Chapter 5 - What Rose Knew
I stared at the hospital television until Detective Hale pulled the power cord from the wall.
The image remained.
“That isn't possible,” he said.
The screen was unplugged.
Yet the woman was still there.
She lowered the sign.
Then the picture disappeared.
The television went black.
Hale immediately called his cybercrime unit.
I called Rachel.
She answered on the second ring.
“Did you see it?”
“How did you know?”
“Because Rose's monitoring system just sent me an alert.”
“Who was the woman?”
“I don't know.”
“Someone just told me my grandmother was murdered.”
Rachel went quiet.
“Rachel.”
“I suspected it.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because suspicion isn't proof.”
“What happened?”
“Rose was getting closer to exposing everyone. Then she died in her sleep.”
“She was eighty.”
“She was healthy.”
I remembered Grandma's funeral.
Daniel holding my hand.
Linda bringing casseroles.
Everyone telling me Rose had lived a long, beautiful life.
I felt sick.
“Who had access to her?”
“Several people.”
“Daniel?”
“Yes.”
“Linda?”
“Yes.”
“Walsh?”
A pause.
“Yes.”
I closed my eyes.
Detective Hale took the phone.
“Rachel, this is Detective Marcus Hale. I need the address of every property connected to Rose Bennett's monitoring system.”
He listened.
Then wrote something down.
When he hung up, he looked at me.
“We're sending units to Hawthorne.”
“I'm going.”
“No.”
“Detective—”
“You had surgery less than twenty-four hours ago.”
“My grandmother may have been murdered because of something on that property.”
“And you'll be more useful alive.”
He wasn't wrong.
I hated him for it.
By morning, Daniel had been formally charged with assault, unlawful imprisonment, destruction of medication, coercion, and weapons offenses.
Linda's lawyer was negotiating cooperation.
Walsh remained under investigation.
Thomas Mercer was missing again.
And I still didn't know what happened to my parents.
At nine, Daniel's attorney arrived.
“He wants five minutes.”
“No.”
“He'll provide the password.”
“Then he can provide it to police.”
“He says the password isn't a word.”
I stared at him.
“What is it?”
“He says you'll understand if you see him.”
Manipulation.
Daniel had spent seven years learning which emotional doors opened me.
I wasn't going to give him another one.
Then Detective Hale entered.
“We need the password.”
Twenty minutes later, I sat behind reinforced glass.
Daniel entered wearing county jail clothing.
He looked smaller.
Not remorseful.
Smaller.
He picked up the phone.
I did the same.
“Password.”
“Emily—”
“Password.”
“Do you remember our wedding?”
I nearly hung up.
“Wait.”
He pressed his palm against the glass.
“The password is the time printed on the back of our wedding photograph.”
“Why?”
“Rose chose it.”
I froze.
“What?”
“Your grandmother created that encrypted folder.”
“You've seen it?”
“No.”
“Then how do you know the password?”
“Because she told me.”
“When?”
“The night before we married.”
My skin prickled.
Daniel continued.
“She knew exactly who I was.”
“That doesn't make sense.”
“She knew why I first approached you.”
I swallowed.
“And she let me marry you?”
“She told me that if I hurt you, she would destroy me.”
“Apparently that worked beautifully.”
He looked down.
“I wasn't supposed to fall in love with you.”
I said nothing.
“But I did.”
“You locked me in a garage after surgery.”
“I know.”
“You pointed a gun at people.”
“I know.”
“You knew about my parents.”
“Yes.”
“Love doesn't erase any of that.”
“I know.”
For once, he didn't argue.
I stood.
“Emily.”
I stopped.
“Rose wasn't afraid of me.”
I looked back.
“She was afraid of my father.”
“Thomas?”
“No.”
The word landed strangely.
Daniel stared at me.
“Thomas Mercer wasn't my biological father.”
I sat again.
“Who was?”
“I don't know.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“Ask my mother.”
The guard approached.
Daniel spoke quickly.
“And Emily—Rose didn't die because of Hawthorne.”
“Then why?”
His face changed.
“She died because she discovered who ordered your parents killed.”
The guard pulled him away.
I returned to my hospital room.
Hale had found my wedding photograph through Daniel's phone backup.
The time stamp on the back was 4:26.
The encrypted folder opened.
There were forty-three files.
Photographs.
Emails.
Audio recordings.
And one video.
Rose Bennett appeared on screen.
She looked tired.
“Emily,” she began, “if you're seeing this, I probably didn't get the chance to tell you myself.”
I gripped the blanket.
“Your parents were killed because your father found evidence connecting a man named Charles Voss to the chemical dumping operation.”
Hale immediately wrote down the name.
“Voss controlled the company through proxies. Thomas Mercer worked for him. Thomas eventually tried to expose him.”
Rose paused.
“But there is something none of them know.”
She lifted a document.
“Charles Voss had a son.”
A photograph appeared.
Young man.
Dark hair.
Familiar eyes.
Daniel.
My stomach dropped.
Rose continued.
“Daniel Mercer is Charles Voss's biological son.”
Everything aligned.
Daniel's obsession.
Thomas's disappearance.
Linda's fear.
But Rose wasn't finished.
“Daniel may not know the entire truth. Linda concealed his paternity for decades.”
The video flickered.
Then Rose leaned closer.
“If Voss learns Daniel has failed to obtain Hawthorne, he will come for you himself.”
The video ended.
Detective Hale stared at me.
“Charles Voss was declared dead in 2012.”
I laughed bitterly.
“Apparently dead people are having a very busy week.”
His phone rang.
He answered.
His expression changed.
“When?”
He looked at me.
“We need security outside this room.”
“What happened?”
“Officers reached Hawthorne.”
“And?”
“The woman from the video is gone.”
“What about the barn?”
Hale hesitated.
“They found a body.”
My heart stopped.
“Who?”
“They haven't identified it.”
His phone buzzed again.
A photograph arrived.
He looked at it.
Then immediately tried turning the screen away.
Too late.
May you like
I had seen the face.
It was Rachel.
