Chapter 2 - THREE MISSING MINUTES
Vincent reached the basement first.
The secure medical archive stood open. Drawers had been emptied, and Dominic's post-surgical medication records were missing.
Mercer stared at the damaged cabinet. "Bloodwork too."
Dominic looked at Vincent. "Who can open this room?"
"You. Me. Two security administrators. Executive clearance."
They returned upstairs.
Arthur was back in the conference room.
"I never left," he said.
Vincent pulled yesterday's rehabilitation footage.
At 3:14 p.m., Arthur entered the hall and touched Dominic's brace.
Then the video jumped.
3:17 p.m.
Three minutes were missing.
"You deleted it," Dominic said.
Arthur's jaw hardened. "No."
Vincent loaded a backup angle.
A tall man in Arthur's dark coat entered during the missing interval. He used a staff key, bent over the brace, and froze when Ellie appeared.
The camera caught his right hand.
A silver ring with a black stone.
Ellie pointed. "That's him."
Arthur held up both hands. No ring.
Dominic leaned closer to the screen.
He knew that ring.
Only three had ever existed.
His father had worn one.
Dominic had the second locked in the family vault.
The third had belonged to his younger brother Marcus.
Marcus had died nine years ago.
Dominic had buried him.
Clare suddenly sat down.
Dominic noticed. "You know that ring?"
She shook her head too fast.
"Clare."
Her eyes filled. "My husband had a photograph."
Caleb Rowan had worked nights at Vale Freight before dying in a single-car crash three years earlier.
"He photographed a man wearing that ring," Clare said. "He tried to report it. Two weeks later, he was dead."
Dominic stared at her.
"Do you still have the picture?"
Clare opened a hidden panel on the back of Ellie's wooden latch toy.
Inside was a folded photograph.
A loading dock at night.
Arthur's coat.
Marcus's ring.
And a man's face Dominic recognized.
May you like
Dr. Samuel Mercer stepped backward.
Because the man in the picture was his missing brother, Nathan.
