Chapter 6 - The Woman Who Was Supposed to Be Dead
For fifteen years, Lena had believed three things about her mother.
Her name was Sarah Mercer.
She had died in a car accident outside Albany.
And the reason Lena remembered almost nothing about the funeral was because grief sometimes erased entire days.
Now she stood in a dripping freight tunnel beneath Warehouse Seventeen while Dominic Vale told her the first truth was real and the other two were not.
“You're lying.”
“I wish I were.”
“You don't know my mother.”
“I knew her before you were born.”
Lena stepped back.
One of Dominic's security men lowered his flashlight.
Hallie sat against the tunnel wall wrapped in a coat, watching them with confused, frightened eyes.
This wasn't the place.
But there wasn't going to be a good place.
“My grandmother identified her body.”
“No.”
“My father buried her.”
“No.”
“I stood at the grave.”
“The coffin was closed.”
Lena's stomach turned.
“How do you know that?”
Dominic hesitated.
“Because I paid for the funeral.”
She hit him.
The sound cracked through the tunnel.
Nobody moved.
Dominic didn't defend himself.
Lena's palm burned.
“You had no right.”
“I know.”
“Who are you?”
“Someone who failed your mother.”
“What did you do?”
“We need to leave.”
“What did you do?”
Dominic looked at her.
“Your mother worked for me.”
The rain outside grew louder.
“Doing what?”
“She was an accountant.”
Lena laughed once.
“My mother cleaned hotel rooms.”
“She did after she left.”
“Left what?”
“My organization.”
There was the word again.
This time it carried weight.
“Sarah discovered money moving through companies that shouldn't have been moving.”
“Illegal money?”
“Yes.”
“Yours?”
“Some.”
The answer was so simple it angered her more.
“She wanted out?”
“She wanted more than that.”
“What?”
“To expose someone.”
“Who?”
Dominic looked toward the dark tunnel behind them.
“Elias Kane.”
The pieces rearranged themselves.
Long before Rook.
Long before Lakewood.
There had been Sarah.
“Why?”
“Elias was stealing from me. But theft wasn't what frightened her.”
“What was?”
“He was selling information.”
“To who?”
“Anyone who paid.”
“About you?”
“About employees. Families. Police contacts. Judges. Business owners. Routes.”
Lena thought about Hallie being photographed outside the subway.
“People's weaknesses.”
“Yes.”
“Did my mother tell you?”
“She tried.”
“Tried?”
“I didn't believe her.”
The words were quiet.
Lena stared at him.
“Why not?”
“Because Elias had been beside me since I was twenty-eight. Sarah had worked with us less than three years.”
“So you trusted him.”
“Yes.”
“And she paid for it.”
Dominic didn't answer.
That was answer enough.
“What happened?”
“She took copies of records and ran.”
“With me?”
“Yes.”
“My father?”
“Your father was already dead.”
Lena's chest tightened.
“My father died when I was seventeen.”
“No.”
She could barely breathe.
“What?”
“The man you knew as your father was Sarah's older brother.”
The tunnel vanished around her.
No.
Uncle Daniel.
Except he hadn't been Uncle Daniel.
He'd been Dad.
The man who taught her to drive.
The man whose hands smelled like sawdust and wintergreen gum.
The man buried ten years ago after a heart attack.
“My grandmother…”
“Knew.”
Lena put one hand against the wall.
Hallie whispered, “Maybe we should—”
Dominic raised a hand gently.
Lena stared at the wet concrete.
“So everybody knew except me.”
“They were protecting you.”
“Don't say that.”
“Lena—”
“Don't ever say that to me.”
Her voice cracked.
“People use that word when they want to make lying sound noble.”
Dominic accepted it.
“You're right.”
“Where is she?”
“Your mother?”
“Yes.”
“I don't know.”
“You just told me she’s alive.”
“I told you she didn't die in that crash.”
“Then where is she?”
“I've been looking for fifteen years.”
Lena looked up.
“Why?”
“Because Sarah had something Elias wanted.”
“The records?”
“More than records.”
“What?”
“I don't know.”
She laughed bitterly.
“You're not very good at knowing things for a powerful man.”
“No.”
For the first time, Dominic's answer sounded like punishment he had been giving himself for years.
Outside the tunnel, tires screamed on wet pavement.
Dominic's security men moved instantly.
One spoke into his radio.
“Police perimeter established.”
Hallie closed her eyes in relief.
Fletcher would get his daughter back.
But Lena's world had just been taken apart.
Dominic's man escorted Hallie toward the river exit.
Lena remained.
“You brought Rook here because of my mother?”
“Yes.”
“Why would a blind dog help you find her?”
“Because Rook knew her scent.”
Lena froze.
“What?”
“Sarah met Rook years ago.”
“When?”
“After Elena died.”
“That was four years ago.”
“Yes.”
“So you found my mother?”
“For eleven minutes.”
Lena stared.
“Where?”
“A church in Vermont.”
Her breath stopped.
“What church?”
“Saint Michael's.”
Lena knew it.
Five miles from her grandmother's farm.
“She contacted me through a priest. Said she was ready to give me evidence if I agreed to protect you.”
“Me?”
