Chapter 5 - Anna's VoiceWe did not sleep.
At 7:18 a.m., the forensic team cleared my parents' house.
The bullet was a warning shot.
The photograph was recent.
Anna was alive.
And someone wanted me to know she was watching.
I inserted the cassette.
The machine clicked.
Static filled the room.
Then a woman's voice.
Older than I remembered.
But unmistakable.
“Hello, Mara.”
I stopped breathing.
Anna.
My dead sister's voice came through the speakers.
“If you're hearing this, it means Emily found the room.”
Emily looked at me.
The recording continued.
“Don't go to the police.”
Harris frowned.
Anna spoke again.
“Don't trust the people wearing badges.”
Harris looked at me.
I said nothing.
“Daniel has friends inside every agency that tried to investigate him.”
A pause.
“He doesn't need to control everyone.”
“He only needs to control the right people.”
My skin prickled.
Then Anna said something that changed everything.
“Lauren didn't disappear because she discovered Daniel's secret.”
Emily leaned toward the recorder.
“She disappeared because she was going to expose mine.”
Static.
Then:
“I was the fourth girl in that photograph.”
I stared at the old image.
Anna had been standing beside Lauren.
The two had been working together.
The others were connected to them.
“Twenty years ago, I found out what the Mercers were doing.”
Anna's breathing grew quieter.
“I was seventeen.”
“They recruited vulnerable women through Daniel's father's construction company.”
“Debt. Housing. Employment.”
“Then they trapped them.”
I clenched my hands.
“Some women were threatened.”
“Some were bribed.”
“And some were made to disappear.”
Emily whispered:
“How many?”
The recording answered.
“Twenty-three.”
Harris went still.
Anna continued.
“Lauren found the first ledger.”
“She thought it could bring them down.”
“She was wrong.”
“She trusted someone.”
A pause.
“She trusted a police officer.”
My stomach dropped.
“Who?”
The tape clicked.
Then Anna said:
“Lieutenant Grant.”
Harris stared at me.
“There's no Lieutenant Grant in your department.”
“Not anymore,” I said.
“Retired twelve years ago.”
Anna's voice continued.
“He sold Lauren's name.”
Then came a sound.
A door closing.
Anna spoke more quietly.
“I need you to understand something.”
“If Daniel knows you're listening to this, he'll attack the part of your life you think he can't reach.”
“He won't come for you first.”
“He'll come for Emily.”
Emily's face drained.
Anna continued.
“He will use someone you trust.”
The tape stopped.
I rewound it.
Played it again.
Nothing.
No more.
Harris stared at the machine.
“What happened to the rest?”
“Maybe there is another tape.”
“Where?”
I looked at the cassette label.
There was a tiny symbol beneath Anna's name.
A circle.
Inside it, the number 9.
I recognized the symbol.
It was from an old church near our childhood home.
Saint Matthew's.
Nine was the number of a storage crypt beneath the church.
We drove there.
The building was deserted.
Snow covered the steps.
Inside, the caretaker recognized my badge and led us beneath the chapel.
The crypt contained nine metal cabinets.
Cabinet 9 was locked.
The key from the metal box fit perfectly.
Inside was a binder.
Black.
Heavy.
Stamped:
MERCER PROPERTY GROUP
Harris opened it.
Pages of names.
Dates.
Payments.
Code numbers.
Women.
Police officers.
Judges.
Doctors.
Politicians.
Each had notes.
Some were harmless.
Some were horrifying.
Then I saw one name.
My name.
OFFICER MARA COLLINS
Under it:
STATUS: OBSERVATION
RISK: HIGH
TRIGGER: EMILY
I felt suddenly sick.
Someone had been tracking me long before Emily came to my door.
Harris turned the next page.
His face changed.
“Look.”
There was another note.
ANNA COLLINS
STATUS: BELIEVED DECEASED
CONFIRMATION: REQUIRED
IF ALIVE, USE SISTER MARA TO FLUSH HER OUT
I looked at Emily.
“So this was the plan.”
She nodded slowly.
“Use me to get to Anna.”
Harris closed the binder.
“We need federal protection.”
“Agreed.”
He reached for his phone.
Then stopped.
A car horn sounded outside.
Three short bursts.
My phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
A video file.
I opened it.
It showed Emily.
She was standing in my kitchen.
Alive.
Then the camera moved.
The video had been recorded hours earlier.
Emily was sleeping.
Someone had entered my house while she slept.
The camera tilted.
A man's face appeared.
Daniel.
He smiled into the lens.
“Mara.”
He lifted one hand.
In it was a photograph.
“Our mother lied to you.”
Then he said:
“Anna isn't the woman you're trying to save.”
The video ended.
A second message arrived.
A location.
The abandoned Mercer construction site.
May you like
And one sentence:
COME ALONE, OR EMILY PAYS FOR LAUREN.
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