Chapter 12 - THE PIER LEDGER
The ledger showed Pike had been paid from shell companies connected to Malcolm for six years.
But one payment came from someone else.
Vernon Hale.
Two hundred thousand dollars the week before the explosion.
Grant called Detective Reyes, who had taken over the case.
"Bring Hale in."
They found his townhouse empty.
Passport gone.
Office wiped.
One camera showed him leaving with a black suitcase two hours after Voss took the vial.
The ledger also contained a phrase Grant did not understand.
SECOND PATIENT - G.R.
Voss did.
"Grant Mercer."
Grant stared toward her voice.
"Second patient?"
"The abandoned trial had one documented patient. Hale may have used you as an unauthorized continuation."
"For what?"
"To prove long-term suppression could be maintained without obvious tissue destruction."
Hannah's phone suddenly reconnected.
She whispered, "Grant?"
"Where are you?"
"Moving. Van. Lucy's with me. Emily too."
Grant's chest tightened.
"Can Emily hear me?"
A pause.
"Yes."
Grant spoke slowly.
"When you were little, you had a stuffed rabbit named Captain. You hated peas. You used to hide them under your napkin."
Silence.
Then the girl whispered, "Captain had one ear."
Grant's knees nearly failed.
"Yes."
"And you made train sounds badly."
A broken laugh escaped him.
"Very badly."
The line went quiet.
Then Emma said, "Why didn't you come get me?"
There was no answer that could save either of them.
"I thought you were dead."
She started crying.
Grant did too.
Hannah whispered, "I can see a sign through the back window. Route 7."
Daniel mapped possible roads.
Then shouting erupted on the phone.
Lucy screamed.
Hannah yelled, "Run, Emily!"
The line dropped.
Police raced north.
Ten minutes later, a highway camera caught a van stopping near an abandoned service station.
Three people ran out.
Hannah.
Lucy.
A nine-year-old girl.
A second vehicle arrived behind them.
Grant leaned toward Daniel.
"Who got out?"
May you like
Daniel's voice turned cold.
"Vernon Hale."
