Chapter 5 - LOCKER 317
Daniel wanted Anna and Lily somewhere nobody connected to the Mercer family.
Anna chose Garcia’s sister’s farmhouse forty miles outside Chicago.
No company property.
No hotel.
No family residence.
No digital reservation.
Moreno approved.
Two plainclothes officers stayed nearby.
For the first time since Daniel found them, the three of them had a room without strangers watching.
The farmhouse kitchen was small.
Old oak table.
Yellow curtains.
A refrigerator covered in grandchildren’s drawings.
Lily sat with a bowl of cereal even though it was almost midnight.
Daniel stood by the counter.
Anna watched him.
“You’re hovering.”
“I’m standing.”
“You’ve moved three times in thirty seconds.”
“I’m uncomfortable.”
“With what?”
Daniel looked at Lily.
Everything.
Anna understood.
She sat beside their daughter.
“Lily.”
“Yeah?”
“Your dad has never done this before.”
Lily looked at Daniel.
“Done what?”
Daniel answered.
“Been your dad.”
“Oh.”
She thought for a moment.
“That’s okay.”
Daniel almost smiled.
“You sure?”
“I’ve never had one before.”
Anna looked down.
The casualness of the sentence hurt both of them.
Lily continued eating.
Daniel sat across from her.
“What do you like for breakfast?”
“Cereal.”
“I can see that.”
“And pancakes.”
Daniel stared.
Anna tried not to smile.
“What?”
He looked at Anna.
“You told her.”
“Told her what?”
“That I like pancakes.”
“She asked.”
Lily pointed her spoon.
“Mom said you make them too thick.”
“That is slander.”
Anna laughed.
The sound stopped Daniel.
Not because he had forgotten it.
Because he had remembered it too well.
Anna noticed him looking.
Her smile faded slightly.
Daniel looked away.
Lily asked, “Do you know how to braid hair?”
Daniel blinked.
“No.”
“You should learn.”
“Apparently.”
“Do you know soccer?”
“A little.”
“Can you ride a horse?”
“No.”
“Can you cook?”
“Technically.”
Anna said, “No.”
Daniel looked offended.
“I survived seven years.”
“That is not the same as cooking.”
Lily giggled.
Something fragile formed around the table.
Not a family.
Not yet.
But the outline of one.
Then Lily asked:
“Are you going to leave again?”
The room changed.
Daniel put his hands on the table.
“No.”
Anna looked at him.
Lily asked, “Even if Mom gets mad?”
“I suspect your mom will get mad several times.”
Anna raised an eyebrow.
Daniel continued.
“I’ll still be here.”
“What if you get mad?”
“I’ll still be here.”
“What if I get mad?”
“Then I’ll probably deserve it.”
Lily smiled.
Daniel’s voice softened.
“I can’t promise nothing bad will ever happen.”
“But I can promise I won’t disappear because things get hard.”
Anna looked away toward the window.
Her eyes were wet.
After Lily went to bed, Daniel found Anna alone on the porch.
Cold air moved through the fields.
“You okay?”
“No.”
“Me neither.”
He sat beside her.
For a while neither spoke.
Then Anna said, “She likes you.”
Daniel looked toward the upstairs window.
“She barely knows me.”
“She’s known the idea of you her whole life.”
“That’s not fair to either of us.”
“No.”
Anna folded her hands.
“I tried to make you real without making you perfect.”
Daniel looked at her.
“What did you tell her?”
“That you were funny.”
“Bad at remembering where you put your keys.”
“That you hated olives.”
“That you loved thunderstorms.”
“That you made coffee too strong.”
“That you always kissed my forehead before leaving for work.”
Daniel’s eyes burned.
“You remembered all that?”
Anna laughed softly.
“I was trying to forget you.”
“I had excellent material.”
Daniel smiled.
Then:
“Did you hate me?”
Anna looked out into the darkness.
“For a while.”
“Because you thought I abandoned you.”
“Yes.”
“What changed?”
“Lily.”
“How?”
“She started asking about you.”
“I didn’t want to poison someone she’d never met.”
“So I began telling her the good things.”
