Chapter 4 - The Dead Man in the Storm
The garage door shook under another pounding fist.
“Emily! Don't sign anything!”
Daniel lowered the gun.
Linda stared toward the door as if she were looking at a grave.
“That's impossible.”
Rachel grabbed my crutch.
“Who is Thomas?”
“My father,” Daniel whispered.
“The dead one?”
Daniel didn't answer.
The voice came again.
“Linda!”
She made a broken sound.
Nobody moved.
Then the manual garage release suddenly jerked.
Once.
Twice.
The door began rising from outside.
Cold rain blew underneath.
A pair of shoes appeared.
Then dark trousers.
Then an elderly man bent beneath the partially raised door.
Linda started crying.
“Thomas.”
He was thinner than the photographs I'd seen.
Older.
A scar ran from his left temple toward his ear.
But it was him.
Thomas Mercer.
My husband's supposedly dead father.
He looked at Daniel's pistol.
“Put it down, son.”
Daniel's hand shook.
“You're dead.”
“That's what you told everyone.”
“You abandoned us.”
“I ran because the people I worked for were going to kill me.”
Linda stepped forward.
“You let me bury an empty coffin.”
Thomas looked at her.
“I was trying to keep you alive.”
“You let your son believe you were dead!”
“And apparently I failed him anyway.”
Daniel raised the gun.
Thomas didn't flinch.
“Shoot me if you want. But Emily already has enough evidence to destroy Mercer Holdings.”
Daniel stared at me.
Thomas continued.
“Rose planned this better than any of us understood.”
He reached into his coat.
Daniel aimed.
“Don't.”
Thomas slowly produced a flash drive.
“Everything is here.”
Rachel moved closer.
“Everything?”
“The dumping records. Payments. Altered police reports. The people responsible for the Bennett crash.”
My parents.
I forgot my pain.
“Who killed them?”
Thomas looked at me.
“I know who ordered it.”
“Tell me.”
“Not here.”
“Tell me!”
“The man is still alive.”
Daniel interrupted.
“Don't listen to him.”
Thomas looked at his son.
“You still don't know, do you?”
“Know what?”
“Why Rose left Hawthorne to Emily instead of selling it.”
“She was sentimental.”
“No.”
Thomas turned toward me.
“Hawthorne isn't just evidence.”
“What does that mean?”
“The contamination was cleaned up years ago.”
Rachel stared.
“That isn't possible.”
“It was done secretly.”
“Why?”
“Because somebody needed everyone to believe the land was worthless.”
Thomas held up the drive.
“Rose discovered a deposit beneath the north field during remediation.”
Daniel laughed.
“What, oil?”
“No.”
Thomas said one word.
“Lithium.”
Nobody spoke.
The potential value of Hawthorne Farm wasn't thirty million.
It could be far more.
Suddenly Daniel's obsession made sense.
Northstar.
The shell companies.
The rushed transfer.
My surgery.
Everything.
“You knew,” I said.
Daniel looked away.
“How much?”
“Emily—”
“How much is it worth?”
Thomas answered.
“Depending on extraction rights? Hundreds of millions.”
Linda sat down.
Rachel swore.
My marriage had just acquired a price tag.
I looked at Daniel.
“Did you ever love me?”
His face tightened.
“Yes.”
“When?”
He had no answer.
That hurt more than I expected.
Thomas approached me.
“We need to get you out.”
Walsh nodded.
“She needs medical care immediately.”
Daniel raised the gun again.
“No one leaves.”
Thomas stopped.
“You won't shoot your wife.”
Daniel looked at me.
“No.”
Then he pointed the pistol at his father.
“But I might shoot you.”
Linda stepped between them.
“Daniel, stop!”
“Move.”
“No.”
“Mom!”
“I said no!”
For the first time that night, Linda stood against him.
Daniel's face twisted.
“You wanted this.”
“I wanted money. I didn't want this.”
“You helped me.”
“And I'll regret it for the rest of my life.”
She walked toward me.
Then placed herself beside Rachel.
Daniel was suddenly alone.
He seemed to realize it too.
The pistol lowered slightly.
Thomas took one step forward.
Daniel fired.
The gunshot deafened me.
Linda screamed.
Thomas staggered backward.
But the bullet had struck the metal garage rail behind him.
Rachel lunged.
Walsh grabbed Daniel's wrist.
Thomas tackled him.
The pistol hit the floor.
I kicked it away with my uninjured foot.
Pain tore through me.
Then everything happened quickly.
Rachel pinned Daniel's arm.
Thomas took the gun.
Linda called 911.
Walsh knelt beside me.
“You're bleeding badly.”
“I know.”
“We need pressure on the incision.”
He opened his medical bag.
I caught his wrist.
“Can I trust you?”
His eyes met mine.
“I should have told you everything before surgery.”
“That isn't an answer.”
“No,” he said quietly. “You shouldn't trust me yet.”
At least it was truthful.
Sirens became audible through the storm.
Daniel stopped struggling.
He looked at me.
“Emily.”
I turned away.
“Please.”
I didn't answer.
“Whatever you think, I never wanted you hurt.”
I looked at the destroyed medicine bottle.
The blood.
The gun.
Then at him.
“You just wanted me helpless.”
Police arrived seven minutes later.
Daniel was arrested.
So was Linda.
Walsh voluntarily surrendered his phone and medical records.
Rachel went with detectives.
Thomas disappeared before police entered.
One moment he was there.
The next, gone.
He left the flash drive with me.
At the hospital, doctors repaired two torn sutures and treated dehydration and shock.
At 3:17 a.m., a detective named Marcus Hale entered my room.
He placed a sealed evidence bag on the table.
Inside was Thomas's flash drive.
“We checked it,” he said.
“And?”
“Most of the files are legitimate.”
“Most?”
“One folder is encrypted.”
“What folder?”
He showed me the label.
EMILY — 1997.
The year my parents died.
“Can you open it?”
“We're working on it.”
He hesitated.
“There is something else.”
“What?”
“Your husband asked to speak with you.”
“No.”
“He says he knows the password.”
I stared at Hale.
“Then make him give it to you.”
“He won't.”
“Why?”
“He says he'll only tell you.”
I almost laughed.
“Of course.”
Hale turned to leave.
Then my hospital television switched on by itself.
Static filled the screen.
A security camera feed appeared.
Hawthorne Farm.
The north barn.
Someone was standing outside it.
A woman.
She looked directly into the camera.
May you like
Then she held up a handwritten sign.
EMILY, YOUR GRANDMOTHER DIDN'T DIE NATURALLY.
