Chapter 9 - The Voice Behind the WallThe person helping us had been hiding beneath our feet.
I slammed my shoulder against the vault door.
Nothing.
Rebecca searched the walls.
“There has to be another exit.”
The air was already getting warm.
Then I heard something.
Knocking.
Three times.
Pause.
Three times.
I looked at the wall.
“Did you hear that?”
Rebecca nodded.
We followed the sound.
It came from behind a panel.
I pulled.
The wood came loose.
A narrow passage appeared.
We crawled through.
At the end was a small room.
A man sat in a chair.
Older.
Gray hair.
Blood on his shirt.
I knew him.
Not personally.
But from photographs.
“Detective Samuel Reed.”
Rebecca rushed toward him.
“Who did this?”
He looked at me.
“Your brother.”
I stopped.
“Michael?”
“He tried to stop them.”
“What happened?”
Reed laughed weakly.
“Your family has always misunderstood loyalty.”
“Where is Lucy?”
“She isn't with them.”
“Then where?”
Reed pointed toward the ceiling.
“Upstairs.”
Rebecca frowned.
“The house?”
Reed nodded.
“Your wife hid a second child.”
I stared.
“What child?”
“Your father's last experiment.”
Reed handed me a photograph.
A teenage boy.
Dark hair.
Green eyes.
My eyes.
The boy stood beside Michael.
On the back:
Evan Mercer, age seventeen.
I looked at Rebecca.
“Who is Evan?”
She whispered:
“Your son.”
The room seemed to disappear.
“What?”
“Daniel, you were unconscious after an accident when you were twenty.”
“My son?”
“He was born before you knew Hannah was pregnant.”
Rebecca shook her head.
“Thomas took him.”
“Why?”
“To raise him as the heir.”
I stared at the photograph.
The boy looked terrified.
“Where is he?”
Reed pointed to another file.
“Saint Agnes.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“Then why does everyone want Lucy?”
“Because Lucy is the only person who can prove Evan is alive.”
My mind finally connected the pieces.
Lucy wasn't the heir.
She was the witness.
She was the proof.
She knew where Evan was.
Or more accurately...
Someone believed she did.
I grabbed the will.
“We're going to Saint Agnes.”
Reed caught my wrist.
“Don't.”
“Why?”
“Because the people waiting there aren't your father's old employees.”
“Then who are they?”
He looked directly into my eyes.
“People who know Rebecca is alive.”
We heard footsteps above us.
A child's voice.
“Mr. Mercer?”
Lucy.
Alive.
Close.
I ran toward the passage.
But before I reached the opening, another voice spoke behind me.
“Daniel.”
Michael.
He was standing at the far end of the tunnel.
Blood covered his face.
He raised both hands.
“Don't shoot.”
I stared at him.
“Where is Lucy?”
Michael looked past me.
“She's in the house.”
“How?”
He smiled sadly.
“Because the person who kidnapped her wasn't who you thought.”
May you like
Then Lucy stepped into the doorway.
Holding a gun.
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