Chapter 14 - The Phone in Lily’s Room
The burner phone changed everything.
Someone had entered Lily’s bedroom.
Possibly that night.
Possibly many times.
The phone had been taped beneath the wooden base of her toy box.
Security footage showed nothing.
Her bedroom camera had been disabled months earlier at Daniel’s request because Rebecca had disliked surveillance near Lily.
Now he regretted it.
Owen traced the device.
No subscriber.
No usable location data.
But the message arrived through a private network.
Then another appeared.
YOU HAVE TWENTY-FOUR HOURS.
Daniel typed nothing.
Owen stopped him.
“We watch.”
Five minutes later:
BRING THE BLACKWOOD FILES TO THE OLD MERCER HOTEL.
Daniel frowned.
“I don’t have them.”
Nora whispered, “They think you do.”
“Why?”
“Because Charles may have had them.”
Daniel thought of his father in the hospital.
Still alive.
Still hiding pieces.
Owen called the hospital.
Charles was stable.
Under guard.
Daniel requested video contact.
His father appeared weak.
Daniel held up the burner phone.
“Do you know what they want?”
Charles stared at the screen.
“Yes.”
“What files?”
Charles looked toward the nurse.
Then back.
“Jonathan Blackwood’s archive.”
“Nora’s father?”
“Yes.”
“Do you have it?”
“No.”
“Where is it?”
Charles closed his eyes.
“Your mother hid it.”
Daniel’s chest tightened.
“Where?”
“I never found it.”
“Rebecca did?”
“I think so.”
“Why?”
“The day she confronted me in the greenhouse, she asked why Eleanor Mercer had buried a box beneath the chapel.”
Daniel stared.
“The family chapel?”
Charles nodded.
On Mercer land.
A tiny stone building unused for years.
Daniel grabbed a flashlight.
The chapel stood beyond the eastern woods.
Under the altar they found newer mortar.
Michael broke through it.
Behind the stone was a metal case.
Inside were files.
Old photographs.
Cassette recordings.
Research logs.
And one handwritten ledger.
Nora opened it.
She began crying.
Her father’s handwriting.
Jonathan Blackwood had documented everything.
Names.
Dates.
Payments.
Subjects.
Researchers.
Near the end, a section was titled:
SHEPHERD SUCCESSION.
Daniel read.
Samuel Hart.
Then a second name had been crossed out.
A third was written beneath it.
Daniel stared.
R. MERCER.
Michael whispered, “Rebecca?”
Claire said, “No.”
Daniel knew another Mercer whose first name began with R.
Richard.
Claire’s husband.
But Richard was not born a Mercer.
Then Nora turned the page.
A photograph fell out.
A teenage boy beside Charles Mercer.
On the back:
ROBERT MERCER - 1989.
Daniel stared.
“Who the hell is Robert?”
Claire turned pale.
Daniel saw it.
“You know.”
She closed her eyes.
“Dad had another son.”
Silence.
Michael stared.
“What?”
Claire whispered, “Before Mom.”
Daniel felt betrayed again.
“You knew?”
“I found letters after Dad’s stroke.”
“What happened to him?”
“I don’t know.”
Nora looked at the photo.
“I do.”
Everyone turned.
“Robert Mercer worked for my father.”
Daniel’s stomach tightened.
“How old would he be now?”
“About fifty-five.”
“Where is he?”
Nora shook her head.
“I thought he died.”
“When?”
“Twenty years ago.”
Daniel looked at the ledger.
R. Mercer.
Shepherd succession.
An unacknowledged Mercer son.
A man erased from the family.
Potentially alive.
Then the burner phone rang.
Not a message.
A call.
Daniel answered.
“Who is this?”
A man laughed softly.
The voice sounded distorted.
“You found the chapel.”
Daniel’s skin went cold.
“Robert?”
Silence.
Then:
“Ask your sister why she never told you about me.”
Daniel looked at Claire.
Her face went white.
The caller continued.
“And ask Nora who really gave Rebecca the final cup of tea.”
Daniel froze.
Rebecca.
Tea.
Again.
“Who killed my wife?”
The man’s voice softened.
“You still think the car crash killed her.”
The line went dead.
Daniel stared at Nora.
“What did he mean?”
Nora began shaking her head.
“No.”
“What final cup?”
“No.”
“Nora.”
Tears appeared.
Daniel stepped closer.
“What did you give Rebecca?”
Nora whispered, “Tea.”
“When?”
“The night she died.”
Daniel stopped.
“What was in it?”
“Nothing.”
“Are you sure?”
“I made it myself.”
“Did she drink it?”
“Yes.”
Daniel’s face tightened.
“And thirty minutes later she drove away.”
Nora nodded.
Daniel asked the question he had feared all night.
“Did you watch her drink it?”
Nora’s silence answered first.
“No.”
Someone else could have altered Rebecca’s cup too.
The pattern was identical.
And suddenly Daniel understood.
The person who tried to poison him had not invented a new plan.
They had recreated Rebecca’s last night.
May you like
Exactly.
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