Chapter 8 - WHAT EMMA SAW
Mercer was gone by morning.
His apartment was empty.
His office had been cleaned.
His university email had been deleted.
But he had made one mistake.
He had forgotten that Emma's memory was better than his.
When I returned to her room, she was sitting upright.
Her jaw was still wired.
Her face was bruised.
But her eyes were steady.
I sat beside her.
She wrote:
I SAW HIM.
“Mercer?”
She nodded.
“When?”
She closed her eyes.
Then pointed toward the clock.
She wrote the time.
11:42.
The attack had happened at 11:47.
Five minutes earlier, Mercer had approached her.
“He asked for the drive.”
She nodded.
“He threatened you?”
She wrote:
NO.
That confused me.
“What did he say?”
She wrote:
HE SAID HE WAS TRYING TO SAVE ME.
Then:
HE SAID THEY WOULD KILL ME IF I DIDN'T GIVE HIM THE FILE.
I stared at her.
“Did you believe him?”
She shook her head.
Then she wrote:
I DIDN'T KNOW.
“What happened next?”
Her hand stopped.
She looked at me.
Then wrote:
ETHAN, BRANDON, TYLER ARRIVED.
I leaned closer.
“Did Mercer order them to attack you?”
She shook her head.
“No?”
She pointed at the paper.
They were arguing.
Then someone else arrived.
A fourth person.
Emma's hand began shaking.
I took the pen from her.
“Who?”
She wrote one initial.
C.
I looked at Sloan.
“Cole?”
She shook her head.
“Callahan?”
Another shake.
“Clara?”
She stared at me as if I had lost my mind.
Then she wrote:
CAME FROM INSIDE.
I didn't understand.
She pointed at the hospital door.
Then at herself.
Inside.
Someone inside the hospital had helped the attackers.
I stood.
Arthur entered.
I showed him the note.
He cursed quietly.
“We've got a problem.”
“What?”
“Detective Harris just disappeared.”
My expression hardened.
Arthur continued.
“The hospital security logs show someone accessed Emma's file twice before the attack.”
“Who?”
“An administrator.”
“Name.”
Arthur handed me a sheet.
I read it.
Margaret Voss.
The hospital's director of patient records.
I knew the name.
She had been married to a man who worked for Callahan Strategic Consulting.
I called Sloan.
“Find Margaret.”
He did.
Twenty minutes later, we had her location.
A private clinic outside the city.
We arrived with federal investigators this time.
No secrets.
No improvisation.
Margaret was waiting.
She didn't run.
She looked exhausted.
“You're Daniel Walker.”
“Yes.”
“I know who you are.”
“Why did you access Emma's file?”
She cried.
“My son.”
“What about him?”
“They had him.”
“Who?”
“Marcus Vale.”
The name hit the room.
Margaret continued.
“He threatened to kill my son if I didn't give him access to Emma's records.”
“What did you give him?”
“Her medication schedule.”
“Why?”
“So they could reach her.”
Arthur stepped forward.
“Who attacked her?”
Margaret closed her eyes.
“Ethan, Brandon, and Tyler were supposed to frighten her.”
“Not kill her?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
Margaret whispered:
“Marcus.”
I felt the anger return.
“Where is he?”
“I don't know.”
“What does he want?”
“The ledger.”
I showed her the photograph of the ledger.
Her face changed.
“He already has a copy.”
I froze.
“What?”
“The ledger was photographed years ago.”
“By whom?”
“Your father.”
I looked at Arthur.
Margaret continued.
“Your father made two copies.”
“Where is the second?”
She shook her head.
“I don't know.”
Then her expression changed.
“But Marcus does.”
I left the clinic.
Outside, snow had begun falling.
My phone rang.
Emma.
“Daniel.”
Her voice was clearer.
“I remembered something else.”
“What?”
“The fourth person.”
I waited.
“He wasn't Mercer.”
“Who was he?”
“Tyler's father.”
I closed my eyes.
Of course.
Brandon's family had money.
Ethan's family had influence.
But Tyler's father had something different.
Access.
He sat on the university board.
He controlled the foundation.
And he had helped bury Northstar.
I looked at Arthur.
“Where is Richard Whitmore?”
Arthur's phone rang.
He listened.
Then looked at me.
“Gone.”
“Where?”
“Airport.”
I stared at the falling snow.
The three boys had been pawns.
Mercer had been frightened.
Margaret had been blackmailed.
And Richard Whitmore had been at the center.
But there was still one question.
Why had Marcus Vale resurrected the Ghost?
Because he didn't merely want the ledger.
He wanted me to take it.
And I finally understood why.
He wanted the last man who could expose him to become the man everyone would fear again.
Then he could blame everything on the Ghost.
Not on Marcus.
Not on the families.
May you like
Not on the university.
On me.