“And while I told her…”
Anna swallowed.
“I realized I still believed some of them.”
Daniel stared at her.
“I never stopped loving you.”
Anna’s eyes closed.
“Don’t.”
“I’m not asking you for anything.”
“It still isn’t fair.”
“I know.”
“You loved a woman who died seven years ago.”
“I’m not her anymore.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
Daniel was quiet.
Anna turned.
“I sleep with a light on.”
“I check the back seat before I get into a car.”
“I can’t hear tires skid without shaking.”
“I hate red coats.”
“I haven’t been on a bridge in seven years.”
“I don’t trust people when they say they’re trying to protect me.”
“I’m not twenty-eight.”
“I’m not waiting for my husband to come home.”
Daniel listened.
Then said:
“I don’t want the woman you were.”
Anna stared.
“I want to know the woman sitting here.”
Her expression softened.
“Slowly.”
Daniel nodded.
“Slowly.”
His phone rang.
Moreno.
“We found 317.”
Daniel stood.
“Where?”
“Union Station.”
Anna heard.
Her face changed.
“The place Price told me to meet.”
Moreno continued.
“Old locker bank in the lower service corridor.”
“Not public anymore.”
“Your number tag matches one unit.”
Daniel asked, “Who owns it?”
“No owner record.”
“Someone has tried to access it twice in the last forty-eight hours.”
“Who?”
“Camera caught Victor Hale.”
Daniel looked at Anna.
“We’re coming.”
Moreno sighed.
“I knew you were going to say that.”
“No Lily.”
“Agreed.”
They left Lily with Garcia’s sister and two officers.
Union Station after midnight felt like another world.
Most public areas were closed.
Moreno led them through a service hallway.
Locker 317 sat at the end.
Old steel.
Mechanical key.
Anna looked at the key bag.
“That’s not the key Jennifer gave me.”
Moreno nodded.
“This one came from her clothing.”
“Maybe she carried two.”
Daniel asked, “Could Victor have the other?”
“If he did, he wouldn’t be trying to force this one.”
The lock opened.
Inside was a red folder.
Nothing else.
Anna stared.
“That’s it.”
Moreno put on gloves.
She removed the folder.
Inside were photocopies of company transactions.
Names.
Dates.
Payments.
Victor Hale.
Adrian Voss.
Shell companies.
But most pages had a handwritten notation.
MERCER TRUST ACCOUNT 44.
Daniel frowned.
“I don’t know that account.”
Anna turned pages.
“Look.”
One transfer happened three weeks before her disappearance.
$2.4 million.
Authorized by Adrian Voss.
Recipient company controlled by Victor.
Memo:
PROTECTIVE RELOCATION SERVICES.
Anna’s face tightened.
“Relocation.”
Daniel’s stomach turned.
Another transfer.
$800,000.
Same memo.
Different name.
Another.
And another.
Moreno said, “This looks bigger than your case.”
Daniel nodded.
Anna turned to the final page.
There was a handwritten note from Jennifer.
If I am right, Voss is not paying Victor to protect people.
He is paying him to remove problems.
Anna stopped.
Daniel read over her shoulder.
Jennifer continued:
I found twelve names linked to relocation payments.
Seven are dead.
Three disappeared.
Two resurfaced under different names.
This is not corporate security.
Someone is using Mercer money to make people vanish.
Daniel looked at Moreno.
“Human trafficking?”
“Maybe.”
“Witness suppression?”
“Maybe.”
“Private disappearance service?”
“Possible.”
Anna turned the page.
A list of names.
The final entry:
ANNA MERCER.
Daniel felt his heartbeat in his throat.
Beside her name:
PENDING.
Then another handwritten note:
REQUESTED BY A.V.
Daniel whispered, “Adrian Voss.”
Anna’s hands began shaking.
Below it:
STATUS: CANCELLED BY M.M.
Daniel stared.
“M.M.”
Anna looked at him.
“Marcus.”
Moreno said, “If that means what it appears to mean, your brother stopped the relocation.”
Daniel’s anger toward Marcus shifted.
Not gone.
Changed.
