Chapter 6 - THE BROTHER WHO NEVER LEFT
Daniel Hale had spent most of his life being underestimated.
Richard understood that now.
As boys, Richard had been older, louder, stronger, and expected to inherit the company.
Daniel was the charming younger brother.
The one who remembered birthdays.
The one who smiled at reporters.
The one employees trusted with complaints they were afraid to bring to Richard.
And when Elena disappeared, Daniel became the brother Richard could not imagine surviving without.
That memory now made Richard sick.
Detective Brooks enlarged the photograph.
“The ring is suggestive.”
“It’s his.”
“Suggestive.”
“I bought it.”
“Still not enough for an arrest warrant on kidnapping.”
“He’s standing in the cellar beside my unconscious wife.”
“His face is not visible.”
Richard clenched his jaw.
Brooks looked at him.
“I want him too.”
“Then say it.”
“I want evidence that survives a defense attorney.”
Richard stepped away.
From downstairs came the sound of saws.
The forensic team had reached the sealed chamber.
They found human remains twenty minutes later.
A red shoe remained on one foot.
Richard stood outside while Elena watched remotely from the hospital.
Brooks came upstairs.
“We have remains.”
“Nora?”
“We need DNA.”
“But?”
“The clothing is consistent with the year she disappeared.”
Richard looked at the photograph again.
“Why keep Elena alive?”
“For signatures.”
“That explains months.”
“Not two years.”
Richard knew she was right.
“If Daniel wanted the company, he could have forged everything.”
“Maybe he needed something only Elena knew.”
Richard frowned.
Elena owned fourteen percent of Hale Development through a trust established by Jonathan.
But she had never worked for the company.
Why would she know anything Daniel needed?
Richard called her.
She answered immediately.
“Did you find Nora?”
“We found someone.”
Elena was quiet.
Richard lowered his voice.
“Why did they keep you alive?”
“I told you.”
“The shares.”
“Richard.”
“That’s not enough.”
Silence.
“Elena.”
She exhaled.
“There was a password.”
“What password?”
“To a separate account.”
“What account?”
“I don’t know.”
“Why would you have the password?”
“Your father gave it to me.”
Richard stared out the window.
“My father?”
“Three months before he died.”
“You never told me.”
“He made me promise.”
Richard laughed once in disbelief.
“He trusted you with a secret account but not me?”
“It wasn’t money.”
“What was it?”
“I don’t know.”
“He said if anything happened to him, I should remember four words.”
“What words?”
“Bluebird.”
“December.”
“Seventeen.”
“Mercy.”
Richard repeated them.
They meant nothing.
“What were they for?”
“He said I would know when the time came.”
“And you didn’t tell Daniel.”
“No.”
“Victoria?”
“They tortured it out of me.”
Richard shut his eyes.
“How?”
Elena did not answer.
He understood enough.
“Did you give them the words?”
“Eventually.”
“Then why keep you alive afterward?”
“Because they didn’t work.”
Richard frowned.
“What?”
“The password failed.”
“So they thought you lied.”
“Yes.”
“Did you?”
Elena was silent.
Richard opened his eyes.
“Elena.”
“Yes.”
A faint note of pride entered her voice.
“I lied.”
Despite everything, Richard almost smiled.
“What did you give them?”
“Bluebird.”
“December.”
“Seventeen.”
“Mercy.”
“That’s what you just told me.”
“No.”
Elena lowered her voice.
“That’s what I told them.”
Richard stopped.
“So those aren’t the real words.”
“No.”
“What are the real words?”
“I’m not saying over a phone.”
Richard looked toward Brooks.
She had heard enough.
“We bring Elena here under protection.”
Richard shook his head.
“No.”
Brooks stared.
“You just insisted on involving yourself.”
“That was before I knew someone tortured my wife for a password.”
“Which is why we need controlled conditions.”
Richard looked back toward the cellar.
A forensic technician emerged carrying an evidence bag.
Inside was a tarnished metal pendant.
Richard recognized it from old photographs of Nora Beck.
Brooks’s radio crackled.
“Detective, we found a vehicle.”
“Mercer?”
“Negative.”
“Daniel Hale.”
Richard turned.
“Where?”
“Abandoned behind Union Station.”
“Any sign of him?”
“No.”
“Cameras?”
“Checking.”
Another officer stepped into the room.
“Mr. Hale?”
“Yes.”
“You have a visitor at the gate.”
“No visitors.”
“He says he has information about your brother.”
“Name?”
“Owen Price.”
Richard knew him.
Owen had been the groundskeeper for six years.
Quiet.
Reliable.
He lived in a cottage at the edge of the property.
Brooks said, “Bring him in.”
Owen entered five minutes later.
He looked twenty years older than the last time Richard had seen him.
His hands shook.
Brooks sat him down.
“What do you know about Daniel Hale?”
Owen looked at Richard instead.
“I’m sorry.”
Richard’s body stiffened.
“For what?”
“I knew there was someone under the house.”
Richard moved so fast Brooks had to step between them.
“You knew?”
Owen began crying.
“I didn’t know it was Mrs. Hale at first.”
“How long?”
“About eighteen months.”
“And you said nothing?”
“He threatened my daughter.”
Richard stared.
Owen pulled a phone from his pocket.
“Daniel paid me to leave food in the service passage.”
Elena had survived because this man had carried food past her door.
Richard’s hands curled into fists.
Brooks took the phone.
“Payments?”
“Cash.”
“Messages?”
Owen nodded.
“He used a prepaid number.”
“Do you still have them?”
“Yes.”
Brooks opened the phone.
Dozens of messages appeared.
LEAVE FOOD.
NO CONTACT.
DO NOT ANSWER HER.
REPORT IF SHE SPEAKS ABOUT THE LEDGER.
Richard leaned closer.
One message was different.
It had been sent three months earlier.
PREPARE THE OLD QUARRY ROOM.
Brooks looked at Owen.
“What room?”
Owen’s face went pale.
“I thought it was empty.”
“What room?”
“An abandoned maintenance building at the north quarry.”
“Why prepare it?”
“He told me we might need to move her.”
“When?”
“I don’t know.”
Richard felt his phone vibrate.
A text message.
Unknown number.
A photograph loaded.
Lily.
She was standing outside the hospital elevator.
Alone.
Beneath the photograph were seven words.
BRING THE REAL PASSWORD TO THE QUARRY.
Richard called Elena.
No answer.
He called again.
Nothing.
His blood went cold.
May you like
Then another message arrived.
THIS TIME, WE TAKE THE CHILD TOO.
