Chapter 9 - Claire Is Next
The words stayed on the screen long after I stopped looking at them.
CLAIRE IS NEXT.
It was not subtle.
It was not clever.
It did not need to be.
The threat worked because someone had already proven they could reach Melissa.
Someone had already reached my father.
Someone had put a drug into my body and left a bottle in Ethan’s car.
Now Lucas was missing.
And there was blood in his vehicle.
Mercer ordered two officers outside my room and one at the nurses’ station.
Ruiz requested protection for Melissa and her son.
David wanted me moved to a private medical facility under another name.
I refused.
“No.”
David stared at me.
“Claire, someone just threatened to kill you.”
“Someone has been threatening me for years.”
“You did not know it.”
“I know it now.”
“That should make you more cautious, not less.”
“I am being cautious.”
“You are arguing with armed detectives from a hospital bed.”
“I can multitask.”
He almost smiled.
Almost.
Then Mercer said something that killed the moment.
“We need to talk about exhuming your father.”
The room went silent.
I had thought about it before he said it.
Of course I had.
But thinking about something and hearing a detective say it aloud were different things.
My father had been buried beside my mother.
I had chosen his suit.
I had put his wedding ring back on his finger before the coffin closed.
Now they wanted to open the grave.
I closed my eyes.
“Will it tell us anything?”
“Possibly.”
“After this long?”
“Some substances remain detectable.”
“Some.”
Mercer nodded.
“No guarantees.”
I opened my eyes.
“Do it.”
David inhaled sharply.
Mercer studied me.
“You’re sure?”
“No.”
That answer surprised him.
“I’m not sure about anything anymore.”
I looked at the photograph of Lucas’s car.
“But do it anyway.”
Ruiz stepped out to begin the paperwork.
My phone vibrated.
This time the message came from a number I recognized.
Vanessa.
I AM SAFE.
I typed back immediately.
WHERE ARE YOU?
Three dots appeared.
Then disappeared.
Then appeared again.
I CAN’T SAY.
I felt rage rise.
YOU SAID SOMEONE WAS THERE.
Her reply came faster.
IT WASN’T ETHAN.
WHO WAS IT?
No answer.
I called.
She declined the call.
I called again.
Declined.
Then a photograph arrived.
Vanessa was standing in front of a bathroom mirror.
She looked pale.
Exhausted.
Alive.
In one hand she held a folded newspaper showing that morning’s date.
In the other, she held a key.
A brass key.
My heart stopped.
I enlarged the image.
It looked exactly like the one my father had shown in the video.
I sent one question.
WHERE DID YOU GET THAT?
Her response came immediately.
FROM SAMUEL PRICE.
I stood so fast that pain tore through my abdomen.
David caught my shoulder.
“What?”
I handed him the phone.
His face changed.
Mercer read the message.
“Call her again.”
I did.
This time Vanessa answered.
“Do not trace this.”
“That is not a promise I can make.”
“Then I hang up.”
Mercer held up a finger, signaling me to keep her talking.
“Vanessa, Samuel Price has been missing for years.”
“He wanted people to think that.”
“Where is he?”
“I don’t know now.”
“You were with him.”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Ten minutes ago.”
“Why?”
“He found me.”
“How?”
“I don’t know.”
“Why did he give you the key?”
“He said because Ethan would never believe you would trust me.”
I laughed once.
“He is right about that.”
“I know.”
“Then why should I believe anything you say?”
“Because Samuel knew about the letter your father wrote you.”
Every muscle in my body tightened.
“What letter?”
“The one Melissa gave Ethan.”
David moved closer.
“What did it say?”
“I haven’t seen it.”
“Then how do you know?”
“Samuel told me Ethan kept it.”
“Where?”
“In a safe deposit box.”
“Which bank?”
“First Commonwealth.”
I knew the bank.
Ethan and I had a joint account there years ago.
I closed it after my father died.
“Box number?”
“Three nineteen.”
David wrote it down.
Mercer signaled to Ruiz through the doorway.
She immediately began calling for a warrant.
“Vanessa, listen to me.”
“I’m listening.”
“Bring the key to police.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because Samuel told me not to.”
“Samuel abandoned my father.”
“No.”
Her answer came sharply.
“He says your father ordered him to disappear.”
I froze.
“What?”
“Your father knew Blackridge was watching Samuel.”
“So he sent him away?”
“He sent him underground with the archive’s second key.”
“That makes no sense.”
“It does if your father believed someone inside Bennett Holdings was helping Blackridge.”
“Lucas.”
“Not just Lucas.”
“Who else?”
Vanessa went quiet.
“Vanessa.”
“I don’t know.”
“You just said not just Lucas.”
“Samuel told me there were three people inside the company.”
My stomach tightened.
“Lucas and who?”
“He only named one other.”
“Who?”
Vanessa hesitated.
Then she said it.
“Martin Cole.”
I looked toward the empty chair at the foot of my bed.
