Chapter 8 - The Call After Midnight
Daniel had spoken to Owen once after the attack.
At 12:43 a.m.
For thirty-one seconds.
"He called from a blocked number," Daniel admitted after Charles was forced from the room by hospital security. "He said he was hiding and told me not to call back."
"What else?" Nora demanded.
"He said, 'The lake house was bait.'"
Eli's face hardened.
"For who?"
"He didn't say."
Nora didn't believe him.
Daniel saw it.
"He also said Dad wasn't the top."
That landed differently.
Charles Mercer had dominated every room Nora had ever seen him enter.
The idea that he answered to someone else felt impossible.
Mara arrived forty minutes later with Claire.
The two women looked like they had driven through every red light in Dallas.
Mara put Daniel's note on the bed.
Nora read the line about Owen being alive.
Her eyes filled.
"You knew?"
Daniel shook his head. "I hoped."
Claire stepped toward her husband. "Tell me why your car is by the river."
Everyone stopped.
Daniel stared at her.
"My car?"
"Police found it two hours ago."
"I've been here."
Mara slowly turned toward the window.
"Then someone wanted everyone to think you disappeared."
Eli's phone buzzed.
A photo arrived from an unknown number.
It showed Daniel's abandoned car.
On the passenger seat sat Nora's hospital bag.
And beside it was a handwritten card.
May you like
ONE LOCKER LEFT.
Claire stepped closer to Daniel and lowered her voice. She told him the abandoned car was not just a threat; it was a rehearsal. Whoever staged it knew his route, his habits, and the places police would search first. That meant the leak was not outside Halcyon. It was close enough to know how Daniel thought before he made a move.
