Chapter 5 - The Man My Father Trusted
I stepped between Samuel and my mother's bed.
"Don't come closer."
He stopped.
"Maya?"
I held up the photograph.
"My father wrote this."
Samuel's expression changed.
"Where did you get that?"
"Unknown number."
He looked at the door.
"Show me."
"No."
"Maya, if someone is sending you Thomas's private photographs, we need to know who."
"We?"
I laughed bitterly.
"There is no we anymore. Every person in this building has lied to me."
Samuel lowered his hands.
"Fair."
"What did my father mean by 'Protect Maya from Samuel'?"
He sat slowly.
"Thomas didn't trust anyone by the end."
"That's convenient."
"It's true."
"Why specifically you?"
Samuel stared at Mom.
"Because I made a mistake."
"Room 617?"
"No."
He looked at me.
"After Thomas died, Meridian came after the evidence. I believed your mother had it."
"You investigated her?"
"I followed her."
My stomach turned.
"For how long?"
"Two weeks."
"Did you tell Meridian where she was?"
"No."
"Did you tell anyone?"
He hesitated.
That was enough.
"Who?"
"Richard."
I stared.
"Why?"
"Because Thomas had told me that if something happened to him, Richard might be the only person inside Meridian capable of protecting you."
The photograph suddenly made sense in a different way.
Protect Maya from Samuel.
Maybe not because Samuel was the enemy.
Maybe because Dad understood fear could turn allies into threats.
"What happened?"
"I confronted Richard. He told me to disappear."
"And you did."
"Eventually."
"Why fake your death?"
"Conrad Hale tried to kill me."
I sat.
"Is Hale alive?"
Samuel's voice lowered.
"Yes."
"Where?"
"I don't know."
"You expect me to believe that?"
"I know he survived Meridian's collapse. I know he continued using shell companies."
"Northbridge?"
"Possibly."
"Who implanted the device in Mom?"
"I don't know."
A knock came.
Richard entered.
His lip was split.
"What happened?"
"Fake federal agents weren't happy when Dr. Mercer called actual law enforcement."
"Where are they?"
"One ran. One is being detained."
Samuel looked relieved.
"Device?"
"Safe."
Richard looked at me.
Then the photograph.
His expression sank.
"You got one too."
"You've been receiving these?"
"Since last night."
"Show me."
He unlocked his phone.
Six messages.
Each included old photographs.
My father.
Samuel.
Richard.
Conrad Hale.
One showed a woman I'd never seen before.
Blonde.
Elegant.
Around thirty.
"Laura?" I asked.
Richard nodded.
His first wife.
Beneath the photo:
SHE KNOWS WHERE HALE IS.
"You said she's dead."
"I thought she was."
Samuel took the phone.
"When was this sent?"
"Twenty minutes ago."
"Metadata?"
"Stripped."
Mom stirred.
We all turned.
Her eyes opened slowly.
"Maya?"
I rushed to her.
"You're okay."
She blinked.
"It's out?"
"Yes."
Tears filled her eyes.
"Thank God."
She looked at Richard.
He stepped closer but didn't touch her.
"I'm sorry, Evelyn."
Mom studied him.
"You should be."
It was the most Mom-like answer possible.
Then she looked at Samuel.
"You too."
Samuel nodded.
"I know."
"But if either of you starts another argument before I get water, I'll personally throw you both out."
For the first time in twenty-four hours, I laughed.
So did Mom.
Even Richard smiled.
It lasted maybe five seconds.
Then reality returned.
Dr. Mercer came in with good news.
The device had been removed intact.
Mom's inflammation should resolve.
She could likely go home in two days.
But laboratory analysis revealed something important.
"The capsule wasn't implanted six months ago."
Mom frowned.
"What?"
"The tissue reaction suggests it's been there longer."
"How long?"
"Possibly years."
Samuel looked startled.
"That's impossible."
Dr. Mercer shook his head.
"The scar tissue pattern is well established."
Mom stared at him.
"How many years?"
"I can't give an exact date. Perhaps eight to ten."
