Chapter 3: A Name from the Grave
The Colonel pulled onto the shoulder so sharply that gravel struck the underside of the SUV.
His daughter, Anna, braced one hand against the dashboard.
“Say the name again,” he ordered.
The radio operator hesitated.
“Dr.
Elise Mercer.”
Anna slowly turned toward her father.
“Mercer?”
Colonel Daniel Mercer switched off the engine.
The sudden silence made Anna’s breathing sound painfully loud.
“My mother’s name was Elise.”
“I know.”
“You told me she was gone.”
Daniel’s hand remained wrapped around the key.
“That is what I was instructed to tell you.”
“By whom?”
He looked through the windshield instead of at her.
Anna pulled away when he reached for her hand.
“Do not touch me until you answer.”
“Your mother witnessed something dangerous eighteen years ago.
People were looking for her, and they were willing to use you to make her talk.”
“So you buried her while she was still alive?”
Daniel’s shoulders folded.
He lowered his head until it almost touched the steering wheel.
“You let me put flowers beside an empty stone,” Anna said.
“Every birthday.
Every Christmas.
You stood there and watched me.”
“I was trying to keep you alive.”
“No.
You were deciding what truth I was allowed to have.”
Her words landed harder than any order Daniel had received in uniform.
He opened his mouth, but the radio interrupted him.
“Colonel, you need to move.
Two estate vehicles left through the east gate.
They’re heading your way.”
Daniel started the SUV.
“Route us to Dr.
Samuel Reed’s clinic.”
“That building closed three years ago.”
“The public entrance did.”
Anna pressed her fingers to her swollen cheek.
“Was Mom at that gala because of Julian?”
“I don’t know.”
“You know more than you’re saying.”
“Yes.” Daniel forced the word out.
“And when you are safe, I will tell you all of it.”
A pair of headlights appeared behind them.
Daniel turned down an unmarked service road and killed the exterior lights.
Anna’s phone rang again.
“Don’t answer,” Daniel said.
She did.
Julian Vale’s voice filled the car.
“Anna, your father is frightened because his lies are ending.”
“You hjt me.”
“You were upset and unsteady.”
“I remember your hand.”
“Do you remember what happened afterward?” Julian asked.
“Do you remember your mother standing over you and doing nothing?”
Anna’s breath caught.
Daniel leaned toward the phone.
“Stay away from my daughter.”
“You stole her once, Colonel.
You won’t do it again.”
“What do you want?”
“Bring Anna to the estate before midnight.
In return, I keep your confession private.”
“What confession?”
“The one where you admit that you falsified Elise Mercer’s death.”
The call ended.
Daniel drove through a steel gate concealed behind an abandoned warehouse.
Inside, an older man in blue scrubs hurried toward the SUV with a wheelchair.
“Sam, examine her and document everything,” Daniel said.
Dr.
Samuel Reed looked at Anna’s face.
“I’ll photograph every mark and send the files outside the county network.”
Anna remained in the passenger seat.
“Did you know my mother was alive?”
Sam’s hands stopped on the wheelchair.
“Answer her,” Daniel said.
“Yes,” Sam replied.
“I helped her disappear.”
Anna’s knees buckled as she stepped from the SUV.
Sam caught one arm, but she pushed Daniel away with the other.
“You both watched me grieve.”
“We watched you live,” Sam said softly.
“At the time, we believed those were the only two choices.”
A metal door slammed behind them.
A woman stepped from the shadows, still wearing the dark dress she had worn at the gala.
A silver brooch gleamed at her collar.
Anna stared at the face she knew only from old photographs.
The woman’s lips trembled.
“Anna, I am so sorry.”
Anna took one step backward.
Elise raised both empty hands.
“Before you decide whether you can ever forgive me, you need to know one thing.”
May you like
“What?”
“Julian followed me here.”