Martin had not been seen since the morning Ethan was removed from my room.
The company attorney.
The man who had carried the transfer documents.
The man who had looked ashamed.
The man I had assumed was simply afraid of Ethan.
Maybe I had been wrong.
“What did Martin do?”
“Samuel did not explain.”
“Where is Martin now?”
“I don’t know.”
I looked at David.
He was already checking his phone.
“His office says he called in sick.”
Mercer’s expression hardened.
“Find him.”
Ruiz left.
I returned to Vanessa.
“Where do you want to meet?”
“You can’t come.”
“Yes, I can.”
“You just had surgery.”
“Everyone keeps telling me that as if I’ve forgotten.”
“Claire, Ethan is looking for this key.”
“Then stop carrying it around.”
“I need to give it to someone Samuel named.”
“Who?”
“You.”
I stared at the phone.
“You just said I can’t come.”
“I’m coming to you.”
Mercer shook his head violently.
I ignored him.
“When?”
“Tonight.”
“Where?”
“The hospital chapel.”
The same chapel where the flash drive disappeared.
“That is a terrible location.”
“That’s why Samuel chose it.”
I understood.
Whoever stole the drive might return.
We could turn the chapel into a trap.
Mercer understood too.
His expression changed.
“Vanessa.”
I kept my voice level.
“Come at nine.”
“Alone.”
“Fine.”
It was a lie.
She knew it was a lie.
But we both needed the meeting.
At eight forty-five, police officers disguised as hospital staff took positions around the chapel.
At eight fifty-seven, I was wheeled into the front pew by Ruiz.
Mercer hid in the sacristy.
David waited down the hall.
Nine o’clock came.
Then nine oh five.
Nine ten.
No Vanessa.
At nine thirteen, the chapel door opened.
A man entered.
Tall.
Thin.
Gray hair.
A scar along his jaw.
I had never seen him before.
But he looked at me as if he had known me for years.
“Claire Bennett.”
My skin prickled.
“Samuel Price?”
He nodded.
Mercer stepped out of the sacristy.
“Hands where I can see them.”
Samuel did not flinch.
He slowly raised both hands.
“I expected police.”
“Where is Vanessa?”
I asked.
His eyes met mine.
“That depends on whether Ethan got to her first.”
My blood ran cold.
“What does that mean?”
Samuel reached into his coat very slowly.
Mercer raised his weapon.
“Don’t.”
Before the chapel meeting, Mercer made me rehearse what to do if something went wrong.
I hated every second of it.
“If you hear gunfire, get behind the stone column.”
“I know.”
“If Vanessa arrives with someone, do not approach.”
“I know.”
“If Samuel Price appears—”
“I did not know that part.”
“Neither did I.”
He pointed toward the rear exit.
“That is your route.”
I looked at him.
“You think I can run?”
“No.”
“Comforting.”
“I think Ruiz can move you faster than anyone expecting you to be mobile.”
That was fair.
I looked around the chapel.
I had sat there once before surgery because the hospital room felt too small.
I did not pray.
I just sat.
Ethan found me and put his coat around my shoulders.
He told me I was stronger than I thought.
I remembered leaning into him.
Now police officers were hiding behind doors because that same man might send someone to kill me.
The emotional distance between those two memories was impossible to measure.
Mercer saw where I was looking.
“You okay?”
“No.”
“Good answer.”
“I’m learning.”
He nodded.
“Fear does not mean you stop.”
The sentence echoed my mother’s lake lesson without him knowing it.
For a moment, I almost laughed.
Then the chapel door opened and Samuel Price walked in.
Everything after that happened too quickly for fear to remain theoretical.
Samuel’s arrival at the chapel changed the emotional temperature of the investigation.
Until then, my father had existed through files, notes, and warnings.
Samuel had known him during the final frightened months of his life.
After the live feed with Ethan ended, I asked Samuel one question before anything else.
“Was Dad scared?”
Samuel did not answer quickly.
“Yes.”
I hated the word.
“What did he do when he was scared?”
“Worked.”
That made me smile through tears.
“Of course he did.”
“He made lists.”
“Yes.”
“He built contingencies.”
“Yes.”
“He also called you and hung up twice because he could not decide whether telling you would protect you or endanger you.”
My chest tightened.
I remembered two missed calls from Dad the week before he died.
I had been in a meeting.
I texted that I would call later.
Later never came.
For months after his death, I blamed myself for missing those calls.
Samuel seemed to read my face.
“Do not do that.”
“Do what?”
“Make his secrecy your failure.”
I looked away.
That was harder than solving any puzzle in the archive.
Samuel stopped.
“There is a phone in my inside pocket.”
Mercer removed it.
Samuel gave him the passcode.
On the screen was a live video feed.
Vanessa sat inside a dark room.
She was tied to a chair.
The brass key hung from a chain around her neck.
Then a man stepped into the frame.
Ethan.
He looked straight into the camera.
May you like
And smiled.