The room fell silent.
Northbridge had been a false lead.
Or a second procedure.
I asked Mom, "Did you have any surgery nine years ago?"
"No."
"Hospitalization?"
Her face changed.
My father's funeral.
Three days after his death, Mom collapsed.
I remembered the ambulance.
Exhaustion, they said.
Dehydration.
She spent one night in the hospital.
Richard wasn't part of our family yet.
But Meridian existed.
Samuel whispered, "They implanted it after Thomas died."
Mom covered her mouth.
"Why?"
Richard understood first.
"Because they thought Evelyn wouldn't be searched."
Samuel nodded.
"Thomas must have arranged it."
I stared.
"Dad put it inside Mom?"
"No," Samuel said quickly. "Thomas died before the hospitalization."
"Then who?"
Mom's eyes filled.
"I remember someone visiting me."
"Who?"
"A doctor."
"Name?"
"I don't remember."
"Think."
She closed her eyes.
"He told me Thomas had left instructions."
Samuel leaned forward.
"What did he look like?"
"Dark hair. Glasses. Maybe fifty."
"Conrad Hale?" Richard asked.
Mom opened her eyes.
"I don't know."
Richard showed her an old photograph.
She recoiled.
"Yes."
The room went silent.
Conrad Hale had implanted the device.
The man suspected of arranging my father's death had placed my father's evidence inside my mother.
Why?
Samuel whispered, "He wasn't hiding the evidence from Meridian."
Richard finished the thought.
"He was hiding it for himself."
The encrypted data had been trapped inside Mom for nine years.
Perhaps Hale planned to retrieve it later.
But why hadn't he?
Then I remembered Northbridge.
"They weren't putting it in six months ago."
Everyone looked at me.
"They were trying to find it."
Samuel nodded slowly.
"Yes."
"Maybe they scanned her there. Maybe the procedure was to verify the capsule."
Richard's phone rang.
Unknown.
This time he answered on speaker.
"Hello?"
A woman's voice.
"Richard."
He went completely still.
"Laura?"
She laughed softly.
"You always did recognize my voice."
Richard looked like the floor had disappeared.
"You're alive."
"So is my father."
Samuel stood.
"Where is Hale?"
Laura ignored him.
"Maya is there, isn't she?"
I stepped closer.
"I'm here."
"I'm sorry about your mother."
My anger flared.
"Did you have something to do with Northbridge?"
"Yes."
Richard swore.
Laura continued.
"But I was trying to help her."
"By cutting into her?"
"By confirming what my father had done."
"Where is Conrad?"
A pause.
"Closer than you think."
"Why contact us now?"
"Because the files you extracted from Forty-Two are incomplete."
Samuel looked at the reader.
"What do you mean?"
"Thomas divided the evidence."
"We know."
"No, you don't."
Her voice hardened.
"The capsule contains financial records. The final ledger contains names."
"Whose names?"
"Everyone Meridian paid. Doctors. Executives. Judges. Investigators."
Richard glanced at the warrant signed by Judge Pierce.
Laura continued.
"And the name of the man who ordered Thomas Hart's death."
Mom started crying.
"Where is the ledger?" I asked.
Laura whispered an address.
I knew it.
My childhood home.
The house Mom still owned.
"The basement," Laura said. "Behind the old furnace wall."
Then she added, "Don't tell Samuel."
Samuel stared at the phone.
The line disconnected.
Everyone looked at him.
He appeared stunned.
Before he could speak, Mom whispered:
"There is no old furnace wall."
I turned.
"What?"
She swallowed.
"Your father replaced that furnace twenty years ago."
Richard frowned.
"Then why would Laura give that location?"
Mom stared toward the hospital window.
"Because she wasn't giving us an address."
She looked at me.
"She was telling us where someone is waiting."
My phone vibrated.
A live video appeared.
It showed my childhood basement.
A man stood beside the furnace.
His back was toward the camera.
Then he slowly turned.
Even after nine years, I knew that face.
May you like
My father looked directly into the camera.
And said my name.