A final envelope rested inside the folder.
Written on front:
ANNA ONLY.
Anna opened it.
Inside was one letter.
Anna,
If Marcus gets to you before Victor does, trust Marcus.
He is angry with me because I accused him of stealing.
I was wrong.
He found the money too.
He is trying to stop it.
Adrian knows Marcus is looking.
I think Adrian has been using Victor for years.
I don’t know why.
I only know Anna is next because she found the same accounts I did.
If you are reading this, I probably failed.
Do not bring this directly to Daniel.
Not because Daniel is involved.
Because Adrian monitors him.
Find Detective Samuel Price.
Jennifer.
Daniel looked at Anna.
“She was trying to protect me too.”
Anna nodded.
Moreno’s face became serious.
“If Price was the safe contact, we need to understand why he died.”
Daniel looked at her.
“You said car accident.”
“Yes.”
“Could it have been staged?”
Moreno did not answer.
She did not need to.
A sound came from the corridor.
Footsteps.
Moreno raised her weapon.
“Police.”
Nobody answered.
A shadow moved.
Then Marcus stumbled around the corner.
Bruised.
Arm in a sling.
He had left the hospital.
Daniel stared.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
Marcus leaned against the wall.
“Saving you time.”
Moreno lowered her gun slightly.
“You should be in a hospital.”
“I hate hospitals.”
Daniel stepped closer.
“How did you know?”
Marcus looked at the folder.
“I followed Voss.”
Anna stiffened.
“Where is he?”
Marcus’s face changed.
“That’s why I came.”
Daniel waited.
Marcus took out his phone.
Displayed a photograph.
Adrian Voss entering a private hospice facility outside the city.
Daniel frowned.
“So?”
Marcus swiped.
Another photograph.
Voss sitting beside an elderly woman in a wheelchair.
Daniel did not recognize her.
Anna did.
Her face went white.
“No.”
Daniel turned.
“Who is she?”
Anna whispered:
“Dr. Evelyn Shaw.”
The dentist whose records had falsely identified Anna’s body.
Daniel stared at Marcus.
“You said hospice?”
Marcus nodded.
“She’s dying.”
“Voss visited her tonight.”
“And?”
Marcus swallowed.
“I got close enough to hear part of the conversation.”
Daniel’s patience snapped.
“What did she say?”
Marcus looked directly at him.
“She said she never gave police Anna’s dental records.”
Daniel felt cold.
“She said Adrian brought her a file after the crash and asked her to sign a confirmation.”
“She refused.”
Anna stared.
“Then how did her signature get on it?”
Marcus’s answer was quiet.
“It was forged.”
Daniel’s hands clenched.
“So Voss staged the identification.”
“Yes.”
“Did Shaw know whose body it really was?”
“No.”
Marcus continued.
“But she said something else.”
“What?”
“Seven years ago, Voss asked her to keep a sealed medical file.”
“For whom?”
Marcus looked at Anna.
“You.”
Anna stopped breathing.
“Why?”
“She didn’t know.”
“Voss said it had to stay hidden unless Daniel Mercer personally asked for it.”
Daniel frowned.
“Then I’m asking.”
Marcus shook his head.
“Too late.”
“What does that mean?”
“Voss took the file tonight.”
Daniel swore.
Moreno asked, “Where did he go?”
“I followed him.”
“Lost him near Lake Shore.”
“But I saw the file.”
“What was written on it?”
Marcus hesitated.
Daniel stepped closer.
“Marcus.”
His brother looked at Anna.
“Prenatal screening.”
Nobody moved.
Anna whispered:
“I didn’t know I was pregnant until after the crash.”
Marcus nodded.
“That’s what I thought.”
Daniel understood first.
“If Voss had prenatal records before the crash…”
Anna finished:
“Then someone knew I was pregnant before I did.”
The hallway became silent.
Daniel stared at the red folder.
The fake death.
The forged dental report.
The relocation request.
The vanished medical file.
This had never been only about silencing Anna.
Someone had known there was a baby.
Someone had known Daniel Mercer had an unborn child.
May you like
And that information had been important enough to hide for seven years.
---
