Chapter 13 - The Death Certificate
Robert Mercer had collapsed alone in his study.
No autopsy.
His doctor signed the death certificate after reviewing medical history and a paramedic report.
That doctor was dead now.
But the paramedic was not.
Daniel and Kim met her at a fire station the next morning.
“I remember your father,” Lena Ortiz said. “Because something felt wrong.”
“What?”
“There was bruising behind his ear.”
Daniel stared at her.
“That isn’t in the report.”
“I wrote it.”
Kim opened the archived copy.
No bruise was mentioned.
Lena leaned closer. “That’s not my final report.”
Someone had replaced it.
Back at the house, forensic technicians reopened Robert’s study.
Emma noticed a scratch beside the bookcase.
“Another door?”
Daniel almost laughed.
It was a drawer hidden behind molding.
Inside was a USB drive.
The video on it had been recorded five days before Robert died.
His father appeared on screen looking exhausted.
“Daniel, if you’re watching this, I failed to tell you in person.”
Daniel sat down.
Robert confessed to helping hide Laura and falsifying Daniel’s medical history.
“I told myself I was keeping you alive. Later, I was keeping myself out of prison. Both things can be true, and one does not excuse the other.”
Emma squeezed Daniel’s hand.
Robert continued.
“Samuel Price started the fraud. Martin and I followed because money made cowardice easy.”
Then Robert named the person who had finally forced him to prepare a confession.
“Rachel.”
Daniel looked at his estranged wife.
Robert said, “She found Laura when I had stopped trying. She made me face what silence had become.”
The video ended with coordinates and one sentence.
LAURA IS SAFE HERE UNTIL I CAN BRING DANIEL.
Emma entered the coordinates.
A farmhouse appeared on the map in northern Michigan.
Then the doorbell rang.
May you like
On the porch stood Martin Hale, his injured arm in a sling.
In his good hand, he held Tape 2.
