CEOs. Even federal officials.”
“And Daniel?”
“Daniel inherited the ledger.”
“I don't understand.”
Vanessa placed a photograph on the table.
It showed Daniel as a child.
Beside him stood his father.
And behind them—
a woman.
Chloe's eyes widened.
“Daniel's mother.”
Vanessa nodded.
“She never died.”
“Then where is she?”
Vanessa's smile disappeared.
“She died trying to escape.”
Chloe looked down.
“Who killed her?”
Vanessa whispered:
“Your husband.”
Chloe's head snapped upward.
“No.”
“Daniel was twelve.”
“He couldn't have killed his mother.”
“He didn't know what he was doing.”
Vanessa leaned back.
“His father gave him a choice.”
“What choice?”
“Forget.”
Chloe stared at her.
Vanessa's voice became colder.
“Charles believed memories could destroy people. So he buried Daniel's memories.”
Chloe's heart raced.
“You're saying Daniel doesn't remember?”
“Not everything.”
Suddenly footsteps echoed outside.
Vanessa stood.
“Time to leave.”
“Where are you taking me?”
Vanessa looked toward the wall.
“Home.”
Chloe frowned.
“What home?”
“The Mercer mansion.”
Meanwhile, Daniel raced through the underground tunnel.
Carter and Ruiz followed.
“Where does this go?” Daniel asked.
“According to the old blueprints, beneath the Mercer estate.”
Daniel stopped.
“My father's library.”
Carter nodded.
“That key wasn't for the hospital.”
Daniel looked at the brass key.
“It opens something beneath my house.”
They reached an old elevator.
The doors opened automatically.
Inside was a single button.
M.
Daniel pressed it.
The elevator descended.
Far below the hospital.
Far below the city.
The lights flickered.
Ruiz checked his weapon.
“How deep does this place go?”
Carter looked at the display.
“Three hundred feet.”
Daniel stared ahead.
Then the elevator stopped.
The doors opened.
They stepped into a massive underground chamber.
Shelves stretched into darkness.
Documents.
Boxes.
Hard drives.
Photographs.
Weapons.
Money.
Daniel looked around.
“My father built this.”
Carter shook his head.
“No.”
Daniel turned.
Carter pointed to the wall.
A symbol had been carved into the stone.
A circle divided into four sections.
“We found that symbol in six murder investigations.”
Daniel approached.
“What does it mean?”
“Four families.”
“Which families?”
Carter hesitated.
“Mercer. Blackwood. Vale. And Holloway.”
Daniel's face changed.
“Vanessa's family was Blackwood.”
Ruiz nodded.
“Exactly.”
A sound came from the darkness.
A woman humming.
Daniel raised his weapon.
“Who's there?”
No answer.
Then a voice.
“Daniel?”
His heart stopped.
He knew that voice.
His mother.
“Mom?”
The darkness shifted.
A woman stepped forward.
Older.
Pale.
But unmistakably her.
Daniel lowered his weapon.
“Mom?”
She smiled through tears.
“My little boy.”
Daniel couldn't move.
Carter stared in disbelief.
“Mrs. Mercer?”
She nodded.
Daniel ran toward her.
Then she suddenly screamed.
“Don't!”
Daniel stopped.
His mother looked past him.
At Carter.
At Ruiz.
Then at the ceiling.
“Get out.”
“What?”
“Now!”
The chamber doors slammed shut.
Red lights came on.
A voice echoed through the speakers.
“Subject One has been located.”
Daniel looked at his mother.
She whispered:
May you like
“They found us.”
Then the floor beneath them began to shake.
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