Chapter 4 - The Red Door
Rebecca reached the abandoned records facility twenty-three minutes later.
Daniel was beside her.
Three local officers followed.
The building looked nothing like Rebecca had expected.
It was not abandoned.
Someone had maintained it.
Security cameras covered the entrance.
A new electronic lock had been installed beneath an old brass keyhole.
Rebecca examined it.
“Someone wants this place to look dead.”
Daniel stared through the windshield.
“My daughter is in there.”
“I know.”
Rebecca contacted command.
The building was technically civilian property, meaning local police retained authority.
Officer Cole had already forwarded Judge Hart’s emergency order.
They could enter.
Rebecca left her rifle secured until the officers established a perimeter.
Then they approached.
The brass key worked.
That frightened Rebecca.
Inside, the building smelled of paper, dust and electrical equipment.
Daniel called Sophie’s name.
Rebecca stopped him.
“Quiet.”
They heard something.
A child crying.
Daniel moved.
Rebecca caught him.
“Wait.”
Footsteps.
A man appeared at the end of the corridor.
“Police!” an officer shouted.
The man ran.
Two officers pursued him.
Rebecca and Daniel followed Sophie’s crying.
They found her inside a small office.
Alone.
Unhurt.
Daniel collapsed beside her.
“Sophie.”
“Daddy!”
She threw herself into his arms.
Rebecca turned away for one second because emotion threatened her discipline.
Then Sophie looked at her.
“Aunt Becca?”
Rebecca knelt.
“I’m here.”
“The lady said you would come.”
Rebecca’s expression changed.
“What lady?”
“The lady who looked like Grandma.”
Daniel stared at Rebecca.
Sophie pointed down the hallway.
“She went through the red door.”
Rebecca remembered Thomas’s warning.
Do not open it.
Naturally, that made the door the most important object in the building.
After Sophie was escorted outside, Rebecca approached it.
The brass key fit.
Daniel touched her shoulder.
“Thomas said not to.”
“Thomas has been hiding for twenty years.”
“That doesn’t mean he was wrong.”
Rebecca opened the door.
Behind it was not a room.
It was an archive.
Hundreds of boxes.
Computer servers.
Old financial records.
Photographs.
Files.
Rebecca walked inside.
One wall contained photographs of the Grant family.
Daniel as a teenager.
Rebecca at military graduation.
Patricia grocery shopping.
Charles leaving his office.
Allison taking Sophie to school.
Sophie on a playground.
Years of surveillance.
Daniel whispered, “What the hell?”
Rebecca examined the dates.
Some photographs predated Mercer’s involvement with the current custody case.
“This is bigger than him.”
A monitor suddenly activated.
A prerecorded video appeared.
Bradley Mercer.
Rebecca stared.
Mercer looked younger in the footage.
Maybe thirty.
“If you’re watching this,” video-Mercer said, “Charles finally found the archive.”
Daniel moved closer.
The recording continued.
“I was never the architect. I was the accountant.”
Rebecca’s stomach tightened.
“I moved money. I created companies. I erased transactions. But Charles Grant knows who built the system.”
Daniel whispered, “Dad.”
Video-Mercer smiled.
“And Patricia knows why.”
The screen went black.
Daniel stared at Rebecca.
“You think Mom and Dad—”
“I don’t know.”
Rebecca refused to guess.
They searched the archive.
One box contained school records.
Another contained legal cases.
Another contained confidential information belonging to judges, attorneys and police officers.
Leverage.
That was the purpose.
Someone had spent decades collecting leverage.
Rebecca found Judge Hart’s name.
“Daniel.”
He approached.
Inside was a photograph of the judge with her son.
Nothing criminal.
Nothing embarrassing.
Just private.
Someone wanted the judge to know she could be watched.
Then Rebecca found her own file.
MAJOR REBECCA GRANT.
She opened it.
Deployment dates.
Unit information.
Photographs from outside military installations.
Details that should never have been available publicly.
Then she saw one page marked FAMILY VULNERABILITY ASSESSMENT.
Sophie’s photograph was attached.
Rebecca stopped breathing for a second.
This was why the compromised network had triggered military attention.
Whoever operated this archive had accessed Rebecca’s protected information.
Daniel looked sick.
“They used my daughter to get to you?”
“Possibly.”
Rebecca kept searching.
At the bottom of her file was a handwritten note.
SUBJECT WILL PRIORITIZE FAMILY OVER ORDERS.
Rebecca read it twice.
Someone knew her.
Well.
A local officer entered.
“Major, we caught the runner.”
“Who?”
“Private security contractor. Says he was hired yesterday.”
“By Mercer?”
“He claims he never met the client.”
Rebecca expected that.
“What about the woman Sophie described?”
“No sign.”
Daniel picked up one photograph.
“Rebecca.”
It showed Patricia.
Twenty-five years younger.
Standing beside Thomas Vale.
And Bradley Mercer.
But there was a fourth person.
A woman Rebecca did not recognize.
The woman had Patricia’s height.
Patricia’s blonde hair.
Even similar facial structure.
Daniel stared.
“That could be who Sophie saw.”
Rebecca turned the photograph over.
Four names.
Charles Grant.
Patricia Grant.
Thomas Vale.
Elaine Mercer.
Rebecca froze.
“Mercer?”
Daniel whispered, “Bradley’s mother?”
They called Thomas.
He answered immediately.
Rebecca asked about Elaine.
Silence.
Then Thomas said, “You opened the red door.”
“Who is Elaine Mercer?”
Another silence.
“Bradley’s mother.”
“Where is she?”
“We thought she died.”
“When?”
“Eighteen years ago.”
Rebecca looked at the photograph.
“Apparently not.”
Thomas’s voice became urgent.
“Get out of that building.”
“Why?”
“Because Elaine designed the archive.”
Daniel stared at Rebecca.
Thomas continued.
“Bradley learned from her. But he was never as dangerous as she was.”
Rebecca heard a sound behind them.
Click.
The red door closed.
Daniel grabbed the handle.
Locked.
The lights shut off.
Emergency lighting came on.
Rebecca reached for her radio.
Static.
Signal jammer.
Then every monitor in the archive illuminated simultaneously.
One live camera feed appeared.
The courtroom.
Judge Hart.
Patricia.
Allison.
Charles.
Mercer.
Everyone still there.
Then another feed appeared.
Sophie outside with police.
A third feed showed Rebecca and Daniel inside the archive.
Someone was watching all of them.
A woman’s voice came through the speakers.
“Major Grant.”
Rebecca looked upward.
“Elaine?”
Soft laughter.
“You always were the difficult one.”
Rebecca’s blood went cold.
Always?
She had never met Elaine.
At least she thought she hadn’t.
Then the monitor changed.
An old home video appeared.
Rebecca was eight years old.
Patricia stood beside her.
And behind Patricia, smiling directly at the camera, was Elaine Mercer.
The woman leaned down and whispered something into young Rebecca’s ear.
Adult Rebecca could not hear it.
But she remembered the moment.
She remembered the woman.
She remembered what Elaine had called herself.
“Aunt Ellie,” Rebecca whispered.
Daniel stared at her.
Before he could speak, another monitor activated.
Live video.
May you like
Elaine Mercer stood inside Judge Hart’s courtroom.
And her hand was resting on Patricia Grant’s shoulder.