“You were never supposed to know she was alive.”
Lena laughed shakily.
“Everybody seems very committed to that.”
“She believed knowing would put you in danger.”
“It did anyway.”
“Yes.”
Dominic continued.
“I brought Rook because Sarah didn't trust my people.”
“But she trusted the dog.”
“She loved animals. Rook remembered her.”
“What happened?”
“She never arrived.”
“You said eleven minutes.”
“Rook found her scent outside the church. Fresh.”
Dominic's eyes darkened.
“We followed it to a roadside pullout. Found blood. A broken phone. No Sarah.”
“And you didn't tell me?”
“She made me promise.”
“Before disappearing?”
“She left a message.”
“What message?”
“Protect Lena. Don't bring her into this.”
Lena closed her eyes.
Fifteen years of unanswered questions.
Birthdays.
Graduations.
Hospital forms asking for her mother's medical history.
Every Mother's Day pretending it didn't matter.
Every memory fading at the edges because there was nobody to confirm whether it had happened.
“Then three weeks ago?”
Dominic nodded.
“Rook reacted to a scarf.”
“What scarf?”
“A package came to my home.”
“From?”
“No return address.”
“Inside?”
“A scarf and a keycard.”
“Apex.”
“Yes.”
Lena thought of Rook burying his face in her jacket.
“He knew the smell.”
“He knew Sarah.”
“And the keycard brought you to Warehouse Seventeen.”
“Yes.”
“What did you find?”
“Nothing.”
“Except?”
“Rook found her scent in the south corridor.”
Lena felt cold.
“How old?”
“Impossible to know.”
“And then?”
“We left.”
“Three weeks later Rook vanished.”
“Nine days later he was dumped at Lakewood.”
“And Elias says he took Rook from here.”
Dominic's expression hardened.
“He wants you to doubt me.”
“Should I?”
“Yes.”
That answer surprised her.
Dominic continued.
“You should doubt everybody in this.”
“Including you?”
“Especially me.”
They emerged from the tunnel onto the riverbank.
Police lights washed the rain blue and red.
Hallie was being examined by paramedics.
Fletcher arrived in a patrol car.
He ran toward his daughter.
For several seconds, everything else disappeared.
Hallie saw him.
“Dad!”
He stumbled.
She met him halfway.
They collapsed into each other in the rain.
Fletcher sobbed against her hair.
Hallie clung to him.
Lena watched.
A sharp grief went through her.
Some parents came back.
Some didn't.
A detective approached Dominic.
“We searched the warehouse. Suspects gone.”
“Evidence?”
“Plenty.”
“There's a veterinary torture setup in the south section.”
“We found it.”
“Cameras?”
“Digital unit was removed.”
Lena looked back at the building.
Something bothered her.
Elias had known she would come.
He'd threatened her.
Spoken to her directly.
Why?
She wasn't important until today.
Unless…
Her phone.
She pulled it out.
The messages from the unknown number remained.
Photo of her apartment.
Photo of Hallie.
The warning.
Then another thought.
“Dominic.”
He turned.
“How did Elias know I was at Lakewood?”
Dominic went still.
“Fletcher?”
Fletcher was twenty yards away with Hallie.
Lena shook her head.
“He didn't know my full name until later.”
“Milo's records?”
“Maybe.”
“But?”
“But whoever texted me knew my apartment immediately.”
Dominic frowned.
“Apex has your address.”
“Yes.”
“Mara.”
They both looked toward Warehouse Seventeen.
Lena opened her company employee application.
Her route status showed canceled.
Her account had been disabled.
Beneath it was a termination notice.
Time stamp: eleven minutes ago.
EMPLOYMENT TERMINATED — SECURITY VIOLATION.
Lena laughed.
“Well.”
Dominic read it.
“You're fired.”
“Looks like.”
“For exposing a kidnapping site.”
“Corporate culture.”
Dominic almost smiled.
Then Lena's phone buzzed again.
Unknown number.
A video.
She opened it.
A woman sat in darkness.
Older.
Thin.
Gray threaded through brown hair.
Lena stopped breathing.
She knew the eyes.
Because they were hers.
The woman looked directly into the camera.
“Lena.”
Her knees nearly failed.
Dominic caught her elbow.
On the screen, the woman continued.
“If you're seeing this, then they found Rook.”
Lena made a sound she didn't recognize.
The woman swallowed.
“My name is Sarah Mercer.”
Lena covered her mouth.
“I am your mother.”
The video glitched.
Sarah looked off-camera as if somebody had entered.
Then hurried.
“Do not trust Mara Vance.”
Static.
“Do not trust anyone who tells you this is about money.”
The image distorted.
“There is a ledger, but the ledger isn't the thing they're afraid of.”
More static.
Sarah leaned closer.
“They're afraid of what Rook heard.”
The screen went black.
Lena stared at her reflection.
Rook heard.
Not saw.
A blind dog.
Dominic's face tightened.
“What did he hear?”
Lena looked toward the warehouse.
“I think that's why they tortured him.”
“To make him aggressive?”
“No.”
The realization settled.
“They weren't trying to make him attack.”
May you like
She looked at Dominic.
“They were trying to make him forget.”
