Chapter 3 - The Third Woman
Her name was Mercy Bell.
And according to Katherine, she had been the first woman Eleanor Bennett tried to erase.
Mercy had worked at the estate in the late 1990s.
She was twenty-four, newly married, and studying accounting at night.
The Bennett family employed her as a housekeeper.
But she was clever.
Clever enough to notice that the estate's household expenses didn't match the invoices she was asked to file.
Clever enough to realize that several charities supported by the Bennett Foundation were receiving enormous donations on paper while barely operating in reality.
And clever enough to start keeping copies.
"Mercy discovered the money," Katherine said.
"What money?" Reyes asked.
"Money from the foundation. Money that was supposed to help families. It was being transferred through companies owned by people connected to Eleanor."
Sullivan made a note.
"Did Mercy report it?"
"She tried."
Katherine looked toward the window.
"She trusted the wrong person."
"Who?"
"Richard's father."
I knew almost nothing about Thomas Bennett.
He had died before I met Richard.
Officially, it was a heart attack.
Eleanor kept his portrait in the main hallway.
Every Christmas, she placed white roses beneath it.
Katherine continued.
"Thomas promised Mercy he would help her. He told her he had been trying to stop Eleanor for years."
"What happened?"
"He disappeared from the estate for three days. When he came back, he told Mercy to destroy everything she'd copied."
"Why?"
Katherine's voice lowered.
"Because Eleanor had shown him what she was capable of."
I looked at Daniel.
He was listening without interruption.
"Did Thomas know Mercy was being held beneath the house?" Reyes asked.
Katherine nodded.
"I believe so."
"Was she alive when you saw her?"
Katherine closed her eyes.
"Yes."
A terrible silence followed.
"How do you know?" Sullivan asked.
"Because I spoke to her."
I felt the blood drain from my face.
"You met Mercy?"
Katherine nodded.
"Through a wall."
She explained that while imprisoned in the basement, she had heard tapping from the other side of a narrow service passage.
At first, she thought it was plumbing.
Then she realized the tapping had a pattern.
Three knocks.
A pause.
Two knocks.
She answered.
Eventually, they found a gap near an old ventilation shaft.
Mercy told Katherine about the financial records.
About Thomas.
About Eleanor's threats.
And about a metal box hidden beneath the original greenhouse foundation.
"She told me she'd buried copies of everything before Eleanor caught her."
"Did you ever see Mercy?" Reyes asked.
"Only once."
Katherine's voice broke.
"Through the opening beneath the ventilation grate."
"What happened to her?"
Katherine stared at her hands.
"One night, I heard men downstairs. Mercy started screaming. She was begging them not to take her."
I could barely breathe.
"Then?"
"Then everything went quiet."
Katherine wiped her cheeks.
"The next morning, someone had painted her name on the steel door."
Sullivan studied the photograph again.
"Why would they do that?"
Katherine shook her head.
"I don't know."
But I remembered something Eleanor had once said.
We had been discussing a former employee who threatened to sue the family.
Eleanor had smiled over her tea.
"People are easier to control when they understand what happens to those who don't cooperate."
At the time, I thought she was being dramatic.
Now I wasn't so sure.
Reyes closed her notebook.
"We need the physical evidence before we can establish what happened to Mercy."
Katherine nodded.
"I know."
Sullivan's phone vibrated again.
She read the message.
Then looked at us.
"The search team found something behind the steel door."
Katherine stood.
"What?"
Sullivan hesitated.
"A room."
"And?"
"Inside it, they found three hospital identification bracelets."
My heart began pounding.
"Whose?"
Sullivan looked at Katherine.
"One bears your name."
She turned toward me.
"Another says Claire Bennett."
I gripped the table.
"That's impossible."
Sullivan's expression remained grim.
"The third bracelet belongs to a woman named Mercy Bell."
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Then she added something that made the entire room go still.
"All three were printed on the same day."
