Chapter 8 - HANNAH'S SISTER
Gabriel did not speak for five full seconds.
That was long enough for Hannah to know what he was thinking.
"Don't."
"Your sister was in Eli's hospital room."
"I can see that."
"You never mentioned her."
"Because I haven't spoken to her in nine years."
Gabriel's eyes narrowed.
"Why?"
Hannah looked at the photograph.
Rebecca's reflection was blurred, but unmistakable.
Same narrow jaw.
Same dark eyes.
Same small scar beneath the left ear from a bicycle accident when they were children.
"She chose my husband."
Gabriel waited.
"The husband Claire helped you escape?"
"Yes."
Hannah's voice became flat.
"Rebecca told me I was exaggerating."
"She saw the bruises."
"She said marriage was difficult."
"She testified for him when I filed for protection."
Gabriel said nothing.
"After Claire got me out, I changed my name and disappeared."
"Cole isn't your real name?"
"It was my mother's maiden name."
"What is Rebecca's last name now?"
Hannah looked at him.
"Mercer."
The room seemed to contract.
"She married Adrian Mercer?"
"Apparently."
"You didn't know?"
"I told you I disappeared."
Gabriel's suspicion returned immediately.
Hannah saw it.
"There it is."
"What?"
"The camera face."
"Your estranged sister is married to the doctor who has been drugging my son."
"And you think that means I arranged it."
"I think it means you have omitted something enormous."
Hannah stood.
"I didn't know."
"Prove it."
The words came too quickly.
Hannah looked at him for a long time.
"No."
Gabriel's brow tightened.
"No?"
"I am not proving my innocence every time your fear needs a new target."
"This concerns my son."
"Everything concerns your son when you need to justify control."
Gabriel stepped closer.
"Careful."
Hannah's eyes flashed.
"You keep using that word like it belongs to you."
She picked up her bag.
"Where are you going?"
"Away from the man who hired me to clean his house and now thinks I joined a conspiracy nine years before I met him."
"You are not leaving the estate."
Hannah froze.
Slowly she turned.
"Say that again."
Gabriel realized the line he had crossed.
He said nothing.
Hannah's voice became very quiet.
"My husband used to tell me when I could leave rooms too."
The anger vanished from Gabriel's face.
He stepped aside.
"The gate is open."
Hannah looked at him.
He forced himself to continue.
"You can leave."
She did not move.
"And if you stay, I will not stop you from leaving later."
It was a promise Gabriel had never imagined needing to make inside his own house.
Hannah set the bag down.
"Good."
Neither apologized.
But something changed.
They began searching Rebecca Mercer's history.
She had worked as a surgical nurse in Rhode Island.
Six years earlier, she married Adrian Mercer.
Three years later, she left hospital employment and became his private clinical coordinator.
Her name appeared on dozens of invoices connected to Northstar Maritime health contracts.
Then Hannah found an address.
Rebecca owned a condominium in Cambridge under a trust.
Gabriel sent an outside investigator.
The investigator called forty minutes later.
"No one's there."
"Search it."
"Legally?"
Gabriel stared at the phone.
Hannah raised one eyebrow.
"Yes."
The investigator sounded disappointed.
"I'll get consent from the building manager through the emergency maintenance clause."
Hannah almost laughed.
Gabriel ignored her.
Two hours later, photographs arrived.
Rebecca's condo had been stripped.
Computer gone.
Clothing gone.
Medicine cabinet empty.
But someone had missed a storage box beneath the kitchen bench.
Inside were old photographs.
Hannah and Rebecca as children.
Their mother.
A teenage Hannah in a graduation gown.
Then one photograph that did not belong.
Claire Marlowe standing beside Rebecca Mercer outside a Boston cafe.
The date stamp was five weeks before the bombing.
Hannah stared at it.
"Claire met her."
Gabriel looked at the photograph.
"Did you know?"
"No."
He did not accuse her this time.
That mattered.
The investigator found one more item.
A disposable phone taped beneath a drawer.
The call history contained only one number.
Gabriel recognized it.
Daniel Keane.
His missing attorney.
Hannah whispered.
"Your lawyer was talking to my sister."
Gabriel's jaw tightened.
"Or Mercer was using her phone."
"Either way, Keane is involved."
The last call had occurred yesterday at 2:03 P.M.
Four hours before Keane vanished.
Gabriel ordered the phone location records traced through a contact at the carrier.
The final signal came from a motel near Worcester.
He and Hannah drove there with two independent investigators.
Room 214 smelled like bleach.
The bed had been stripped.
No luggage.
No people.
Then Hannah noticed dried blood beneath the bathroom sink.
A lot of it.
Gabriel crouched.
"Someone cleaned badly."
One investigator opened the shower drain.
Hair tangled around the metal trap.
Long dark strands.
Hannah's face tightened.
Rebecca had long dark hair.
"We need DNA."
Gabriel nodded.
They searched the room.
Behind the television, Hannah found a torn piece of stationery.
Only half a sentence remained.
...CLAIRE WAS RIGHT ABOUT ELI'S LEGS.
Hannah held it up.
Gabriel went still.
Then the motel room phone rang.
All four people stared at it.
Gabriel answered.
"Hello?"
A woman whispered.
"Hannah?"
Hannah's face drained.
She grabbed the receiver.
"Rebecca?"
A sob came through the line.
"I'm sorry."
"Where are you?"
"I can't tell you."
"Are you hurt?"
"Listen to me."
Rebecca's breathing was ragged.
"Mercer knows Gabriel found the records."
Gabriel moved closer to hear.
"He is going to make Eli's condition look worse before the independent doctors see him."
Hannah's stomach turned.
"How?"
"There is a drug in the emergency kit."
"Which kit?"
"Eli's wheelchair emergency pouch."
Gabriel's eyes widened.
The pouch traveled everywhere with Eli.
"Take it away from him."
Rebecca's voice cracked.
"Do not let anyone inject him with the blue-labeled vial."
"Rebecca, where are you?"
"I'm sorry I didn't believe you."
Hannah's eyes filled despite herself.
"We can talk about that later."
"There may not be later."
A door slammed somewhere on Rebecca's end.
She gasped.
"He found me."
"Rebecca!"
The line went dead.
Gabriel was already calling the mansion.
No one answered.
He called the temporary nurse assigned to Eli.
No answer.
Then his phone displayed a security alert.
MEDICAL EMERGENCY - WEST WING.
May you like
Gabriel and Hannah ran for the car.
